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Music for the Community
If you're interested in a particular category, you can sort performances by student age, instrument, singalong music, composer and so on - click on the orange tags under the text. We hope you and your family will enjoy watching our students share their music!
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Day 14: Marching Band
Violinist age 10 plays "Marching Band" by Edwards Huws Jones
This one’s good for both marching and singing! The song has three parts, and the first and last parts are for singing along. In the middle, you can hear the band very quietly at first, as if from far away. Then they round a corner and get louder, until finally they’re right in front of you again for another rousing chorus. Grab your shakers, saucepan lids and whatever else you have to hand, and make a parade all around the house!
Mar-ching, we're mar-ching, the bugles blow, it's time to go, we're
Mar-ching, we're mar-ching, the trumpets play, we're on our way!
[Quietly] Left two three four, left two three four, left right, left right, left right, left right
[Louder] Left two three four, left two three four, left right, left right, left right, LEFT RIGHT -
Mar-ching, we're mar-ching, the bugles blow, it's time to go, we're
Mar-ching, we're mar-ching, the trumpets play, we're on our way!
Day 13: Cuckoo
Pianist age 6 plays "Cuckoo"
This easy piano piece from the Suzuki Piano Program is based on a German folk song, but we gave it English words to help students learn it.
Cuckoo, cuckoo sings from the forest.Cuckoo, cuckoo sings from the tree.
Let us be singing, let us be dancing,Cuckoo, cuckoo, springtime is here!
OR:
Cuckoo, Cuckoo, high in the treetops,Cuckoo, Cuckoo, sing me a song.
Sing in the morning, sing in the evening.Cuckoo, Cuckoo, I’ll sing along!
Day 12: Schindler's List
Violinist age 14 plays Theme from “Schindler’s List”
Steven Spielberg’s movie “Schindler’s List”, about the German manufacturer Oskar Schindler who saved more than 1000 Jews from the Holocaust by employing them in his factories, won 7 Oscars including Best Picture for Spielberg and Best Score (Music) for composer John Williams.
We feature its theme in homage to today’s observance of Holocaust Memorial Day, and in solidarity with victims of oppression everywhere.
Day 11: Massachusetts Music (Twinkle Variation A)
Violinist age 4 plays Twinkle Variation A, Massachusetts Music
This is the first piece that the young musicians in our Suzuki Program learn. The rhythm “Massachusetts Music” is an easy one for beginners, as it uses very short bow strokes – but it’s also something that will reappear many times in much bigger pieces, including professional ones.
This little student started in our Wayland Recreation “Small Group Intro to Violin” class over the summer. Five months later, and she was ready to share her music with an audience. She gets extra brownie points for stopping to “build fingers” carefully when she moves to a new string. Skills built solidly in small steps like this will lead to ease and confidence at all levels of playing.
Day 10: Tango by Neil Mackay
Violinist age 10 plays “Tango” by Neil Mackay
More dance music today – this time from South America. The tango combines musical elements from African, Native American and European cultures, and started in the 1880s among communities alongside the Rio de la Plata (Silver River), which is the natural border between the countries of Argentina and Uruguay. It was originally a dance for the common people, popular in dockside cafes and nightclubs, but eventually spread to Europe and North America too. Listen for the “Pa-PAH—pa pum-pum” rhythm that happens throughout the piece.
Day 9: Courante, Bach Suite #3 in C
Violist age 16 plays “Courante” from Bach Suite #3 for Viola/Cello
A viola is more than just a “big violin”. That extra size gives it a deeper, darker sound. Bigger things vibrate more slowly - try filling a smaller glass and a bigger glass with water, and tapping them each with a fork, and you’ll hear that idea at its most basic.
The viola has the same tuning as the cello, except an octave higher (meaning the viola’s strings vibrate exactly twice as fast as a cello’s) - so they can share some of the same music, including Bach’s solo suites. “Suite” means a collection of pieces which go together, and Bach’s suites are collections of 18th century dance music. “Courante” literally means “running”, and you can hear how this piece just keeps going and going – try running around to it!
If you like the sound of the viola, it’s a great instrument to learn to play – there are never enough viola players, and you will get lots of invitations to play with others!
Day 8: Song of the Wind
Violinist age 10 plays Song of the Wind
Here’s another singalong song! (For the last one, see April 9th.)
Who has seen the wind, I wonder?
No-one that I know!
No-one that I know!
When the leaves are / flut-ter-ing the /
Wind is there but/ can’t be seen –
When the leaves are / flut-ter-ing the /
Wind is there I/ know.___(Repeat)
Day 7: Minuet in C by Bach
Cellist age 11 plays Bach’s Minuet in C
A minuet is an elegant 18th century dance – think ladies in dresses with huge ruffled skirts, and gentlemen in knee britches. This dance in 3/4 time, with small, elegant steps and many bows and curtsies, was all the rage in the fancy ballrooms of Europe (especially France and England) from about 1650 to 1750. Since Bach lived from 1685-1750, this was basically the pop music of his time. See if you can feel the 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 pulse, then get our your dress-up stuff and dance to the 18th century beat!
