THE PIED PIPER

Composer's note: "This piece aims to explore the story of the Pied Piper: the town of Hamelin is infested by rats. The Pied Piper visits the town and purports to free the people of rats with his flute for the mayor of Hamelin, in return for money. However, the Mayor does not pay him, and in revenge he rids the town of all the children, the town not knowing whether the children will return. Throughout the centuries the outcome of the story has changed, and so I wanted the end of the piece to reflect the open ended question that the story depicts. The three movements portray the main events in the tale: Rats! envisions the army of rats emerging over Koppen Hill to infest Hamelin – their scratching, crawling and pitter-patter of paws initiates a foreboding feeling for the town. The Children’s Crusade is linked to a historical event that is supposed to have happened in the 13th century - the marching of a town’s children across Europe, and this happened in the same time period as the Pied Piper story is thought to have happened. Dance Macabre, the last movement, shows the fragility of the children’s lives when they follow the Pied Piper away from the town. The Dance Macabre originates from the medieval times, and indicates - in a religious slant - the mortal lives of people that can be overcome by death. At the end of the movement the children’s spirits fly away after the dance with death, indicating the town’s presumed loss. This piece follows on from Alice’s Adventures through Sound and Space in terms of telling a children’s story through music. This piece aspires to experiment with the capabilities of the flute in an ensemble, as the timbre of the flutes together bring colour into the story when working together and apart. The symbolism of the flute in the telling of the story is significant – I couldn’t have written the Pied Piper for any other instrumentation. I aimed to explore pitched and pitchless sounds throughout this piece to demonstrate the emotion, events and effects of the story of the Pied Piper."

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