What Inspired Our Staff - from Lisa Carter
/Students can learn a lot from their teachers. Here’s a story from M3 Creative Piano Teacher, Lisa Carter, about how she was inspired to pursue music and composition.
One of my all-time favorite classical pieces is the Fantasia 2000 version of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. Besides the incredible beauty of the music and the art in this creation, one of the main reasons I love this piece is because it goes through an enormous range of emotions and tells a complete story by itself.
The music starts peaceful and tranquil, introducing two main characters: an Elk and the Sprite of Spring. The Elk awakens the Sprite in a pool to the opening segment of the Firebird piece, so that she will start helping flowers and plants grow since winter has ended.
Things go well until the Sprite gets overly curious and flies down into the heart of a dead volcano. When she touches it, the orchestra hits a single terrific forte as the Firebird inside the volcano is awakened. Because of this beautiful marriage of visuals and descriptive music, anytime I hear any orchestration even close to this segment of the piece, I always think of volcanoes and firebirds.
The Firebird rampages through the forest as he chases the Sprite; the music is both chaotic and frantic, portraying both the fury of the Firebird and the desperation of the Sprite as she tries to escape. Eventually, the Firebird catches the Sprite and defeats her. The forest is left burned and desolate, with only the Elk to wander up to what remains of the Sprite and attempt to wake her again. Because of this, a blackened and desolate landscape always comes to mind when I hear high string harmonics in the musical background. Michael W. Smith’s Freedom Battle piece has similar orchestration that makes me think, without fail, of the chase scene and destruction that the Firebird wreaks.
But my favorite moment by far in this entire piece is the segment that comes next: when the solitary French horn plays a beautifully hopeful yet pleading theme while the strings tremolo in the background. It’s the sound of someone trying to decide whether to get back up or to stay defeated and lie back down. It’s the moment in Lord of the Rings when Frodo and Sam see a little glimpse of blue sky that gives them the courage to keep walking to Mount Doom. Of all the parts of a storytelling arc, this moment of finding the courage to go on is the dearest part of any story to me. I have a feeling this film is one of the reasons for that!
After the horn voices that theme, the Sprite pulls herself up onto the Elk’s back with all of her strength, and he gently carries her along until she gains enough momentum to begin flying by herself. Her tears cause flowers and small plants to spring from the earth, and the sight gives her more courage. All this time, the music is slowly growing to match both her confidence and the sprouting plants, until she spreads herself wide enough to become the clouds that rain down onto the ground and heal the land. Trees begin to spring up, and that is when the orchestra starts to play the theme that the French horn played earlier, with similar exclamations in the orchestration to those during her flight from the Firebird. But now, the theme is joyful and confident instead of fragile and hesitant as she throws herself into doing what she was always meant to do: heal the land and rejoice in the spring.
Because of the combination of visuals and music in this film, Stravinsky’s Firebird is one of the pieces that not only moved me in the direction of pursuing music in general but also developed my sense of storytelling with music. It helped me realize that music can play a more significant role in a story than merely background scoring and support, as this piece spoke to me more than words ever could.