Day 6: “Tick Tock the Jazz Clock” by Bill Boyd
Pianist age 9 plays “Tick Tock the Jazz Clock” by Bill Boyd
Jazz music started in the African American communities of New Orleans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and by the 1920s had taken America by storm. It’s continued to take new and interesting forms since then. Try searching on bebop, cool jazz, jazz-rock fusion, Latin and Afro-Cuban jazz – you’ll all kinds of great listening!
Jazz has a great swing to it because many of the notes come a little before or after the main beats. That may sound complicated - but this fun duet is easy to play! Listen to how the student plays the “tick tock” part, making a beat for the teacher’s music to dance around.
Day 5: Air Varie #5 by Dancla
Violinist age 12 plays Air Varie #5 by Dancla – Variations on a Theme by Weigel
Charles Dancla was a French violinist, composer and teacher. His skills were so impressive as a young child that he began studying at the Paris Conservatoire when he was only 9, and he later became a professor of violin there. He wrote six “Air Varies” for violin students, and they all start with a theme (here, a song that he borrowed from another composer), followed by a set of variations (fancy rewrites based on that theme). The variations are designed to showcase different aspects of violin technique, so these pieces are for more advanced students.
You’ll hear the theme first. Then listen out for:
- A fast, flowing variation to show fast left hand work
- A fiery “show-off” variation with technical challenges in the form of fancy bowings, and big chords for the left hand
- A slow, singing variation - in which the violinist is accompanying herself by plucking with her left hand, at the same time as using that hand and her bow to play sustained notes
- A fast, short ending section called a coda – which literally means tail – to wrap things up with a flourish
More...
Day 4: O Come, Little Children
Violinist age 7 plays “O Come, Little Children”
This pretty folk song (which is actually a French Christmas carol) is one of the early pieces featured in the Suzuki violin program. This young violinist started out in our Wayland Recreation “Small Group Intro to Violin” class - and that’s his mom playing piano for him!
We give the kids singalong words to help them hear the music in their heads as they learn new songs on their instruments. The words we made up to this one are below, so you can sing along too. The first phrase in each verse repeats because the music does also - listen and sing again, to see if you can hear that happening. You could also make up a third verse with whatever instruments you have at home!
Verse 1
O come, little children, and play all your songs! O come, little children, and play all your songs!
Play violin, viola*, and cello and more – we’ll play round the town, then come back and play more!
[sing: vee-oh-la – stretch it to three syllables]
Verse 2
O come, little children, and play all your songs! O come, little children, and play all your songs!
Play flute, drums and trumpet, and piano, and more - we’ll play round the town, then come back and play more!
Day 3: Sonata In G by Sammartini
Cellist age 16 plays Sonata in G by Sammartini
Giovanni (in English, John) Sammartini was an Italian composer, violinist, choir master, organist and teacher. He lived from 1700 – 1775. While he was alive he was famous both in Italy and abroad, particularly as a church composer, but his music fell out of fashion after his death and was not rediscovered till the early 20th century. He wasn’t the only famous musician in his family - his brother Giuseppe (Joseph) was known as the finest oboe player of his time.
In the opening of this cello piece, you can hear that Sammartini must have been a fine composer for voice – it’s easy to imagine this being sung by a tenor!
Day 2: Toccatina by Kabalevsky
Pianist age 11 plays Toccatina by Kabalevsky
Russian composer Dimitry Kabalevsky lived from 1904 – 1987. His father was a mathematician and wanted him to be one too, but he was drawn very strongly to music. He wrote symphonies, concertos, operas, ballets, chamber works, songs, theatre, film scores, and many popular pieces. During the 1930s, as movies began to have sound, he wrote film music too.
But his biggest contribution to the world of music-making was his music for children. When working as a piano teacher he felt that there wasn’t enough good music for children learning piano. So he set out to write easy music that had appropriate technical challenges for students, but at the same time would be interesting and help develop children’s musical sensitivity. This Toccatina is one of those pieces.
Day 1: "Musette" by Bach
Violinist age 9 plays "Musette" by Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach lived from 1685 to 1750. He was born in what is now Germany, was the youngest of 8 children, and had a thorough musical education from his father, uncles and older brother.
He was a very hardworking musician who lived and worked at the courts of various dukes and princes, where he had to produce new music on a weekly basis for courtly events and chapel services. Not surprisingly, his published works number well over 1000, and it's thought that there were many more which have been lost over time.
His main performing instrument was the organ, but he wrote pieces for many other instruments, including voice. He wrote this Musette originally for harpsichord, a forerunner of the modern-day piano. A "Musette" was actually a kind of bagpipe popular at the time, and Bach was trying to imitate one here - if you listen carefully to the piano accompanying the violin, you may be able to hear the held bass note or "pedal tone", just as you would with a bagpipe.