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CHORTEACH
Lifting Up the Littles: Highlighting your Youngest Singers Through Commissioned Works, Effective Rehearsal, Performance Opportunities, and Student Composition

ARTICLE

Matt and I worked together to combine the haikus into a limited range that provided many opportunities to
what would become the song lyrics. Instead of using full access their head voice. Melodies make frequent use
haikus from one singer, we pieced lines together into 3 of descending minor thirds, borrowing from the most
sections: before, during, and after the storm. Once the common interval used in children’s songs. The rhyth-
lyrics were finalized, Matt began composing the music. mic writing is kept mostly to quarter and eighth notes,
which was designed to be both age appropriate and
I provide opportunities to introduce these rhythmic ele-
streets baked like clay pots Elsa, Ladybug (2nd grade) ments to the singers.
thunder is like distant drums Amelia, Bumblebee (1st grade) Within these guidelines, there is still plenty of
clouds build humid hot Waimea, Bumblebee (1st grade) high-level music making to be had! This piece is full of
dynamic contrast, varied articulations, tempo changes,
II and unvoiced sound effects to sound like the monsoon
dark skies, whipping wind Chloe, Ladybug (3rd grade) winds and rains. As opposed to simple block chords
lightning flash, crackling thunder that one might expect from music for beginning choirs,
slashing monsoon rains the piano and percussion accompaniment adds layers
of complexity that does not take away from the vocal
III line. It complements and challenges the singers while
watching through windows Elsa, Ladybug (2nd grade) painting the imagery of the text.
as it rains on thirsty soil Amelia, Mariposa (7th grade) It was also important to me to use this piece as an in-
now we have rivers Elsa, Ladybug (2nd grade) troduction to part singing. Kids can sing in parts at this
early age, and they were excited to use these techniques
to further paint images from the text; the clouds build-
ing on the horizon, lightning flashing in the distance,
In the spirit of collaboration, I’m thrilled to include the flurry of monsoon rains coming at the audience
Matt’s insight on his compositional process: from all angles. These moments of part singing are al-
ways first introduced as a unison motive, which is then
Writing for the Bees was such a joy! I felt honored to repeated in two parts shortly afterwards. Starting with
write music that created a sophisticated choral perfor- unison and immediately building to parts is an excel-
mance opportunity for our youngest singers. The text lent way to introduce more advanced choral skills to
that TGC created for this piece was full of vivid, tactile our youngest singers. See Figure 1 on the next page
imagery that lent itself beautifully to being set to music. for an example of a unison motive developing into a
I chose to take each of these haikus and turn them into two-part texture. Figure 2 on page 35 is an example of
“mini-movements” of about one minute each. Short a simple echo that creates a three-part harmony (the
sections with quick transitions and lots of variety keeps Bumblebees omitted the G-sharp; the open fifth was
these young singers engaged in the piece, especially enough of a challenge for this group).
when these sections combine into a continuous narra-
tive. They can be storytellers in addition to performers,
which is a lot of fun for the choir. So now you are ready to commission a piece for your
I put much consideration into writing the vocal parts. elementary group! As you work with the composer, you
I wanted the sound of this piece to be something that can specify or have conversations about the following:
was more elevated than typical songs for five- and six-
year-old singers. At the same time, however, I wanted • Vocal range
to be sure that they could feel successful while perform-
ing, and avoid asking them to do things that were not • Voicing strategies for successful two- or three-part
developmentally appropriate. I placed the vocal lines in singing

CHORAL JOURNAL November/December 2025 Volume 66 Number 4 33