Tiny Tots: Music of the World Activity Packet

TINY TOTS MUSIC OF THE WORLD WINTER 2020 ACTIVITY PACKET

Hi! Hei! Konnichiwa! Hola!

We’re so excited to travel the world of music with you and the child(ren) in your life at Tiny Tots: Music of the World this year. This program is going to take you on a wonderful adventure. You’ll hear music from over 12 different countries on 6 continents, watch and listen to 5 guest artists and organizations that will be featured with our orchestra, learn how to thank performers in 4 different languages, and more.

This activity packet will help you explore the music you’ll be hearing as well as the countries and parts of the world we’re going to visit throughout our program. It is a great learning tool for before and after the concert.

Here’s some handy information to help you get the most out of this packet: • The title of each piece links to a YouTube video. For most of these pieces, at the concert you’ll hear brand new versions that have been arranged specifically for our orchestra and performers by our conductor Dan Leavitt. These YouTube videos will help you get a feel for the music but aren’t identical to what you will hear at Tiny Tots.

• At the Concert: this section will tell you a bit more about the piece of music. It may inspire you to dig further into its history or include facts you may want to share with your kids as you listen. It also tells you how the music will be presented at Tiny Tots.

• At Home: This section includes activities to bring the music or its country of origin alive at home. Listen to the music as you complete some of the activities to make it an immersive experience.

We’re looking forward to going on a musical adventure with you.

Best,

Sara Hare

Tarantella Napoletana At the Concert A tarantella is an upbeat folk dance that originated in Naples and the Southern region of Italy. The name tarantella is actually inspired by the tarantula. The tarantula spider is very common in this region on Italy and the folklore says that the dance wards off spider bites or help victims after they’ve been bit. Listen during this upbeat introduction to the concert.

At Home Before each piece of music, we’ll show the audience where on our planet the music comes from. For some kids, this may be the first time they’re learning about the Earth in a physical way using a globe. Help introduce the concept of place before the concert (or explore it further after the concert) by using this big list of activities that will get children exploring maps and places, near and far. And if you have a globe at home, we think this activity is a great way for kids to get hands-on in their exploration.

Fanga Alafia At the Concert Fanga, sometimes spelled as Funga, is a traditional welcoming dance from West African countries. The song Fanga Alafia is based on traditional Fanga song and dance and the version you’ll hear today is often a call and response piece. It uses words from the Yoruba and Vai languages including fanga: drum, alafia: welcome, and ashe: so be it. Dancers and drummers from Cleo Parker Robinson Dance will join us for this piece.

At Home Percussion instruments (drums, maracas, tambourines – anything you hit or shake to make a sound) are great first instruments for young children. As caretakers of young kids know, they tend to turn everything and anything into a percussion instrument! Explore that natural curiosity with them. Give them a variety of “instruments” they can bang and show them different ways to make noise with the instruments. Listen to and talk about how each object sounds different from the others. Try making both loud and soft sounds on each instrument. Play a pattern for your little one and have them repeat it back to you. The possibilities are endless!

The Irish Washerwoman, Irish Suite- Leroy Anderson At the Concert Leroy Anderson’s Irish Suite was commissioned by the Boston Pops Orchestra in 1947 and he composed most of the work in just 11 days. Each movement of the six-movement suite features a different traditional Irish tune.

The Irish Washerwoman is the first movement of the suite. It’s a lively jig that originated in the British Isles and is now well-known across the world. Bounce up and down in time with this fun piece.

At Home This piece is an Irish Jig. A jig is a lively dance – watch these dancers do and Irish Washerwoman's Jig. After listening to the piece, invite your kids to dance their own jigs. Or have them make these irish dancing finger puppets – these finger puppets are great fun to bring along to help keep your kids entertained- they can even use them to “dance” in the car or at the grocery store where you might need them to sit still.

Early in the Mornin – Louis Jordan At the Concert Early in the Morning is a blues tune. The blues is a genre and form of music that originated in the deep south in the late 1800s, based on African music and spirituals and African-American songs. Blues music uses a specific chord progression that is instantly recognizable (and playable) by all jazz musicians. This piece was written in 1947 and uses Afro-Cuban percussion. Pretend to play your violin as we are joined by our orchestra’s own award-winning blues musician, Lionel Young. His band is the first ever double chamption of the International Blues Challenge.

At Home Have fun with the blues when you watch B.B. King singing One Shoe Blues, the perfect silly blues song for kids. Talk with them about how when you sing the blues, you sing about things that are making you unhappy or bothering you, like when BB King couldn’t find his shoe. You can go even further, and have them make up their own blues song using this music in the background.

Waltzing Matilda At the Concert Waltzing Matilda is so important and well-known to the people of Australia that it’s often referred to as their unofficial national anthem. It tells the story of a wandering worker in the Australian bush. It was written around 1900 and first recorded in 1926. Many of the words may be unfamiliar to US audiences even though the song is in English, but they are important parts of Australian culture: swagman, billabong, a billy, tucker bag, and more!

Pack up your tucker bag and get ready to explore the outback during this piece.

At Home When we think of music from Australia, one of the first things that comes to mind is the didgeridoo. Watch this impressive video of didgeridoo playing (he plays for 3.5 minutes straight without stopping!) and then take some time to make your own didgeridoos.

