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

tap into their fullest potential. Most importantly, we agreed Writing for the Bees was such a joy! I felt honored to
that the project would be a collaboration between each other write music that created a sophisticated choral performance
and the singers. Including your young singers in the compo- opportunity for our youngest singers. The text that TGC
sition process can be daunting, but if we position ourselves created for this piece was full of vivid, tactile imagery that
as facilitators and allow our students to have a voice, truly lent itself beautifully to being set to music. I chose to take
beautiful things can emerge. each of these haikus and turn them into “mini-movements”
The first step was settling on a topic. Start with what you of about one minute each. Short sections with quick transi-
know! For the Bees, we decided to write about something tions and lots of variety keeps these young singers engaged
unique to our home in Southern Arizona: the monsoon. in the piece, especially when these sections combine into a
Each summer, it is scorching hot for a couple months and continuous narrative. They can be storytellers in addition to
then this glorious series of storms rolls in and gives us rain, performers, which is a lot of fun for the choir.
cooler weather, and familiar scents of the earth. I put much consideration into writing the vocal parts.
Having the singers write or contribute to the text is an I wanted the sound of this piece to be something that was
accessible and powerful way to involve them in the process. more elevated than typical songs for five- and six-year-old
After spending some time talking about the monsoon and singers. At the same time, however, I wanted to be sure that
some of the ways it looks, sounds, smells, and feels, we asked they could feel successful while performing, and avoid ask-
the singers to write a haiku about the monsoon with the help ing them to do things that were not developmentally appro-
of their parents. We opened this portion up to all K-8 TGC priate. I placed the vocal lines in a limited range that provid-
singers. This was for both the practical reason of gathering ed many opportunities to access their head voice. Melodies
many options from students of various language skills and for make frequent use of descending minor thirds, borrowing
the social/emotional aspect of collaborating across choirs. from the most common interval used in children’s songs.
Matt and I worked together to combine the haikus into what The rhythmic writing is kept mostly to quarter and eighth
would become the song lyrics. Instead of using full haikus notes, which was designed to be both age appropriate and
from one singer, we pieced lines together into 3 sections: be- provide opportunities to introduce these rhythmic elements
fore, during, and after the storm. Once the lyrics were final- to the singers.
ized, Matt began composing the music. Within these guidelines, there is still plenty of high-level
music making to be had! This piece is full of dynamic con-
I trast, varied articulations, tempo changes, and unvoiced
streets baked like clay pots Elsa, Ladybug (2nd grade) sound effects to sound like the monsoon winds and rains. As
thunder is like distant drums Amelia, Bumblebee (1st grade) opposed to simple block chords that one might expect from
clouds build humid hot Waimea, Bumblebee (1st grade) music for beginning choirs, the piano and percussion ac-
companiment adds layers of complexity that does not take
II away from the vocal line. It complements and challenges
dark skies, whipping wind Chloe, Ladybug (3rd grade) the singers while painting the imagery of the text.
lightning flash, crackling thunder It was also important to me to use this piece as an intro-
slashing monsoon rains duction to part singing. Kids can sing in parts at this early
age, and they were excited to use these techniques to further
III paint images from the text; the clouds building on the ho-
watching through windows Elsa, Ladybug (2nd grade) rizon, lightning flashing in the distance, the flurry of mon-
as it rains on thirsty soil Amelia, Mariposa (7th grade) soon rains coming at the audience from all angles. These
now we have rivers Elsa, Ladybug (2nd grade) moments of part singing are always first introduced as a
unison motive, which is then repeated in two parts shortly
afterwards. Starting with unison and immediately building
to parts is an excellent way to introduce more advanced
In the spirit of collaboration, I’m thrilled to include Matt’s choral skills to our youngest singers. See Figure 1 for an
insight on his compositional process: example of a unison motive developing into a two-part tex-
ture. See Figure 2 for an example of a simple echo that

ChorTeach Volume 15 • Issue 1 20 Fall 2022