Tripping with Pinocchio

kidnapped by a fox, a cat, a composer, a whale, a musical saw, an accordion and a string quartet.

I wrote the beginning of the music for Pinocchio in 2001 for a contest sponsored by the Italian cultural commission “Fairy Tale Sounds.”The call was for music based on the original work by Carl Collodi. I knew, of course, that Walt Disney hadn’t written Pinocchio, but beyond that I didn’t know much!

I wrote a short piece, sent it off and got back an honorable mention notification!

When Bill and I moved to southeast Massachusetts, which is lovely but far from the action in Boston, I contacted the head of the music composition department at Brown University in Providence and asked if I could take some lessons. Gerald ‘Shep’ Shapiro (bussigel.com) read my Pinocchio, listened and said it sounded like the overture. An overture??!!? Well I figured something had to come after that, so off I wandered into story, music and pictures. In the meantime, Shep had invited me to sit in and participate in his composition classes. He gave me the gift of seeing myself as a composer. It changed my view of myself. I often think of that gift. We need to constantly affirm each other, acknowledge others’ skills and talents. We often give these gifts unknowingly.

Carlo Collodi wrote Le Avventure di Pinocchio in 1883. It is almost three hundred pages of fantasy and invention that tells the story of a piece of wood, which “laughed and cried like a baby” and was turned into a puppet by a “lively old man named Gepetto.” Collodi leads us through misadventures from hangings to near deaths to wise old pall-bearing rabbits. This was not the Pinocchio I grew up with!

I went down the Collodi rabbit hole, found his original Italian version.

There was, once upon a time…a king! No, kids, there was, once upon a time…a piece of wood that laughed and cried like a baby

I love to allow myself to be swallowed whole by any project that captivates me. I am transported, lost. I drown, accomplishing things that when I look back, seem impossible.

I created a bilingual narration using Collodi’s original Italian version of the story, trying to incorporate the feel of the original. I tried to capture some of that original sense of fear and wonder, despair and hope, selfishness and generosity.

And yes, I had just learned to play the musical saw…seemed like a natural for Gepetto’s workshop. We added a hammer and chisel to the saw, to fill out Gepetto’s workshop.

The video that accompanies Pinocchio was a ‘one thing leads to another’ process that began with the thought of having a few of my paintings and some shadow images to accompany the music. During a stint as a composer at the National Puppetry Conference at The Eugene O’Neill Theater, I was inspired by Heather Henson, whose father Jim created the incredible world of the Muppets. Heather and her mother Jane carry on the tradition in their own work and in their encouragement of creativity in general. (When I first met them, they were using the leftover crayfish shells on their dinner plates as finger puppets. I didn’t know they were the Hensons. I just thought they were crazy.) And then there was Gian-Carlo Menotti. His work, including Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Telephone, has always amazed me - his uncanny ability to be composer, poet, artist, and impresario, all rolled into one mind, filled with the creative imagination of a child - my model of storytelling, playwriting, ingenuity and music composition.

So, under the spell of Menotti and the Henson ladies, my living room became my shadow theater, my husband became Gepetto, my 6 year old neighbor, Madeline, became Pinocchio. I made a bird out of felt, with strings attached to its body and wings. Bill filmed while I stood on a stool to make it fly. (If I could run away and be a puppet maker in some small Italian town, I would.)

I wrote the first version for Mike Finegold’s ESSEX CHAMBER MUSIC PLAYERS (ecmp.org), Michael Finegold – flute, Emmanuel Feldman– cello, David Pihl – piano - amazing players all three. And we brought on my dear friend and accordion master, Roberto Cassan. What a thrill for me!

Roberto (cassanmuratore.com) in the mysterious UP TO NO GOOD:

I became GRANO SALIS MUSIC

and published a version for The Providence String Quartet, part of Community Musicworks, the brainchild of Sebastian Ruth and fellow founding member, Jesse Holstein. They are a superb group of musicians, dedicated to teaching strings to kids in the community. They do amazing work. commmunitymusicworks.org. Another gift to me that they were so excited!

Here’s a video of clips from one of our several performances.

I sent a bit of the recording to Jon Deak of the NY Philharmonic after I listened to his over the top SCROOGE. It is alive with so much imagination and fun! I was over the moon to get this response. Another gift!

           Terrific!   I love your clear writing and your, well, grano salis humor. . .mi  sembra simpatico ed amichevole.   Brava!

And here, Peggy Pearson, out of this world oboist, and her Winsor Music ensemble play a bit of the overture at The New England Home For Little Wanderers. Notice my saw in the background. I wanted to show the kids that the saw not only sang, it cut wood!

And so, I received a huge gift from every musician I encountered on my Pinocchio journey: the belief in myself; that I could consider myself a composer; that I could triumph, like Pinocchio and his Papa.

For me, the meeting of music, pictures and words is miraculous. Audience members are flooded on all sides. They can drift, imagine, become lost, then reel themselves back into words, float out into the clouds…off, off, off into the delicious mysterious space of our brains.

∞

Finally, I dedicate this Substack piece to dear Roberto Cassan, who gave me the gift of his incredible musicianship on many projects. He left this world unexpectedly at way too early an age. His heart gave out while he was riding his bike on a visit with family back in Italy.

He will always be in our hearts.