CD Review: Musicians Out of the Box's "Music Tales"

St. Petersburg, Florida-based string quartet Musicians Out of the Box spent a few years performing for adults before they were asked to create something for children in a concert series at local libraries. Accustomed to working hard to distinguish themselves from other chamber groups (they lent credence to their name by performing with dancers, artists, and instruments not typically paired with traditional strings), few were surprised when the quartet's attempts at engaging children through music led to an astonishingly good children's music and storytelling debut, Music Tales, which they released in late 2006.

Music Tales' format is easy to describe but difficult to put on the kids' music map. Pairing traditional stories voiced by young actors with a riotous blend of snippets of classical compositions, the album's fairy tale tracks are mashups that would make classical composers spin in their graves or wish they'd thought of it, depending on who you ask. "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" plucks themes from Bach, Beethoven and Brahams, arranges them for string quartet, and uses them to guide listeners through the familiar fairy tale, while "The Three Little Pigs" rips lines from Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 to serve both as musical themes for each character and to lend drama to the story. In each case, classical compositions are deconstructed and recycled into a blend of story and chamberesque sound effects. When Goldilocks walks up a flight of stairs, the cello, violin, and viola pass a rising melody step by step, then dive into another cribbed passage to evoke what she has discovered.

We have been listening regularly to Music Tales for the past six months, and Z will probably grow up remembering their versions of several classic fairy tales as her introduction to these stories. She adores them and asks to hear them all the time.

Unfortunately, a few of the tracks are best reserved for slightly older children. The group's selection from The Arabian Nights makes no bones about the sultan's serial execution of his wives, and particularly violence-averse parents might even cringe at the voice actor's delighted proclamation in The Three Little Pigs that the wolf "was boiled to bits" when he came down the chimney. We tend to flip-flop when it comes to violence and mortality in children's literature, and our reaction to the talent that exudes from this album is a case in point. We wouldn't have minded a few simple adjustments to make these stories a good fit for all audiences, and we avoid Ferdinand the Bull despite its gorgeous score because we wouldn't read a story about bullfighting to our daughter any more than we would one about dogfighting or cockfighting. That said, you'd have to pry our copy of Music Tales from our cold, dead fingers. To be thoroughly anachronistic about it, the album rocks.

You can purchase Music Tales from the group's website, on iTunes, or on CDBaby. You can also purchase individual tracks on iTunes; if you're cherry-picking, our favorites are the The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks, and Goodnight, Moon, which is set to the music of Debussy's Claire de Lune and makes a wonderful bedtime ritual with or without the book to accompany it. The original compositions on the album are also very good.

Later today: What do Bugs Bunny, critical kids, and Chris Van Allsburg have in common? They're all topics of discussion in our interview with MOB violinist Roxane Frangie Solowey.