The Little Prince Suite for wind quintet (2010)
Program Note
Suite for the Little Prince (May 2010) is inspired by the novella of the same name, a beloved story of my childhood. Written and illustrated by the French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the book follows an aviator’s journey after crash landing in a desert. The author disappeared just one year after the book’s publication while flying above the Mediterranean. While the book tells the story from the aviator’s perspective, this composition follows the Little Prince’s journey on Earth.
Movement I: Introduction and Arrival
The Little Prince lands in a desert after traveling to many lands. He tries to make sense of his new surroundings, but finds the big, flat world a bit puzzling.
Movement II: The Snake’s Offer
The first earthly creature that the Little Prince meets is a mysterious snake, who makes an offer to the Little Prince:
“I can carry you farther than any ship could take you,” said the snake. “Whomever I touch, I send back to the earth from whence he came…I can help you, some day, if you grow too homesick for your own planet. I can–” “Oh! I understand you very well,” said the little prince. “But why do you always speak in riddles?” “I solve them all,” said the snake. And they were both silent.
Movement III: The Rose Garden
Before he arrives on earth, the Little Prince has a beloved rose on his own planet. She tells him that she is the only rose in existence. But on earth, he comes upon an entire garden of roses. This movement depicts his unease at finding her exact image mirrored all around him and his disillusionment, culminating in the second metamorphosis of the prince’s theme.
Movement IV: How to Tame a Fox
The Little Prince meets a fox and wants to befriend him, but the fox resists becoming tamed.
“Just that,” said the fox. “To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world. . . ”
When the fox is tame to him, the Little Prince realizes that he himself is tame to his beloved rose, and that this is why she is unique to him in all the world.
Movement V: The Snake’s Bite
The snake follows up on his original offer to the Little Prince, who asks:
“You have good poison? You are sure that it will not make me suffer too long?”
The aviator overhears and is deeply troubled by these words, further so when he sees how terrified the prince is to accept this fate. But as night falls, the little prince walks out into the desert alone to meet the snake. The reader is left to imagine what happens after the snake’s bite, so I have written the rest of the piece from what I imagine happens next.
This piece was composed for and premiered by the Sarasota Wind Quintet in collaboration with the New College of Florida.