Town Musicians of Bremen
Encyclopedia
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten) is a folktale recorded by the Brothers Grimm
Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...
. Despite the title of the fairy tale, the characters never actually arrive in Bremen. In Aarne-Thompson classification
Aarne-Thompson classification system
The Aarne–Thompson classification system is a system for classifying folktales. First developed by Antti Aarne and published in 1910, it was translated and enlarged by Stith Thompson...
it is a folk tale of type 130: "outcast animals find a new home".
Plot
In the story a donkeyDonkey
The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...
, a dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
, a cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
, and a rooster
Rooster
A rooster, also known as a cockerel, cock or chanticleer, is a male chicken with the female being called a hen. Immature male chickens of less than a year's age are called cockerels...
, all past their prime years in life and usefulness on their respective farms, were soon to be discarded or mistreated by their masters. One by one they leave their homes and set out together. They decide to go to Bremen
Bremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
, known for its freedom, to live without owners and become musicians there.
On the way to Bremen, they see a lighted cottage; they look inside and see four robbers enjoying their ill-gotten gains. Standing on each other's backs, they decide to perform for the men in hope of gaining food. Their 'music' has an unanticipated effect; the men run for their lives, not knowing what the strange sound is. The animals take possession of the house, eat a good meal, and settle in for the evening.
Later that night, the robbers return and send one of their members in to investigate. He sees the Cat's eyes shining in the darkness and thinks he is seeing the coals of the fire. He reaches over to light his candle. Things happen in quick succession; the Cat scratches his face with her claws, the Dog bites him on the leg, the Donkey kicks him and the Rooster crows and chases him out the door, screaming. He tells his companions that he was beset by a horrible witch who scratched him with her long fingers (the Cat), an ogre with a knife (the Dog), a giant who had hit him with his club (the Donkey), and worst of all, the judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
who screamed in his voice from the rooftop (the Rooster). The robbers abandon the cottage to the strange creatures who have taken it, where the animals live happily for the rest of their days.
In popular culture
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
, motion pictures (often musicals
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
) and theatre plays
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
. Jim Henson
Jim Henson
James Maury "Jim" Henson was an American puppeteer best known as the creator of The Muppets. As a puppeteer, Henson performed in various television programs, such as Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, films such as The Muppet Movie and The Great Muppet Caper, and created advanced puppets for...
produced a version with his Muppets called The Muppet Musicians of Bremen. In the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, the story was loosely adapted into an animated musical in 1969 by Yuri Entin and Vasily Livanov
Vasily Livanov
Vasily Borisovich Livanov MBE is a Soviet and Russian film actor, and screenwriter.-Biography:His father Boris Livanov was a prominent actor of the Moscow Art Theatre...
at the studio Soyuzmultfilm
Soyuzmultfilm
Soyuzmultfilm is a Russian animation studio based in Moscow. Over the years it has gained international attention and respect, garnering numerous awards both at home and abroad. Noted for a great variety of style, it is regarded as the most influential animation studio of the former Soviet Union...
, Town Musicians of Bremen. It was followed by a sequel called On the Trail of the Town Musicians of Bremen. In 2000, a second 56-minute sequel was made, called The New Bremen Musicians .
Carl Zuckmayer
Carl Zuckmayer
Carl Zuckmayer was a German writer and playwright.-Biography:Born in Nackenheim in Rheinhessen, he was four years old when his family moved to Mainz. With the outbreak of World War I, he finished school with a facilitated "emergency"-Abitur and volunteered for military service...
cites the tale in his 1931 play Der Hauptmann von Köpenick
The Captain of Köpenick (play)
The Captain of Köpenick is a satirical play by the German dramatist Carl Zuckmayer. First produced in 1931, the play tells the story, based on a true event that happened in 1906, of a down-on-his-luck ex-convict shoemaker who impersonates a Prussian Guards officer, holds the mayor of a small town...
