THE LION & THE MOUSE - Mark McKenzie - Symphonic Poem

In the oldest versions, a lion threatens a mouse that wakes him up. The mouse begs forgiveness and makes the point that such unworthy prey would bring the lion no honour. The lion then agrees and sets the mouse free. Later, the lion is netted by hunters; hearing it roaring, the mouse remembers its clemency and frees it by gnawing through the ropes. The moral of the story is that mercy brings its reward and that there is no being so small that it cannot help a greater. Later English versions reinforce this by having the mouse promise to return the lion's favour, to its sceptical amusement.

The Scottish poet, Robert Henryson, in a version he included in his Morall Fabillis in the 1480s, expands the plea that the mouse makes and introduces serious themes of law, justice and politics. The poem consists of 43 seven-lined stanzas of which the first twelve recount a meeting with Aesop in a dream and six stanzas at the end draw the moral; the expanded fable itself occupies stanzas 13-36.

Some fifty years later the French poet Clément Marot recounts a similarly expanded version of the fable in the course of his Épitre à son ami Lyon Jamet (Letter to his friend Lyon), first published in 1534. This is an imitation of the Latin poet Horace's Epistles, addressed to friends and often applying Aesopian themes to their situations. In this case, Marot has been imprisoned and begs Jamet to help him get released, playing on his friend's forename and styling himself the lowly rat (rather than mouse). Jean de la Fontaine included a more succinct version of the story in his Fables (II.11, 1668) in the following century.

The fable was made into an animated cartoon by Aesop's Film Fables in 1922; there was also a two minute cartoon incorporating the fable and ending with an advertisment for Coca Cola as a promoter of friendship that was issued in 1953.

In 1966 the National Film Board of Canada adapted the story as The Bear and the Mouse; it was issued as a short feature film using real animals with voice-over.

The story is a favourite subject of children's literature. Jerry Pinkney's The Lion & the Mouse (2009) tells it through pictures alone, without the usual text of such books, and won the 2010 Caldecott Medal for its illustrations. The story is updated and adapted to fit the conditions of the Serengeti National Park, in which it is set.


"May I encourage you to listen to the children's concert work THE LION AND THE MOUSE included on my CD Con Passione.
The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, commissioned The Lion and the Mouse as a way of celebrating the Music School's 50th anniversary. I felt the best way to celebrate 50 years of excellence in music education was to compose a children's introduction to the orchestra and educate the music students of the next 50 years. The instrumentation is set up for a number of different orchestra sizes as follows: 1 Narrator, Woodwinds in 2s or 3s, 4 horns, 2/3/4 trumpets. 3 / 4 trombones, 1 tuba, 1 harp , 1 Celesta, 1 Timpani, 2 or 3 percussion, Violins, Violas, Cellos, Basses." (Mark McKenzie)

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Thanks, this has been added to our playlists here, and on facebook,,,