Fairy Tale Overture

Program Notes

The Fairy Tale Overture captures the essence of a children’s fantasy world while exploring the sounds of a modern classical orchestra. Beginning with “Once upon a time…” and ending with “...and they lived happily ever after, the end.” shows the true character of the piece. Written with its own unique fairy tale to go along with the piece, it is an adventure of a lifetime for the audience!

The main character is a small female elf, yearning to go outside her village walls for an adventure. One day, she sneaks out while her family is distracted by work to explore the neighboring cliff towering over the village. As the piece moves into a more spritely and energetic style, she starts to climb the cliff as a thunderstorm approaches. As she reaches the top, she slips and falls down, hitting every ledge of a crag before landing on a ship in the ocean below. She looks around and realizes that she is on a pirate ship that is being attacked by the royal armada! With the waves crashing against the ship, she hides in the hold while the pirates are distracted by the opponent across the bay. She slowly comes out of hiding, where she is then spotted and chased around the deck before she loses her footing and falls off the ship into the ocean. Not knowing how to swim, she begins to drown. As she is about to lose consciousness, she feels something grab her and pull her out from the water. 

As the harp and strings signal a change in pace, she looks up and sees that a griffin has saved her from drowning! They fly through the sky before eventually landing at the Kingdom of the Sky, a hidden floating castle in the clouds. When she lands, the curious elf can hear bells ringing in the distance and an orchestra playing. She follows the sound and comes upon the wedding day of the prince and princess of the kingdom! They dance around with each other as the guests sing along to the melody. She watches the wedding from a distance, but begins to feel sick and passes out. 

But wait! It was just a fairy tale of her own! When she fell off the pirate ship, she lost consciousness after hitting her head at the bottom of the crag. She was then found on a beach by a rescue team from the elf village. Leading the team is her father, who almost burst into tears when he found her in the sand. The sounds of the brass choir symbolize the attempt to resuscitate the unconscious elf, but they eventually give up. 

Moments later, she starts to cough up water and return to life! The father hugs her and says, “I thought we lost you forever”. The rescue team returns to the village with the lost elf and the whole village prepares a celebration. The adventurous elf teaches the village band the melody from the Kingdom of the Sky in hopes to keep her own fairy tale alive. They graciously learn the music and add their own jolly twist to the melody, turning it into a marching band parade melody. As all jolly elves do, they throw a big party to celebrate her safe return to the village! The party goes long into the night as they dance and eat. And as all fairy tales end, they lived happily ever after. The end.

Instrumentation: 3(picc.)2(ca)22 / 4331 / timp.4perc / hp / str

Purchase

Purchase directly from the composer through contact here. Please click here to read the terms of service before purchasing. (NOT FOR SALE YET, TBA)

Performances

Kennesaw State University Symphony Orchestra | Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA | March 22nd, 2022