S15: E279 Dark Nights and Mysterious Tunes: Choir Songs that Embrace the Spirit of Halloween
The songs I’ll be sharing today are perfect to use with your upper elementary classes or choir, especially if you’re working on helping students learn how to sing in 2-parts. The pieces be great for a fall concert, to sing in class around Halloween or to use within a specific program related to a theme such as animals (The Bat) or literature (Edgar Allen Poe and William Shakespeare). I’d love to know if you’ve used any of these pieces with your students or if there’s one that stands out that you want to do with your students!
I’ll talk about each piece and share musical elements that stand out as well as activities, warm-ups, and games you could incorporate. You can find the links to each piece in the show notes or on my website in the podcast section.
Two part SA
Lyrics are adapted from Shakespeare’s Macbeth… and not the one about that darn spot that won’t come out
Element that stands out: optional xylophone part! The xylophone part is for another accompaniment piece that would play alongside the piano while students sing. A great modification of it would be to have one student play the introduction only on the xylophone for measures 1-3. Add one pitch: middle C to end the phrase on beat one of measure 4.
Warm-Up idea: Part I Melody from ms. 25-26… students sing the melody once and then move up a half step to repeat
Passing Game: Teach only the first verse ms. 4-9. Students sit in a circle and pass an item to the beat. If you have a fun Halloween or cauldron-ish item, that would be fun to pass. I have a soft pumpkin I use in October passing games. Whichever student has the object at the end of the phrase is out. I would add the word “stop” so that it is clear as to which student is out. The final phrase would then be “Fire burn and cauldron bubble stop.”
Text by Sir Walter de la Mare, a well-known British writer
Poem comes from his book of rhymed called “Peacock Pie.”
Element that stands out: the dynamics make this piece! Calls for tons of expressive singing.
Warm-up Idea: Focus on crescendo and p vs. mf. Use the melody for measures 5-13. It’s a longer warm-up phrase. If you want to simplify this more and focus on crescendoing over on portion of the phrase, have students only sing ms. 12-13 and focus on “naught there was a stirring in the still dark night.” Using the same phrase for ms. 12-13, you could also focus on staccato for the words “still dark night” with emphasis on performing them staccato-y and crisp clear endings of darK and nighT.
Accompaniment option: There is a part written for a bassoon. If simplified to only require pitches C,D, F, G, Bb (so that you don’t need an Eb or Ab bar), you could teach the introduction to students and select a student or two to play it on either bass bars (if you have them) or on a bass xylophone.
Text by Sir Walter de la Mare - exact same text as the song I just shared composed by Christi Cary Miller, but with a different melody. I love Cynthia Gray’s choral pieces. She write one called Clouds that my choir students sang in the spring of this past year. Beautiful!
Element that stands out: Echoing phrases ms 38-44 (melodies and rhythms are different in the last two measures of the phrase, but with the same text)
Warm-up Idea: Using the first phrase “Someone came knocking at my wee small door,” focus on sustaining over 3 ½ beats and staggered breathing to allow the entire phrase to be sung without a break.
Accompaniment option: percussion! Conga, guiro, claves. So fun!
I participated in a choral reading session at PMEA this spring where this song was shared. So fun! Could be used as a song cycle using Andy Beck’s two other pieces: Firefly and The Moon.
Element that stands out: Echoing phrases
Warm-Up Idea: Use text and melody line from ms. 23-24 in Part I. “Shadows are Circling.” This would work on phrasing for text to be sure students are doing “sha-ah dows” rather than “sha-dows.” A second warm-up idea would be to help prepare entry for “The Bat!” in ms 36. A few ways this could be done. Piano accompaniment played as written for ms. 36 and then play up a half step in the octaves. Students hear octaves played on A while teacher whispers “1-2-3-4” and students enter on the ‘and of 4.’ Then the teacher plays A-Bb to establish new home tone before playing the Bb again to hold for 4 beats. And so on… repeating up.
Movement idea: Leather Wing Bat performed by String Loaded on Album Continuous Line. String Loaded is an awesome Celtic Fiddle Band! Get the FREE RESOURCE at my shop!
Poem by Eugene Field called “Seein’ Things”
Elements that stand out: Echoing phrases, whispering conversations at start of song
Love the text about Edgar Allen Poe and his writing. References to his poems such as The Pit and the Pendulum, Tell-Tale Heart, and then aspects of other pieces. Melody is very catchy! In fact my husband and I were humming it and singing it all day long after listening to it.
Elements that stand out: Tempo is faster (120 bpm) than the other pieces.
Activity: A body percussion rainstorm before singing the song would be amazing! Using pats, snaps, claps, stamps, and voices.