I've recently been pondering some of the more unusual methods children's storytellers use to build character. And, as I was scraping away at my violin, I started wondering about musical instruments. How many stories feature an instrument? What do they say about characters?
Musical stories are a good place to start. Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, for example assigns a different instrument to each character. So you can easily recognise sprightly Peter in the strings, the stately grandfather on the bassoon or poor duck on the oboe, miserably quacking inside wolf's belly.
Similarly in Saint Saens's Carnival of the Animals, you can imagine the dumpy elephants in the double bass section, or the elegant swan, gliding along during the cello tune. Instruments allow you to to conjure up a character in a single sound, which cannot be so simply described in words.
But - now it gets harder - where are the books about instruments? Or, at least with instruments in them? Stories like Ann Hayes's Meet the Orchestra introduce very young kids to music. Otherwise, instruments do crop up in older children's books. But it's out of the ordinary.
And so, often, are the people who play them. Either they are spookily talented, like Irene, the school genius from Enid Blyton's Malory Towers, who is a whizz at the piano. Or they are just plain spooky, like the Pied Piper of Hamelin who lures children away with his enchanted pipe.
Sometimes they are saintly creatures like sweet, piano-plonking Beth from Little Women, or fiddle-playing Pa from Little House on the Prairie. What you don't often read about is the everyday reality of playing an instrument: scales, bashing away in school orchestra and finding clever ways to avoid practice.
As for more unusual instruments - they hardly feature. While strings and pianos make the odd appearance, celestes, harpsichords, ondes martenots et al rarely get a look in. There's Tubby the Tuba. Paddington Bear plays the harmonica (badly, and only in the film). But they're in the minority.
Which is strange, because many of us have learned to play an instrument at some point - even if only the recorder for one term. Books reflect our lives but, not so much when it comes to this. Is it because music is too abstract? Or because it's seen as forbidding? Either way, it's a shame because some of our best-loved characters could be budding virtuosi. Alice in Wonderland on the harp, for example? Winnie the Pooh on the double bass? Whyever not?
Can you think of more characters who play instruments? What does that instrument reveal about the character? Let us know by emailing us at childrens.books@guardian.co.uk
Your comments:
HorseLover3000:
In Escape from Shangri La, by Michael Morpurgo, the main character plays the violin.
Sarah:
We are an independent publisher based in Swindon, Wiltshire. I thought it was worth contacting you as we publish two children's books, both with accompanying story and music CD, featuring musical instruments. The are called The Musical Life of Gustav Mole and Lost Music: Gustav Mole's War on Noise, and they are available from Child's Play (international)
