26.09.13
For out first unit we have been set the stimulus of Folk Tales as a basis for creating a piece of music. This piece should be inspired by a Folk story of our choosing, we must be able to explain why we made certain musical choices and what they reflect in the story.
We gathered into different groups and began to research stories. Each member of my group had different ideas of what they wanted to do. I liked the Native American Cherokee stories, there was one in particular, ‘The Good & Bad Wolf (a.k.a Grandfather Tells)’. I also found another story called ‘The Mexican Fishing Story.’
I thought these two stories had good morals and elements that could be transferred into lyrics however what my group and I agreed on was that these stories lacked was structure. We all thought that having a good structure would be a good way to adapt a story into a song.
Other stories we thought about were, Red Riding Hood, Bambi, Beauty and the Beast and the Twelve Ducks. We looked into each of these but eventually decided we wanted a more unusual story that had a strong topic.
We were particularly drawn to Greek myths and eventually chose Prometheus. This is a story about a man who steals fire from the Gods for his people so they can feel the benefits of fire.
Upon reading the story again I really find myself applying this to modern day situations. Prometheus (who is also called Forethought) always dreamed of the future and how he could make it better. He knew fire would extremely benefit the people of Greece, but their King, Jupiter, was too selfish to give them it for the fear of one day being over ruled. Prometheus stole it and taught the people many useful skills such as how to cook, farm, melt iron and much more. But he was tied to the Caucasus Mountains as punishment where eagles fed off him for years.
I actually like the ending of the story as he doesn’t lose his faith because of his resilience to keep thinking of the future he believes he will be freed and eventually is by Hercules.
Breaking it down the story has four main parts.
1. The hopefulness of Prometheus and his plea to Jupiter for fire
2. The refusal which led Prometheus to steal the fire
3. The happiness it brings the people
4. The punishment of Prometheus and his never-ending hope of being free
Me and my group will need to discuss these ideas in our next lesson and how we will adapt them musically.
Music BTEC Log 