Term 2, Week 6: The History of Happy BIrthday

 (Intermediate Music Options Groups: Here's the link to the site where you can make up your own tunes.)


Last term and  half of this term, we learnt about the NZ National Anthem,  and what the words mean, one line at a time, in Maori, English and NZ Sign Language.  
Here's a site to help you play chords on guitar or ukulele. 

Quiz: Match one of the words  from the National Anthem below with  one of the coloured words

thy              bonds              entreat              guard             triple   shafts          strife                praises             afar      



unfair treatment             distant         connections            request  

protect         three           your            trouble         congratulations    




This week's National Anthem fact:

 The words of the National Anthem were written by Thomas         Bracken. They were first published in 1876 as a poem  in  a              newspaper.  Thomas Bracken was born in Ireland and moved to        Australia as a young boy before moving to New Zealand as a young man.   





Happy Birthday:

Happy Birthday is a song that is sung to celebrate  the anniversay of a person’s birth.  It is the most recognised song in the English language, according to the Guinness Book of Records.  The song's lyrics have been translated into many languages. The melody comes from the song "Good Morning to All", which is believed to be composed by sisters Patty and Mildred Hill, in Kentucky, USA,  and was first published by them in 1893.  Patty was a kindergarten principal and Mildred was a pianist and a composer.  They used it as a song that young children would find easy to sing.

The first printed version of Happy Birthday was in 1912, but the song probably existed earlier.  Other people have claimed ownership of the lyrics and melody and registered the copyright in 1935. This means that it is actually illegal to perform the song publicly without paying royalties to Warner/Chappell  Music.  

Happy Birthday in the key of F

Here's Happy Birthday in a range of styles. Can you work out what style each one is? 

 Here's another collection of Happy Birthday in a range of orchestral styles.

Here's  someone's version of how they think some of the great composers would have performed Happy Birthday.