FREE ODDS BODKIN STORY: Earthstone–Episode Three. A Story Ahead of its Time. Gracie and Charlie, a brother and sister constantly at war, have just escaped The Castle of a Thousand Lights, where the Clockmaker rules, destroying the forest. But now they’re in that forbidden forest itself, and they’re about to meet The Elephant of Surprise, king of the insurgent animals.
Enjoy this excerpt from Odds Bodkin’s original two-hour musical, Earthstone.
There’s something about Danika––how she communicates with animals––that sets her apart from the other peasant girls. Deep into the story, after the furious and jealous Duke has locked her in the tower for striking him and calling him a liar to his face, a starling lands on her windowsill. In secret she teaches him human speech. But he is just one of the animals who help her. The pale Cuckoos do, too, guiding her in a dream to her true love, Dano, whom the Duke has sent to a far away war. And in the end, when a hundred stags lower their antlers and charge the Duke’s pack of killer dogs, the stags do so at Danika’s command.
Come listen to Odds Bodkin tell his original tale as mezzo soprano Jazimina MacNeil and soprano Sarah Shafer sing the glorious Moravian Duets of Antonin Dvorak, giving this story an interwoven musical life like no other.
Jazimina MacNeil Sarah Shafer
If as a child you loved Peter and the Wolf, you’ll love Danika the Rose.
This new work of classical music and powerful storytelling premieres October 6, 2019 at 4 p.m. in Bass Hall in Peterborough, New Hampshire.
I was onstage at the Thoreau School in Concord, MA, warming up my harp for a show when a young woman entered the empty auditorium and walked up to the stage. “Odds, my name is Jazimina MacNeil,” she said. “I’m a singer, and I have a proposition for you.”
Never having met her, I kept on playing. “Do tell,” I replied, intrigued. “What’s your name again?”
“Jazimina. I’m a mezzo-soprano.”
Interesting name, I thought. “Classical music?”
“Yes.” She and a colleague, a soprano, Sarah Shafer, Jazimina explained, specialize in singing Antonin Dvorak’s Moravian Duets, a little-known set of songs with lyrics in Czech, the preponderance of them for two women’s voices.
I’ve loved Dvorak’s music all my life, especially his New World Symphony. “So why are we talking?” I asked.
“I want you to write a fairy tale based on the duets,” she said. “One that you can tell, while Sarah and I sing the songs in between.”
I immediately thought of Serge Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, a favorite of mine as a child. A combination of storytelling and classical music. This project could be similar, but new.
“Not many people know about these duets, but with a story,” she added, “they might love them as much as we do.”
Long story short, two years later we’re preparing summer rehearsals with pianist Emely Phelps for the premiere of Danika the Rose in October. It will take place in Peterborough, New Hampshire at Bass Hall, with the help of The Harris Center and Electric Earth Concerts.
Like an entire box full of CDs.
Learn what each one contains at Odds Bodkin’s Shop.
Available at live shows, too!
KADDO, THE PEOPLE ARE HUNGRY (African sanza)
THE ROCK N ROLL THREE LITTLE PIGS (fuzz electric guitar and stomp drum)
FINN MACCOOL AND THE BIG MAN (12-string guitar)
One night recently Gavin, my middle son, and I sat down in the living room to play guitars as we often do when he visits. It’s one of our great joys, extemporizing together. He had the Taylor 6-string and I pulled out my Ron Ho 12-string. Since it was his turn to come up with the idea and my turn to follow wherever he went, I sipped my scotch and listened to his music, a bouncy notion in major to start, almost immediately followed by a very different, percussive slap in minor.
“Okay,” I thought, “here we go.”
As almost everybody experiences at one point or another, sometimes you’re just on. In basketball, it’s when you can’t miss those three pointers, one after another. In our case, it was this three-minute blast of acoustic music. Totally spontaneous and joyous, especially when the shape of the idea fully emerged. It felt like telepathy, as if we were reading each other’s minds.
So I’ve taken that piece and named it The Faery Hop: Musical Telepathy for Duo Guitars and published it at my download shop. It’s unedited from start to finish, and you’ll hear my recliner cushion creaking each time I lean in, but it’s fun to listen to, especially when you know how it was created.
There’s a sample of the beginning to listen to at the shop page.
–Odds Bodkin
The Collected Works of Odds Bodkin on a flash drive. 25 hours of audio storytelling and music, plus a 555-page epic poem for adult readers, with glossary.
Odds Bodkin’s Complete Works: Audios, Epic E-Book, Video and Pure Music
They all come on the MASTER DRIVE, a small electronic gem loaded with magic. An epic poem e-book as long as Homer’s Odyssey, adults only. Symphonic and acoustic musical compositions. A video of The Iliad: Book I. And, of course, this master storyteller’s complete audio collection of spoken-word family tales with music for ages 4 to forever.
A $269 value for $175.
Explore it here at Odds Bodkin’s Shop.
The Dancing Plant/No Time-Lapse Required
———
If we sped time a thousand-fold,
Then spied on silent, leafy plants
Who stand stock-still above their roots,
We’d soon grasp how wildly alive
Our green-clad cousins are. They strive
And twist for space, wiggle their shoots
And whip their leaves like flagellants.
As noons fly past, like stories told.
———
I wrote those lines for The Water Mage’s Daughter (epic poem on Amazon) many years ago, and last night, for the first time, I saw this video. For this plant, time doesn’t need to be sped up. Just play it music and it moves! A true wonder.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEbMxWlVjnM
You can learn more tree lore in Loveland, CO this late May.
I read countless news reports about kids treating one another badly in schools. Lately, it appears, things have grown worse. Telling kids how to behave is less effective than it’s ever been, it seems.
For some years now I’ve offered a school assembly program called GOLDEN RULE: World Stories About Empathy in two versions, K-3 and 3-5. Using ancient stories from world cultures, GOLDEN RULE taps the unconscious in kids and delivers a message while they’re completely entertained and having fun.
One principal called it “The best anti-bullying program we’ve ever had, hands down.”
If you know any schools who are facing this problem, find out about GOLDEN RULE and pass the word along.
–Odds Bodkin
Mr. Bodkin,
Thank you so much for the consideration and time to send this to me. Like your impact on myself and many people who have heard your stories, this means more than you know.
This is my fifth year teaching The Odyssey in my curriculum, and at the end of class, when I play your stories, I can see the scenes flash across my students’ faces as they listen. Ironically, many of my students have had troubled pasts and special needs, but I rarely see them so at peace as when we hear your tales. They’ll work their tales (sic) off to ensure that we get a daily dose of storytelling at the end of each period.
The demand has been so high, that I’ve had to find a way to cram some passages from The Iliad into the curriculum after the break (a quality problem for an educator to have)…and I think we’ll just have to do a Beowulf unit with some of the Sophomores.
I’m humbled and thankful to have received this help from you during such a busy time. I know many of your fans will be eagerly awaiting the chance to read your book!
Merry Christmas, and thank you so much once again,
-Peter R. Best
When families unite for the Holidays, many turn on their sound systems and sit down together to experience Odds Bodkin’s Christmas and Hanukah stories collection, The Winter Cherries. It’s just under an hour of listening that brings home the ancient meaning of midwinter celebrations and the goodness of giving.
Start your own Holiday tradition with those you love by discovering this classic mp3 storytelling audio with music. Listen to samples of it and other Odds Bodkin tales, like David and Goliath, at Odds Bodkin’s download shop.
Happy Holidays!