Putting the song into "The Shoe Bird"

The oxymoronic term "instant classic" may be used too frequently these days, so try not to let it echo in your head as I tell you about "The Shoe Bird," a musical story by Seattle Symphony's composer-in-residence Samuel Jones set to Eudora Welty's only children's book. Recently released as an audiobook, this charming tale will be performed live today at Benaroya to launch this fall's Discover Music! series.

Think "Peter the Wolf," but with shoes instead of guns, a cat instead of a wolf and a flock of orchestral winds evoking the sounds of "all the birds of the world." Throw in the astonishing vocalizations of narrator Jim Dale (the voice of all the "Harry Potter" audiobooks in the U.S.), a lush-sounding Seattle Symphony and the sweet pipings of the Northwest Boychoir and Girls of Vocalpoint! Seattle, and you have the first — and most likely definitive — recording of a piece that is destined for a very long, happy life.

Not bad for a composer who almost didn't accept the commission because of the original novella's length. Urged to reconsider, "I looked at it again," recalls Jones. "And I realized I could bring the story down to its essence, how the foibles of human nature are reflected in avian nature. Then, I looked for chances to expand into song, places where a musical set piece would fit."

A fable about the chaos that ensues when birds decide to wear shoes, "The Shoe Bird" serves up a useful lesson about being true to thine own feathery self, with some sweet songs to make it all go down in the most delightful way. The piece was premiered by the Mississippi Boychoir in 2002, a year after Welty, a friend of Jones, passed away.

A dedicated bird-watcher, Jones modeled many of the bird themes on actual bird calls. An English horn evokes Arturo the parrot; an alto sax honks like Gloria the Goose. The song sparrow's phrase, in fact, was copied, "note for note from a song sparrow that was in our backyard," admits Jones. "That sparrow always sang in D major."

Narrator Jim Dale got his inspiration from the early days of radio, the 1940s and '50s. "Arturo the parrot has a voice very similar to an English comedian, Terry Scott. It's an attractive, expressive voice, and I can do lots of things with it, hit high notes and low notes." Dale's vocal characterizations blend with the score seamlessly — all the more astonishing considering that he often lays down his tracks in only one take.

Dale, who holds a Guinness world record for the 146 voices he brought to "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," had never heard his own work until "The Shoe Bird." "It's the only one I've ever listened to," he admits. "I was so thrilled with the music, I played it back. And I sent my five grandchildren copies. They adore it."

As do my own three children, who ranked "The Shoe Bird" high among their classical favorites. "Much better than 'Peter and the Wolf,' " said my 6-year-old. Her 4-year-old sister seconded that opinion, because "it's not scary." My 8-year-old son pronounced "The Shoe Bird" as good as "Pictures at an Exhibition" and "waaayyy better" than "The Nutcracker." So there you have it, straight out of the mouths of babes: "The Shoe Bird," not yet a classic, but a serious contender.

Sumi Hahn: sumi@bewodo.org