, particularly the line "We can find something better than death anywhere", which becomes a key line for the last part of the plot.
In the mid-1960s, Tupper Saussy
Tupper Saussy
Frederick Tupper Saussy III was an American composer, musician, author, and artist. He was born in Statesboro, Georgia; grew up in Tampa, Florida; and graduated from the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, in 1958. His jazz combo there put out a university-subsidized album, Jazz at...
wrote a composition titled The Beast with Five Heads on a commission from the Nashville Symphony to teach schoolchildren about orchestration
Orchestration
Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra or of adapting for orchestra music composed for another medium...
, intended as a substitute for Peter and the Wolf
Peter and the Wolf
Peter and the Wolf , Op. 67, is a composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936 in the USSR. It is a children's story , spoken by a narrator accompanied by the orchestra....
.
In 1976, in Italy, Sergio Bardotti and Luis Enríquez Bacalov
Luis Enríquez Bacalov
Luis Enríquez Bacalov is a prolific Argentine, naturalized Italian, composer of film scores. Early on in his career, he composed scores for Spaghetti Western films. In the early 1970s, he collaborated with Italian progressive rock bands. Bacalov has been nominated twice for the Academy Award...
adapted the story into a musical play called I Musicanti, which two years later was translated into Portuguese by the Brazilian composer Chico Buarque
Chico Buarque
Francisco Buarque de Hollanda , popularly known as Chico Buarque , is a singer, guitarist, composer, dramatist, writer and poet...
. The musical play was called Os Saltimbancos, was later released as an album, and became one of the greatest classics for children in Brazil. This version was also made into a movie. In Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, the story was made into an animated feature film in 1989, directed by Cruz Delgado. In Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, the story was adapted into an animated feature in 1997 under the title The Fearless Four (Die Furchtlosen Vier), though it varied considerably from the source material.
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, painted the German and the Austro-Hungarian eagles throned on a rock, under the light of a Turkish crescent. They look with contempt on the futile efforts of the Town Musicians of Bremen to chase them away. These animals are symbols for the Allied Forces: on top the French cock, standing on the Japanese jackal, standing on the English bulldog, standing on the Russian bear. Italy is depicted as a twisting snake and Belgium a triciolored chafer
Beetle
Coleoptera is an order of insects commonly called beetles. The word "coleoptera" is from the Greek , koleos, "sheath"; and , pteron, "wing", thus "sheathed wing". Coleoptera contains more species than any other order, constituting almost 25% of all known life-forms...
.
In the early 20th century, the American folk/swing/children's musician Frank Luther
Frank Luther
Frank Luther was an American country music singer, dance band vocalist, playwright, songwriter and pianist.-Early life:...
popularized the same musical tale as the "Raggletaggletown Singers", presented in children's school music books and performed in children's plays.
Richard Scarry
Richard Scarry
Richard McClure Scarry was a popular American children's author and illustrator who published over 300 books with total sales of over 100 million units worldwide....
wrote an adaptation of the story in his book Richard Scarry's Animal Nursery Tales in 1975. In it, the donkey, dog, cat and rooster are all fully anthropomorphic (as is the case of all Richard Scarry characters), and set out since they are bored with farming.
On Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
in between cartoon breaks during the Out of Tune Toons marathon and on Cartoonetwork Video, there are cartoon shorts (called "Wedgies") of an animal band based on the tale called "The Bremen Avenue Experience" featuring a cat (Jessica), dog (Simon), donkey (Barret) and rooster (Tanner). They are either a modern adaptation of Town Musicians of Bremen or descendants of the old musicians of Bremen.
Hello Project's Mini Moni
Mini Moni
is a former subgroup of Japanese pop girl group Morning Musume, and a current group within Hello! Project. They were one of Morning Musume's most popular subgroups for their entire existence, because of the combination of their outrageous music videos and live performances, and their widely varied...
starred in a drama based on the fairy tale called Mini Moni.de Bremen no Ongakutai (Mini Moni's Bremen Town Musicians). The drama goes backwards in time through three periods of Japanese history unveiling the story. The drama does not have much in common with the fairy tale.
