On January 5, 1972, E. B. White wrote a letter to his film agent J. G. Gude, in response to a recording Gude had sent of some music for the Hanna-Barbera film adaptation of “Charlotte’s Web”, then in production. White wrote:
Charlotte’s death…should be turned over to Mozart, for background music. There is an old Columbia Masterworks record that I own and cherish: "Quartet in F Major, for oboe, violin, and violoncello — Leon Goosens on oboe." The adagio movement of that quartet (just a strain or two) would be the perfect accompaniment for the death of the spider, interlarded with the distant music of the Fair…The oboe has a flutelike sound that would be just right for this pastoral story. I’ll be glad to loan anybody this record, if anybody is interested. Mozart clearly had the "Web" in mind when he wrote "Quartet in F Major."
Take heart! In the Year of the Rat, anything can happen. I could even smuggle Mozart into Hollywood.
This was not to be. But here is my interpretation of what it might sound like, using E. B. White’s own reading of his book, and the Goosens recording of the Oboe Quartet. The illustrations are by Garth Williams, from the novel.
No comments:
Post a Comment