2015 Term 1 Week 8: Hot Cross Buns

This week we are going over many of the songs we have learned last year and this year. We will also be working on rhythm and notation. 

And, because it's nearly Easter, we'll be singing an Easter song ...

Here's an action song of Hot Cross Buns - using hot cross buns!
Here's another  action song of Hot Cross Buns with a different tune. 

Interesting fact: In the time of Elizabeth 1 (late 1500s) a decree ( like a law) was issued forbidding the sale of hot cross buns or any other spiced bread except at burials, Good Friday and Christmas.  The punishment for doing so meant the bread or buns was confiscated and given to the poor.

 

 Easter is as good a time as any to do the Chicken Dance. 

And to learn the Bunny Hop. This is a video clip from a 1953 tv programme (so the quality is not that great) but you can see some very clever dancers doing the Bunny Hop. We are not expected to do cartwheels and flip people in our version...
Here's the Bunny Hop at Disneyland. 
And here's the music from the Disney version of the Bunny Hop that you can use to practise by yourself. 

Footloose (for Miss Delaney's class)  

 ------oOo------

Watch the video below. It is part of a longer performance called "The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace" by a Welsh composer called Karl Jenkins. It was commissioned by the Royal Armouries Museum for the Millennium celebrations and was dedicated to victims of the recent war in Kosovo. 

It was first performed at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on 25th April 2000.

This piece is called "Charge!" and the words are from a very old poem. (You will hear some of the lines and words are repeated in the song.)

The trumpets' loud clangor excites us to arms,
With shrill notes of anger and mortal alarms.

How blest is he who for his country dies,

The double, double beat of the thundering drum cries Hark! the foes come,
Charge, 'tis too late, too late to retreat

How blest is he who for his country dies,

The double, double beat of the thundering drum cries Hark!the foes come,
cries Hark! the foes come.
Charge, 'tis too late, too late to retreat.
Charge!

Here are some questions to think about as you watch the performance and listen to the music:

• What are the two sections of the orchestra which feature most prominently in this piece? 
• What instruments can you name? 
• How many different ways can you see or hear drums being played? 
• What kind of battle do you think the music represents?
• How does Karl Jenkins create the effect of a battle?  
• How do the voices add effect to the music? 
• Do you like this piece of music? Why or why not? 

Notice the poster to the right of this post - it is an advertisement for a performance of The Armed Man  on Saturday 2 May at 7.30 pm; Sunday 3 May at 2:30 pm, and Monday 4 May at 7.30 pm, at the Hawkins Theatre in Papakura.    Tickets are available from Guys Pharmacy; Hawkins Theatre;  choir  members - including Mrs Lee and Mrs Vincent; or online at Eventfinda; 

Here's a version of the complete performance of The Armed Man.