In the anime Otogi-Jūshi Akazukin
Otogi-Jushi Akazukin
is an anime OVA as well as an anime television series.-Story:Long, long ago, there existed a world of magic and science. But having both powers was making people conceited and lazy. So God split the world in to the world of science, Elde, and the world of magic, Phandavale. One day in Fandavale, a...
one of the main villains is named Randagio, who is based on the cat of the story as well as on Puss in Boots
Puss in Boots
'Puss' is a character in the fairy tale "The Master Cat, or Puss in Boots" by Charles Perrault. The tale was published in 1697 in his Histoires ou Contes du temps passé...
. He has three underlings that are based on the other three animals from the fairy tale and have a band named Breman.
Nippon Animation
Nippon Animation
is a Japanese animation studio. The company is headquartered in Tokyo, with chief offices in the Ginza district of Chūō and production facilities in Tama City....
Co., Ltd. adapted the tale in the first episode of the anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
TV series Grimm Meisaku Gekijou, released in English as Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics
Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics
is a Japanese animated anthology series by Nippon Animation. The episodes are adaptations of a variety of folk and fairy tales, and not limited to Grimm's Fairy Tales....
. The four main characters are seen in the opening of the anime.
In the video game The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
is an action-adventure video game developed by Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis and Development division for the Nintendo 64. It was released in Japan on April 27, 2000, North America on October 26, 2000, and Europe on November 17, 2000. The game sold approximately 314,000 copies during its first...
, the Bremen Mask is a reference to the Town Musicians of Bremen.
In the video game Kyuiin, the Town Musicians of Bremen are a boss fight with each animal having its own attack.
Bremen is also the title of a manga series by Haruto Umezawa
Haruto Umezawa
is a Japanese manga artist. Umezawa is best known for the manga series Hareluya II Bøy and Bremen. He was also a former assistant to Tsukasa Hojo.-Works:*Sakenomi☆Dōji *Hareluya...
about a four-member punk rock band, each member of which bears a physical resemblance to one of the four animals in the fairy tale.
During their Germany-themed event, Farmville
FarmVille
FarmVille is a farming simulation social network game developed by Zynga in 2009. It is similar to Happy Farm, Farm Town,, and older games such as the Harvest Moon series...
offered a replica of the statue for purchase to decorate players' farms.
The 1991 Sierra adventure game Mixed-Up Fairy Tales
Mixed-Up Fairy Tales
Mixed-Up Fairy Tales was a graphic adventure game released by Sierra On-Line in 1991. It was made for younger players than those of Sierra's King's Quest or Space Quest series...
includes Bremen Town Musicians as one of the stories the player must correct.
Statues modeled after the Town Musicians of Bremen statue now reside in front of each of the five German veterinary schools. These statues were a gift.
See also
- Joseph JacobsJoseph JacobsJoseph Jacobs was a folklorist, literary critic and historian. His works included contributions to the Jewish Encyclopaedia, translations of European works, and critical editions of early English literature...
cites this as a parallel version of the Irish Jack and his ComradesJack and his ComradesJack and his Comrades is an Irish fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs, listing as his source Patrick Kennedy's Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts.In the Aarne-Thompson categorisation system, it is "type 130", i.e. "outcast animals find a new home"....
.
External links
- SurLaLune's Annotated Bremen Town Musicians, including variants, modern interpretations and illustrations
- Bremen Town Musicians at at Story Resources
- Full text of The Bremen Town Musicians from "The Fairy Book"
Some of the best known adaptations are: Disney 1922 animated version Russian animated version Brazilian musical free adaptation of the tale 1989 Spanish animated movie version 1997 German edition, also released in English under the title "The Fearless Four" The Muppet Musicians of Bremen