In My Good Books
Tuesday March 30th, 2021 with Pat Moore
Stories and Songs by Sjef Frenken

Today we are going to hear 2 stories told by my dear friend Sjef Frenken, a talented writer and musician with a beautifully warm and comforting voice – just what you want when listening to stories or songs. The first, The Fisherman and his Wife is a folk tale originally collected by the Brothers Grimm. This version is Sjef’s take on the tale. He also has a song version of it, but that hasn’t been recorded yet. It is included in his first collection of short stories Tales Told and Retold. The edition is, regrettably, sold out, and not likely to be reprinted in the near future. For the remainder of today’s show I want to play some music for you that Sjef has written based on poetry - and recorded on delightful albums, of which I have 3! I’ll combine notes from the 3 albums to give you a sense of what you are about to hear. Sjef has spent decades collecting and identifying poetry that he wanted to put to music. The series he entitled Songs for the Inner Child. The first was Songs to Robert Louis Stevenson, which he had sung by Lisa Lapointe, accompanied by guitarist John Klepko. I don’t have the second, but the third is Songs to Walter de la Mare, and another is Songs to Edward Lear – both of these feature the composer himself singing and playing keyboard. On Songs to Edward Lear there are also some appearances by the lovely voice of Amanda Bon. I hadn’t heard of Walter de la Mare before, but as Sjef writes, quoting Wystan Hugh Auden ”As a revelation of the wonders of the English language, de la Mare’s poems for children are quite unrivalled. " Of these poets Sjef writes : Robert Louis Stevenson is probably the best-known of English-language childre’s poets, Eugene Field the most accessible (that’s the one I'm missing) and Edward Lear the funniest. Walter de la Mare may well be the most poetic.