Michael Shapiro
The Babbling Orchestra for piccolo solo, narrator, and orchestra
Duration: 13'
The Babbling Orchestra for piccolo solo, narrator, and orchestra
Translation, reprints and more
Michael Shapiro
The Babbling Orchestra for piccolo solo, narrator, and orchestra
Available digitally
Type: Dirigierpartitur
Sample pages
Video
Work introduction
The Babbling Orchestra for piccolo solo, narrator, and orchestra tries to reconcile sections of the orchestra with each other when they cannot find peace.
The Babbling Orchestra for piccolo, narrator, and orchestra with video is a 15-minute family piece with a story of playing well with others and global cooperation. International roles are played by different members of the orchestra, while the spotlight is shone on the solo piccolo who brings peace among the nations through virtuosity and lyricism. Ultimately there is only harmony among different peoples when there is harmony in the music.
The work is intended to be accompanied by large-scale visuals of art drawn by local elementary school children from the community of the orchestra playing.
The orchestration of the piece is similar to (and was coupled with at its initial workshop performance) Peter and the Wolf, except for an expanded percussion section and a Tabla.