Illustrated characters from the Steeped in Song books gathered in an enchanted forest, beside a quiet harbor.

Steeped in Song

Stories and music from opera, ballet, literature, and the symphonic repertoire, retold and made playable, with a button to press for every page.

In some books the pages turn by themselves with the music; in others, press the next button when you're ready.

Illustration from the Mahler storybook: the boy Israel standing in a spring meadow, listening to the birds in the trees.

Mahler

Symphony No. 1

Before dawn on a mountainside, a teacher tells her students a secret: sparks of God's hidden light are waiting everywhere. Through Hasidic tales of the boy Israel and Reb Zusya, they learn four ways to find them, set to Mahler's First Symphony.

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Illustration from the Liszt storybook: the little rooster strutting across the farmyard with his diamond half-penny in his beak.

Liszt

Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

A poor grandmother's proud little rooster finds a diamond half-penny, and a greedy King takes it away. But the rooster has a magic tummy, and he won't give up. A Hungarian folk tale, set to Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody.

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Illustration from The Magic Flute storybook: the overture, glowing at dawn.

Mozart

The Magic Flute

Mozart's fairy-tale opera, featuring a prince, a bird man, and the Queen of the Night. Excerpted highlights include the most well-known pieces from the opera.

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Illustration from the Cinderella storybook: Cinderella, smiling, in her new gown of green leaves and apple flowers.

Prokofiev

Cinderella

A kind girl among the cinders, a Fairy Godmother in disguise, fairies of all four seasons, and a clock full of dwarfs counting down to midnight. Prokofiev's ballet, page by page with its own music.

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Illustration from the Scheherazade storybook: Scheherazade, veiled in blue and gold, arriving at the palace.

Rimsky-Korsakov

Scheherazade

Scheherazade weaves together the tales of Sinbad the sailor, Agib the Kalendar Prince, and Princess Badoura in Rimsky-Korsakov's majestic symphonic suite.

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Illustration from the Sibelius storybook: Väinämöinen playing a bone-white kantele by lantern light in a sleeping town under the northern lights.

Sibelius

Symphony No. 2

The demigod Väinämöinen raises the first forests, fetches a charm from the land of the dead, helps to make a treasure, and then steals it for Kalevala. Tales from Finland's Kalevala, set to Sibelius's Second Symphony.

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Illustration from the Má vlast storybook: the three sisters in the young river valley, Kazi gathering herbs in a meadow, Teta at a forest spring, and Libuše standing on the high cliff above the river. Under construction

Smetana

Má vlast

Long ago, when the Czech land was young, three sisters cared for it: Libuše the wise judge, Teta the friend of the forest and the water, and Kazi the healer. A bard sings their stories, each set to one of Smetana's great symphonic poems, until their gifts are hidden away in a mountain for a curious child to find.

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Illustration from the Lohengrin storybook: a castle at the edge of a quiet river.

Wagner

Lohengrin

As Elsa of Brabant faces two bullies with a false accusation and worries about her missing brother, a Knight of the Holy Grail appears to help her sort things out. Wagner's dramatic music rearranged into a more accessible plot.

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