Music:
1.5 Artistic Perception
2.3 Creative Expression
3.1, 3.2, 3.3 Historical and Cultural Context 4.3 Aesthetic Valuing
Play students the music for “Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience” sung by Natalie Merchant.
Experience #1:
Have students close their eyes and listen to a selected soundtrack of ocean waves.
Ask the students to describe the sounds of the ocean. Create a class list of these descriptive words.
Provide students with an opportunity to write similes and metaphors to describe the ocean sounds using one or more of the descriptive words on the class list.Person B accepts that “gift” and tries to guess based on the actions what object person A has given them.
Engage students in a discussion to describe the relationship between the senses – sight and sound.Engage students in a discussion to make a connection between the gifts given and received in the theatre activity and the gifts that the boy wanted in the poem.
Have students summarize how the sounds of the ocean relate to the music sung by Merchant, the poem, and the illustration.
Experience #2:
Have students listen to the music sung by Merchant.
Create a list of the instruments used in the music.
Create a chart to align the instruments used in the music with descriptive language and visual images stimulated by the music. NOTE – There is no “right” answer. Students are just describing what they think they hear and how it makes them feel.
Students write their parallel stories as a group. The only words that are to be spoken are from the narrator. The actors are putting actions (without words) to what the narrator is saying.
Each group presents their parallel story to the rest of the class.
After each group has presented, engage the students in a discussion to describe how watching the skits has enhanced or altered our interpretation of the poem.
Instrument
Images it Evokes
Flutes
The flutes sound like the wind that pushes the sails of the ships as they move across the ocean.
Provide students with a variety of materials – cups, beans, popcorn kernels, plates, etc.
Provide students an opportunity to create their own “instrument” out of the materials.
Play the music sung by Natalie Merchant. Allow students to “shake” or “play” their instruments to compliment the instruments used by Merchant in the original music.
Experience #3:
Have students listen to the music sung by Natalie Merchant.
Introduce students to the term “jig.”
Provide students with some form of research as background information on the jig.
A jig is a Celtic dance that takes its name from the type of music to which it is danced, also called a ‘jig.’ The music takes its name from the French word ‘gigue,’ which is an older word for a fiddle. Therefore, an Irish jig is done to jig fiddle music, specifically, Celtic fiddle music. There are also American and Scottish variants of jig music, but the most well known of the jigs is the Irish jig.
· An Irish jig is done to jig fiddle music, which often has a beat
of 6/8. There are other beats that are still considered to be jigs
as well; however, the most common jig music/dance is one of a 6/8 beat. A jig is danced with a lot of hopping, making it into a joyful dance; jigs are often danced at weddings and other types of celebrations.
A traditional Irish jig is a series of hops and steps that repeat themselves over and over again. The steps are very simple, either stepping forward or taking steps backwards, but the hops can require some practice in getting the timing and coordination right. The beat is fast, so you’ll want to make small steps and hops at first in order to maximize your chances of getting in all the steps on the beat of the music.
Provide an opportunity for students to listen to jigs from various cultures and to learn the basic steps of the jig.
Introduce students to the rhyming pattern found in the poem (ABCB).
Engage students in a discussion to compare the rhyming pattern found in the written text of the poem with the beat of a jig and the poem sung to music.
Notes to Teacher
It is important to recognize that the type of genre that Natalie Merchant uses as the music for this poem may not be familiar
to students. Teachers need to help students listen for various purposes rather than just discussing whether they like it or not.
A major component of this section of the lesson is the idea that students will listen for meaning. Students do not need
to be familiar with the genre of music in order to listen carefully to the nuances of the piece and its relationship to the poem.
Developing an appreciation for music that is related to cultures other than their own is an essential outcome of this lesson.
