Scored for
Duration
1.53
Short description
During the sixties and the seventies, Pärt actively composed film soundtracks, which included the music for nearly twenty puppet and animated films. One of his first jobs at the Tallinnfilm studio was writing the music for Heino Pars’ puppet-animation film The Little Motor-Scooter in 1962.
The film’s main character is a brave little motor-scooter, who falls out of a truck’s cargo of toys and has to find the way to children on his own, wandering through forests and the city. Pärt wrote an imaginative audio layer for the film’s colourful scenes, which also includes one song. For the 2015 collection Songs from Childhood, the song was arranged by Tauno Aints, and Eno Raud’s text was complemented with verses penned by Leelo Tungal.
World premiere
Composer's recital: Arvo Pärt "Lapsepõlvelood" / "Songs from Childhood" CD promotional concert
Sten Lassmann (piano), Madis Metsamart (percussion), Kadri Hunt (conductor), Mari Poll (violin), Children's Music Studio of Estonian Radio , Meelis Vind (clarinet, bass clarinet), Henri Zibo (accordion), Heikko-Joseph Remmel (double bass), Andreas Lend (cello), Karl Herman Õis (soloist)
Completion year
Original version
Dedication
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Instrumentation details
Vocal text
Lyrics by Eno Raud and Leelo Tungal
Translation by Paul Hillier
Ev'ryone knows me,
I am a marvellous machine,
Motor-toy and plaything
On which kids like to be seen.
From the car-shop bigger motors
May have been brought home,
I was made for children only,
Wherever they roam.
I am small, but I am lucky,
And I am quite brave;
Don't get tir'd, 'cos on long trips
I know how to behave.
There's no danger, 'cos for speeding
I do not get booked;
No risk, 'cos by overtaking
I do not get cooked!
I do not go fast, but if you’d
Like to come along
Wear your jacket, button up,
And put your helmet on.
Check the wheels – are they fine?
Is there petrol in the tank?
Jump on, sit still, and please give
My engine one more crank.
I am small, but I am lucky,
…