Song Cycles

Grade Level: 6th Grade General Music

Description: In this lesson well be exploring the idea of a song cycle. We will discuss why composers
would want to write a song cycle instead of single songs, how they can be organized, and will work on
creating our own son cycles based off of pop-culture songs.

Objectives:

- Students will listen to sections of Vaugh Williams Songs of Travel and Leonard Bernsteins I Hate
Music.
- Students will learn the concept of creating and organizing song cycles
- Students will be able to group songs into their own versions of song cycles

Standards:

4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.

6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.

Materials:
- Recordings of movements for Vaughn Williams song cycle Songs of Travel
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1CECNAt8D8&list=PLu2XYWyc8jSswvKpOdiw7S
bvaTwTuoyHq
- Recordings of movements for Leonard Bernsteins I Hate Music
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g4OMe7gC9o
o Sheet music can be found here -
http://yvanduguay.free.fr/Partitions/leonard%20bernstein%20-
%20song%20album%20%28book%29.pdf
- Lyrics to I Hate Music (Attached)
Prior Knowledge:
- Students will know that composers set poems to music when writing vocal music
- Students will know proper classroom etiquette and small group behavior expectations.
- Students will have done some longer listening examples in the past.

Procedures:
Overview
- Gathering song/activity(1-2 minutes)
- Introduction to song cycles, Vaughn Williams Songs of Travel (15 minutes)
- Introduction/listening to Leonard Bernsteins I Hate Music and dissection of his
poetry/choices (15 minutes)
- Modern Sons put into Cycles (10 minutes)
- Sharing Song Cycle choices (5 minutes)

- Gathering song/activity:
o (This activity assumes students are coming in during a passing time, if not the case an
alternative activity will need to be chosen)
 o Throughout the year students will hear pieces from different periods theyve studied.
Sometimes they will be pieces theyve heard before and will be asked if they remember
the name of the composer/piece. In general the pieces will be generally characteristic of
the time period and will serve as a review of the things that make each period distinct.
o Students will come into the room as the piece is playing and will be asked to think about
the piece and talk with their neighbors about what period the piece may be from.
o As class starts the piece will play for a little bit longer, and the teacher will ask students
what period they believe the piece was from and if anybody knows the piece. The
students will be asked why they think it is from that era based on our observations
about each style period (The main concepts from each period will be listed on the wall).
o This lesson would be taking place around the middle of the year, so I would probably
chose something through the classical period, perhaps something from a song cycle, or a
single aria that contrasts with the concept of a song cycle to segue into the topic
Pieces could include:
Songs from Geistliches Lied by Haydn
Amanti cosanti By Mozart

- Introduction to song cycles, Vaughn Williams Songs of Travel (15 minutes)

o The teacher will introduce the idea of song cycles being a collection of songs that try to
work together to create a theme or develop a character. They can range from anywhere
between a few minutes to sometimes more than an hour.
o The teacher can compare this to how in literature sometimes authors will make a set of
books or short stories that go together, or artists will make sets of works that go
together.
o Were going to work today on dissecting two song cycles, and listening to them. Were
going to start with Vaughn Williams Songs of Travel.
o The teacher should play movements 1, 3, and 8.
o After each movement they should stop and look through the lyrics of each section,
looking up words they dont understand and trying to learn how the poet/composer
develops the character through these movements (quick summaries below):
The vagabond introduces the character, with the piano sounding like marching
as he travels the country side. He doesnt have a home and travels. Vagabond
would be an important word to make sure the students understand.
The roadside fire is the character imagining the love of his life, showing human
side of the character, and how he wants to spend time with his lover and give
them everything
Bright is the ring of words discusses the idea of how everybody will die, even the
singer. They are remembered by the works they leave behind. The beauty of
their works will serve to be how they are remembered and a testament to the
amazing things they have done
o The teacher and students will then discuss the character and how we learned more
about him and his travels through each movement, even though we only heard three.
- Introduction/listening to Leonard Bernsteins I Hate Music and dissection of his
poetry/choices (15 minutes)
o The teacher will not be telling the students about the theme for this set of song cycles,
but rather theyre going to work together to see if they can figure out what some of
these (silly) songs are about and what the character is like, and then they will find out.
 o The class will listen to every movement of the song cycle, stopping after each one to
look at the lyrics and decide what they mean and what it could tell us about the
character. The teacher should keep track of the characters attributes on the white
board. Key points/ideas that students should be guided towards are:
My Name is Barbara
The characters name is Barbara! (Erase characters attribute title,
replace with Barbara)
Its somebody who wants to know where babies are from but isnt
falling for the things he mother tells her.
Her mother is telling her things, so maybe theyre not an adult like in
the last one? Well have to listen.
Jupiter has 9 moons
She likes the idea of having lots of moons, and thinks its unfair we only
have one
She makes exaggerations for emphasis (the number of moons on
Saturn)
She thinks moons are romantic
I hate music
She hates music!?
She likes to sing, but thinks that concerts with all the fancy things arent
fun, but likes to have fun and be silly with her singing. Shes silly!
A Big Indian and a Little Indian
She likes riddles
She likes riddles that adults cant solve! Most adults dont get that one!
Im a person too
She likes a lot of things and likes to tell us what she likes
She wants adults to realize shes a person too with thoughts and
opinions
She wants to know lots of things and thinks most people should
Shes ten!
o The teacher can then help the students to piece together who this character is, and they
can realize how in the beginning they only got a little snapshot of who she was, but at
the end they learned a lot about her!
- Modern Sons put into Cycles (10 minutes)
o The teacher will then give the students the task of creating their own song cycle! They
will break up into small groups and work on the attached worksheet. They will be
creating a character and choosing modern pop tunes or their favorite songs to help
develop the character.
- Sharing Song Cycle choices (5 minutes)
o The teacher will have the students come up to the front and introduce their character
and tell us some of the songs they picked to help us understand them and why they
picked them.
o If they run out of time they can share next time. The teacher will collect the assignments
either way to look at.