Alma Llanera – Pedro Elias Gutierrez and Rafael Bolivar Coronado At the Concert Alma Llanera means “Soul of the Plains” and is a song about the beautiful landscape of Venezuela. It is a joropo, which is a traditional musical style from Venezuela and also the country’s national dance. It was composed in 1914, and similar to Waltzing Matilda for Australia, it is considered to be Venezuela’s unofficial national anthem.

It’s tradition to end any social reunion or party by singing or playing it. We’ll welcome Raquel Garcia to sing this piece with our orchestra.

At Home Learn more about Venezuela and its music in this video featuring a string quartet playing joropo music.

Then watch joropo dance: here's a video of amazing 3 year olds performing the dance as well as a group of professionals.

In the Hall of the Mountain King – Edvard Grieg At the Concert Edward Grieg is perhaps the best-known composer from Norway and much of his music uses traditional Norwegian folk songs. Peer Gynt is based off a well-known and important Norwegian story and the piece was immediately successful when in premiered. In In the Hall of the Mountain King, you can hear Peer as he tries to escape from the scary mountain troll king. He gets away, but only because the troll king ultimately decides to let him go. Help Peer escape by running in place as the music plays.

At Home In the Hall of the Mountain King is such a fun piece of music for children. In fact, many kids know it already thanks to its use in popular movies. Because this is a piece of music that was meant to tell a story, it offers a great opportunity for kids to connect and engage with the music. Have your child(ren) act out the story of Peer Gynt as they listen to this piece - read the second page of this document to see how the story unfolds in the music. Take turns being Peer or the troll king as you run and jump to freedom along with the music. We particularly love the creative "line rider" video we've linked here that was made just for this piece.

Kahe Chede At the Concert This song is from a 2002 Bollywood movie. Deepali Lindblom of Roshini dance will be performing a Kathak dance on this music. Kathak is a traditional Indian classical dance that tells a story. Dancers of this style tell stories through their hand movements and footwork as well as their facial expressions. Watch as Deepali joins us to tell the story through her dance.

At Home This piece offers another opportunity for physical storytelling. It is right around age 3-5 that children are learning the concept and order of time. Foster this learning by creating a short story or narrative with your children. We suggest a short, 3-sentence story using important benchmark words like “First…Next…Last.” After you have created your story, make up a dance to go along with it. Encourage your child(ren) to be creative with their movements. What emotions might they be feeling and how would they show them using their body. How would they change their dance if you changed part of the story?

Slavonic March – Pyotr Illych Tchaikovsky At the Concert Slavonic March is a tone poem composed in 1876. A tone poem is a piece of music, usually one long movement, that illustrates a poem, story, painting, or other non-musical source. The music is intended to inspire listeners to imagine scenes, images, or moods.

At Home Matryoshka dolls, also known as stacking or nesting dolls, are beautiful works of art that come from this part of the world. They’re also a great tool to teach children about size and size order. Use this printout illustration of nesting dolls. Have your little one(s) color them and cut them out. Arrange them by size, stack them in size order, and have the find the biggest or the smallest of the set.

Shojoji - Ujō Noguchi At the Concert Shojoji is a Japanese nursery rhyme about a hungry racoon-dog, called a tanuki. In the song, the tanuki taps on it’s belly like a drum. This piece will feature the Japanese Taiko drum. Though in Japan, taiko refers to any kind of drum, outside of Japan they usually refer to a type of drum called wadaiko. We’ll be joined by Margaret Ozaki Graves on the taiko drum for this piece.

At Home Fill up those hungry racoon-dog bellies with this easy rainbow vegetable sushi. Bring your kids into the kitchen to help out – they can pour the rice and water in to cook, chop the veggies, or roll the sushi. They’ll get to work on motor skills and be rewarded with a yummy (and healthy!) treat at the end.

Zorba's Dance - Mikis Theodorakis At the Concert This piece was written for a 1964 movie and even though it is a somewhat modern piece, it has become a part of Greek culture and tradition. Listeners often dance a sirtaki dance along to this piece. Sirtaki is danced in a line or circle formation where your hands hold on to your neighbor’s shoulders. Let’s use move our arms faster and faster to show the changing tempo of the music.

At Home Zorba’s Dance is a piece of music that plays with tempo in a really fun way- the piece starts slow and gets faster and faster. Tempo, or the speed of music, is a fun musical quality for even the youngest children to experiment with and enjoy. Check out these tempo exploration activities with your kiddo(s) as a place to start. These activities use a metronome to help keep a steady beat but if you don’t have one at home, there are a lot of great ones online.

Un Poco Loco – Germaine Franco and Adrian Molina At the Concert Un Poco Loco, from the movie Coco, is a piece of music in the mariachi style. Mariachi dates to at least the 1700s and evolved in the countryside in parts of western Mexico. The common look and sound of Mariachi developed when it was introduced to Mexico City in the early 1900s and moved out of the rural-only setting. It usually is performed by a small ensemble of mostly string instruments including types of guitars and violins as well as the trumpet and singers. Singer Raquel Garcia will join us again for this piece.

At Home Some of the most common instruments used in Mariachi music are types of guitars – two of the most common are the vihuela and the guitarron. Check out this neat video to see them both in action – the guitarron is the largest of the two. You can make your own guitar at home using one of these ten DIY guitar tutorials for kids. Some make noise, some are just for looks, but all of them will surely be fun for your kid(s)!

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