by Scott Mehl  © Unofficial Royalty 2013

photo credit: Amazon.co.uk

In keeping with the theme of the last installment of Who Knew?!, I’ve found that Queen Fabiola isn’t the only one whose writing has been transformed into another artistic work. Prince Henrik, of Denmark, the husband of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, has written and published several books of poetry, his memoirs, and even a couple of cookbooks. For now, we’ll look at one of his poetry collections. Cantabile, is a collection of his poems written in French, with Danish translations, and illustrations by his wife, Queen Margrethe.

A few years later, Cantabile became the basis for a symphonic suite composed by Frederik Magle. It was written in three movements, based on several poems from the book. The first movement – Souffle le vent – premiered at the Prince’s 70th birthday celebrations in 2004, while the second and third – Cortège & Danse Macabre and Carillon – premiered at the Prince’s 75th birthday celebrations in 2009.

One of the strange facts I found is one of the ‘instruments’ used in the second movement… a giraffe’s thigh bone!  The score called for a thigh bone (not specifically from a giraffe). The composer spent an entire day, just a week before the premiere, at the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen trying out various bones searching for the exact look and tone he envisioned.  After passing on the elephant thigh bone (so big that it would require two percussionists to use), he ended up borrowing a giraffe thigh bone from the museum.

No word whether the giraffe received any royalties…

Who Knew?!

Unofficial Royalty: Prince Henrik of Denmark
Cantabile: A Symphonic Suite by Frederik Magle

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