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Repertoire & Resources - Children's Choirs

esthetic motions that can be used perform outside of the English lan- Once an ensemble is ready to
by the conductor or singers to help guage. Memorization of sounds perform fully in a foreign language,
with learning the text. Katherine rather than meaning is an essen- conductors should attempt to fi nd
Ruhle’s A Barnyard Lullaby exempli- tial part to singing in a non-native literature that has a short and re-

fies this. The genre itself, a lullaby, language. Young children are often petitive text. A foreign language
is comprehendible to young singers, singing and making up songs in a piece, no matter the diffi culty of

an underrated benefit. The text de- made-up language from a very ear- the language, that repeats a small
5
scribes a variety of animals falling ly age. This “music babble” lends amount of text numerous times will
asleep at a farm and the singers also itself to choral repertoire when the be easier for a less advanced group
get to perform animal sounds that piece contains nonsense syllables as to perform. 7
correlate to the diff erent charac- text. 6 Cangoma is a traditional Brazilian
ters. Movement to accompany the Integrating English and a for- piece in Portuguese. Though Por-
piece would be easy to teach and eign language can be another help- tuguese can be an intimidating lan-
may help students remember the ful step into building comfort with guage to English speakers, Cangoma
text. The motions could easily be performing foreign text. Whether is highly repetitive and allows sing-
chosen by students themselves. The there is non-English text in the cho- ers to easily develop a comfort with
easy to understand story, enjoyable ruses alone or the verses switch be- the text. Composed in a circle sing
animal sound effects, and the sup- tween two languages, as seen with style, with the voices building from

portive arrangement all make A Andrea Ramsey’s Puer Natus Est, this unison all the way to three-part,
Barnyard Lullaby an excellent choice type of work can be less daunting this arrangement would be easy to
for young elementary-aged ensem- to an ensemble not used to singing teach by rote in a call-and-response
bles (Figure 9). in a foreign language. Puer Natus form. Singers will be challenged by
Delving into foreign language Est is based on a sixteenth-century the tied and syncopated tradition-
pieces brings another set of fun plainchant and the text alternates al rhythms, but the repetition of
challenges. Foreign languages or between Latin and English. Puer rhythmic patterns similarly allows
songs with nonsense words should Natus Est features handbells and an for singers to be comfortable with
be introduced early on to normal- optional second vocal part, allow- the style easily. This spirited folk
ize the process. Nonsense syllables ing for much performance fl exibil- song arrangement features option-
are a fun option when looking to ity (Figure 10 on page 65). al percussion accompaniment and

64 CHORAL JOURNAL June/July 2021 Volume 61 Number 11