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Music Views
"Through Tenderwood"––a concept album for kids!
And grown-ups?
by PKelly on Apr 09, 2005
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PART 1
When Richard Durrant and I were putting the finishing touches on "Unleashed on British Isles" at the end of 2003 we were already discussing a new children's music project. At that point Walking Oliver Ltd was officially only 3 months old. Next on my list of upcoming CD projects was something vaguely described as “something with nursery rhymes.”
When we started kicking some ideas about, . . .
Purchase "Through Tenderwood"
Richard mentioned two things right away: one was that he had always wanted to do a version of "The Grand Old Duke of York" and pair it with "Fighting for Strangers"––the other was to orchestrate the “Organ Grinder’s Song” from Elgar’s Starlight Express for folk instruments. Well, one out of two ain’t bad and the “Old Duke” and “Strangers” got a life together, probably for the first time in history. Although we tried our best to find a place for the “Organ Grinder’s Song” time and copyright issues were against us. Also, by the time we had spent another 6 weeks on this project we had also come to realize that perhaps "Tenderwood" wasn’t the right space for Elgar, anyway.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
My own ideas involved finding ways to “grow” nursery rhymes and bring something fresh and new to them as well as maybe uncovering old or obscure verses for well-loved rhymes. This we did with the wonderful Oxford Book of Nursery Rhymes, an encyclopedia which gave us a history on the subject, including verses of rhymes that had not seen the light of day since the 17th and 18th centuries. It was a great aid as well as a very enjoyable read. For three months it rarely left my side.
The concept of the album came about when we decided that the music should tell a story, or at least paint a picture. We envisioned a magical place where our music could take place and since it was to be music for children we agreed to have a child as our centrepiece, someone who could act as a witness. We decided to have the action take place in one day. In order to keep track of and organize our creative ideas Richard asked his kids to paint a large tapestry showing a full day from left to right.
END OF PART 1
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