DANIEL AND SNAKEMAN

A Musical Story for Children

Composed: 2019 (revised 2021)
Duration: 20 - 28 minutes
Instrumentation: flute, oboe, B flat clarinet, horn, bassoon, storyteller

PROGRAM NOTES

Daniel and Snakeman for woodwind quintet and storyteller is a musical story for children, K - 4th grade. Eleven year-old Daniel lives in a future time when most people have learned to live together peacefully, liking and respecting each other's differences. But there are still some hold-overs from the past like Snakeman, who does not like seeing people who are different from each other having fun together. Daniel finds and frees his friends who have been captured by Snakeman. The characters in the story are represented by different instruments - Daniel by the horn, Wiggy a talking bat by the clarinet, Fadumo by oboe, Elizabeth by flute, and Snakeman by bassoon.

The story lines can be read by members of the quintet, or by a narrator.

REVIEWS  
(of original orchestral version)

"Music's power to unite is one of the key messages in Margaret Brouwer's Daniel and Snakeman, a disarming piece for listeners of all ages...Daniel abounds in charming tunes that help catapult Brouwer's story about the eponymous hero who faces nasty, intolerant Snakeman and releases the villain's underground population of people of many cultures."  -Donald Rosenberg, Cleveland: The Plain Dealer, May 10, 2011 

A fairytale filled with good versus evil, Daniel and Snakeman is told in a way that can be understood and respected by young and old. It is a true work of noble and kind innocence as expressed through Ms. Brouwer’s charismatic text and compositional ingenuity…. giving distinction to her characters with lush harmonies, beautiful melodies, jazzy licks….  - J.D. Goddard, www.clevelandclassical.com, May 11, 2011