Tafelmusik, Canada's leading Baroque orchestra, gets points for sheer ambition with this unusual children's release: it attempts to do nothing less than give the field of classical children's music a Baroque-era entry to match such favorites as A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and Peter and the Wolf. The album contains a spoken story, with musical interjections performed by Tafelmusik illustrating references to music that occur in the tale. The story is called "The Quest for Arundo Donax," Arundo Donax being a bamboo ...
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Tafelmusik, Canada's leading Baroque orchestra, gets points for sheer ambition with this unusual children's release: it attempts to do nothing less than give the field of classical children's music a Baroque-era entry to match such favorites as A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra and Peter and the Wolf. The album contains a spoken story, with musical interjections performed by Tafelmusik illustrating references to music that occur in the tale. The story is called "The Quest for Arundo Donax," Arundo Donax being a bamboo-like material crucial for the manufacture of oboe and bassoon reeds. In 1704, when this story takes place, it is in short supply in England due to a military conflict with France (over the lands that were to become the nation of Canada). Two musically talented youngsters, Frances and Edward, are sent to infiltrate the musical world of the French court and obtain some of the Arundo Donax. Their travels take them from England through Venice, and finally to the court at Versailles for...
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