2018, Term 4, Week 1 - Classical Cartoons and Countdown to Christmas

It might be a bit early to start thinking about Christmas, but some classes  only have a half-term block of music, so we will need to cover our Christmas music in the first half term for them. This term we will cover music from several festivals including Christmas, Diwali, Halloween and All Souls' Day  and Day of the Dead, and Pacific Islands music. 

Let's get started with some of the dances for the term: 

Halloween: 
Banana Boat Song by Harry Belafonte 
Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)" was usually classified as an example of calypso music from Jamaica.   It's a work song   about the dock workers working the night shift loading bananas onto ships. Daylight has come, the shift is over, and they want their work to be counted up so that they can go home  The song has nothing to do with Halloween and the dance routine is probably a reference to the movie Beetlejuice, but the skeletons just gave it a bit of a Halloween context. 

Calling All Monsters - Just Dance Disney 

Ghost in the Keys  (Choose your character) 

I will Survive 

The Monster Mash 

The Monster Shuffle - especially for the juniors 

This is Halloween from the Nightmare Before Christmas 

Christmas: 

Oh Christmas Tree (Bollywood Version) 

Crazy Christmas Dance (medley) 

Jingle Bells  (Juniors) Technically not a Christmas song (notice the absence of the word "Christmas"  anywhere in the song) but rather a song written for the American Thanksgiving Celebrations. 
Jingle Bells (Seniors) A mash up of several other dance videos (you'll recognise "Limbo").
All I want for Christmas is You   A Zumba workout. 
It's Christmas Time   Follow along with these girls as they sing and dance a new Christmas song with easy-to-follow dance moves. 
Jingle Bell Rock (Juniors) A NZ video with semi-animated dancers. You may want to adapt the part where they run around the tree and then fall on the ground . . . 

Christmas Songs for Juniors: 
I'm a little Star   from Love to Sing (Note the New Zealand accents!) 
He has a Red Red Coat from Love to Sing 
When Santa got Stuck up the Chimney  from Love to Sing 
Five Mince pies  from Love to Sing 


fleaBITE has a new song out. It's called Probably Papakura.  Listen for the local place names in the song.  

This term we are also learning about some of the most famous classical music which has been used in cartoons. 

Cat Concerto - Tom and Jerry 
This cartoon is considered one of the best Tom and Jerry cartoons ever. It won the 1946 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons. In 1994 it was voted #42 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.

In this cartoon, Tom, the cat, is a famous concert pianist playing Hungarian Rhapsody Number 2 in C# Minor by Franz Liszt.  Watch what happens when Jerry, the mouse, gets involved. 

Vocabulary: 
rhapsody - a one-movement piece of instrumental piece of music with several contrasts of tempo and mood
movement - one section of a longer piece of classical music. Longer pieces of classical music are often broken up into different sections - called movements. Often there is a different tempo and mood to each movement. Audiences are not supposed to applaud between movements, but wait until the very end when the conductor puts down his baton and bows.
tempo - the speed a piece of music is played. There can be many changes of tempo in a single piece of music.
applaud - to clap. Applause means clapping.
concerto - from the Italian language meaning 'agreeing' or 'playing together'. A concerto is a piece of music played by a solo instrument with an orchestra. (A piano is the solo instrument in the Tom and Jerry cartoon. We don't get to see the orchestra but we hear them.)

Look 

- at what a grand piano looks like on the inside and outside 

- at where the high notes and low notes are played.

- at how the pianist arrives on stage and prepares for the performance

- at how a performer finishes a performance 

Listen: 

- for the orchestra warming up and practising before the concert starts

- for the conductor to tap his baton to let the orchestra know it's time to begin

- to changes in tempo (speed)

- for high notes and low notes 

- for soft /quiet sounds (piano / pianissimo) and loud /strong sounds (forte / fortissimo) 

                                           

Here's what Franz Liszt wrote and what the piano player had to read and follow. 
 Although it looks (and is!) very difficult, there will be some things that you can recognise about the music.   What notes and symbols can you recognise and name?
 
Watch this sixteen-year-old girl play Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody Number two along with the cartoon  and exactly as it is played in the cartoon.   

Have a look at this version of the original with a visual guide to show you the patterns  of the music as it is played.  You ill notice that it's a bit different from the Tom and Jerry version which was adapted to help tell the story.