March 2025 Music Tells Stories
In March 2025, my adult students will get together and share music that tells stories. Here is a list of suggestions that are at an intermediate level (mostly).
Folk ballads are a form of folk songs. Folk songs are a broader composition of lyrics and music, while ballads set a story or a poem to music. Ballads are meant to be sung accurately, with attention to lyrics and melody. They have fully adapted songs, but emphasize the lyrical stories being told.
Sweet Betsy From Pike
Clementine
https://folkways.si.edu/classic-american-ballads/american-folk/album/smithsonian
Frankie and Johnny
John Henry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_folk_songs
https://www.classical-music.com/features/works/best-american-folk-songs
This Land Is Your Land
The Wayfaring Stranger
Simple Gifts
Home on the Range (from the poem “My Western Home” composed around 1872 by Dr. Brewster M. Higley
Big Rock Candy Mountain (hobo-ing story)
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/story-songs/
Program Music
https://www.talkclassical.com/threads/program-music-for-piano.8604/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_program_music
https://www.britannica.com/art/program-music
Links to Piano Music Books or pdfs
Bell, Angeline, My Quirky Notebookl , Link for purchase, King Arthur, also see YouTube
Bell, Susan Staples Music: Dreams in Ruins, and Castle Tales with pieces like Castle Tales from Elementary to Intermediate that all tell stories. Pieces like The Chase is On, Defender of the Realm, Journey to Castle Roche, Black Knight's Ride, Race for the Flag, Story of True Love, Waiting for Your Return, and more. Link
Dow, Andrea, Beauty and the Beast, “The Stolen Rose Solos” retells the 19th century version of Beauty and the Beast through eight classical-pop piano pieces. Link
Fairchild, Amy, website, Book 1 (YouTube links) , Book 2 (YouTube links) Stories are on the website that go with the music.
Gretchaninoff: Op. 98, link to IMSLP
Gurlitt: Opus 101, Link to IMSLP
Khatchaturian, “Adventures of Ivan” (Ivan sings, Ivan can’t go out today, Ivan is ill, Ivan Goes to a Party, Ivan is very busy, Ivan and Natasha, Ivan’s Hobbyhorse, A Tale of Strange Lands).
Norton, Christopher: The Final Frontier, Performance
Poe, John Robert: “Meanwhile back at the castle” (young beginners), “Meanwhile Back in the Enchanted Forest, Meanwhile Back in the Jungle
Price, Florence: Some delightful easier ones, Thumbnail sketches of A Day in the Life of a Washerwoman (advanced) Link to IMSLP, an orchestrated version link
Schumann: Op. 68, Link to IMSLP, choose #51556
Sideris, Nikolas, trios (six hands one piano) Dusk of Day/Dawn of Night, Link to video, Link to purchase, collection of 10 works for 6 hands (also look at Fairyland in Treble, link to video, titles include The King and the Dragon, A Playful Countess, The Bold Barber, Nola and Ayla in the Jungle, Dreams, The Duke and the Cook, A Deaf Girl’s Music Box, The Sorcerer and his Apprentice, Fife on the Moon, The Two Violins, The Pirates High Sea Games.
Spanswick, Melanie, “Ghostly Piano Tales: New Music for the Elementary Pianist” Link
Tschaikovsky Opus 39, no. 6,7,8: The New Doll, The Sick Doll, The Dolls Burial, Link to IMSLP, choose #07996
Others:
Let me Tell You a Story (Early Intermediate, Grade 2) Link
I Love to Tell the Story (Hymn based) Link. Here’s a link to the story:
Peter and the Wolf
The Moldau
Other possibilities:
Do enigma with Jonathan—two piano
Or schumann’s forest scenes
Invite Henry to play Anitra’s Dance from Peer Gynt
Liszt—- lots of ideas with poems Va or literature inspiration
Sibelius