Four Pooh Stories is a set of pieces for solo flute based on the wonderful stories of A.A. Milne in Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. Four Pooh Stories was written for flutist Julia Grenfell, Maria’s sister, and won first prize in the 1992 KBB/New Zealand Flute Society Composition Competition. In 2001 Four Pooh Stories was selected for the recommended repertoire list of the National Flute Association of the U.S.A.
Maria Grenfell was born in 1969 in Malaysia, and completed her compositional studies in Christchurch, New Zealand. She has studied with composers such as Stephen Hartke, Erica Muhl, James Hopkins and Morten Lauridsen, Joseph Schwantner and Samuel Adler, and says that she is often inspired by poetry, literature and art. She is an associate professor at the University of Tasmania Conservatorium of Music, and she was the head of the conservatorium from 2018 to 2019. She was also on the board of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra from 2009 to 2018.
Four Pooh Stories is a set of four movements, each based on a story from A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh. In movement one, we meet many of the main characters, with Pooh first going to visit Christopher Robin and sing him a new song he just came up with (Sing Ho! for the Life of a Bear!, heard when the flute plays a jaunty tune decorated with grace notes).
Sing Ho! for the life of a Bear!
Sing Ho! for the life of a Bear!
I don't much mind if it rains or snows,
'Cos I've got a lot of honey on my nice new nose,
Many characters have their own themes in this movement. Piglet is anxious — fast sixteenth notes screech up in the highest octave of the flute as he panics. Kanga and Roo come hopping behind, with large leaps in the flute, first loud for Kanga and then very quiet as Roo responds from her pouch. Owl hoots from behind, and then Eeyore takes up the rear after a long, melancholy spiel. They then all have a wonderful time marching off together in search of adventure.
In movement two, Pooh is woken up at night by a mysterious creature in the forest, saying “worra worra.” He calls out to all his friends, and none respond, so he goes outside and meets a strange creature who calls himself Tigger. Pooh invites Tigger in for breakfast, but Tigger does not like honey, so the two go marching around the Hundred Acre Woods to find something a Tigger would like, with Pooh singing his marching song.
In movement three, we find Piglet running into Pooh, who is looking very mysterious and says he is tracking something that is making footprints in the snow, which he believes to be a Woozle. They follow these footprints (ascending eighth notes in a whole tone pattern), but Piglet is very anxious, and only grows more and more anxious the more they wander, often jumping and getting very caught up in his Piglet-like worries (increasing sixteenth notes). Then after some wandering, there are two sets of footprints — they keep following. The number of tracks keeps increasing — it must be a pack! Piglet is very scared, until they run into Christopher Robin, who points out his silly old bear has been walking in circles!
In movement four, Pooh is taking a walk in the snow, singing another new song he has come up with: “Tiddely Pom” (heard in the low responses to the call and response the flute has with itself in the beginning; the octaves are reversed at the end), an example of which is below:
The more it snows
(Tiddely pom),
The more it goes
(Tiddely pom),
The more it goes
(Tiddely pom),
On snowing.
He wants Piglet to sing with him to show Eeyore, but Piglet is nervous and wants to practice. They go to visit Eeyore in this Gloomy Place where he lives, but Piglet is sad that Eeyore has no where proper to live. They decide they will build him a house of wood, and gather some friends — Kanga and Roo are happy to come and help again; however, it appears that the pile of sticks they use to make Eeyore a house WAS his house! They laugh at their mistake, and sing Tiddely Pom as they head back home for
lunch.
– Maria Grenfell