Assessment/Evaluation:
The teacher will be able to understand if students are understanding the character development as they
go along, and will also be able to look at the song-cycle work sheets to get a better idea of their
understanding of character development through song.

What will I do with any extra time?

If we have extra time we could work as a group to come up with some songs that fit different traits that
the teacher comes up with such as being brave, and asking students what songs we could pick.

Lyrics to Songs of Travel 1, 3, and 8

I. The Vagabond
a. Give to me the life I love,
Let the lave go by me,
Give the jolly heaven above,
And the byway nigh me.
Bed in the bush with stars to see,
Bread I dip in the river
Theres the life for a man like me,
Theres the life for ever.
b. Let the blow fall soon or late,
Let what will be oer me;
Give the face of earth around,
And the road before me.
Wealth I seek not, hope nor love,
Nor a friend to know me;
All I seek, the heaven above,
And the road below me.
c. Let autumn fall on me
Where afield I linger,
Silencing the bird on tree,
Biting the blue finger.
White as meal the frosty field
Warm the fireside haven
Not to autumn will I yield,
Not to winter even!
d. Let the blow fall soon or late,
Let what will be oer me;
Give the face of earth around,
And the road before me.
Wealth I ask not, hope nor love,
Nor a friend to know me;
All I ask, the heaven above,
And the road below me.

III. The Roadside Fire

I will make you brooches and toys for your delight
Of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night,
I will make a palace fit for you and me
Of green days in forests, and blue days at sea.

I will make my kitchen, and you shall keep your room,

Where white flows the river and bright blows the broom;
And you shall wash your linen and keep your body white
In rainfall at morning and dewfall at night.

And this shall be for music when no one else is near,

The fine song for singing, the rare song to hear!
That only I remember, that only you admire,
Of the broad road that stretches and the roadside fire.

VIII. Bright is the Ring of Words

Bright is the ring of words

When the right man rings them,
Fair the fall of songs
When the singer sings them,
Still they are carolled and said
On wings they are carried
After the singer is dead
And the maker buried.

Low as the singer lies

In the field of heather,
Songs of his fashion bring
The swains together.
And when the west is red
With the sunset embers,
The lover lingers and sings
And the maid remembers.

Lyrics to I Hate Music:

I. My name is Barbara
My mother said that babies come in bottles
But last week she said, they grew on special baby bushes
I don't believe in the storks either
They're all in the zoo, busy with their own babies
And what's a baby bush anyway?
My name is Barbra

II. Jupiter has 9 moons

Jupiter has seven moons
Or is it nine? Saturn has a million, billion, trillion sixty nine!
And everyone is a little sun with six little moons of its own!
But we have only one.
Just thinking of all the fun we'd have if there were nine?
Then we could be just nine more times romantic!
Dogs would bath till they were frantic, We'd have nine tides in the Atlantic!
The man in the moon would be gigantic!
But we have only one!
Only one!

III. I Hate Music

I hate music but I like to sing
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
But that's not music
Not what I call music, no sir

Music is a lot of men and a lot of tails

Making lots of noise like a lot of females
Music is a lot of folks in a big dark hall
Where they really don't want to be at all
With a lot of chairs and a lot of heirs
And a lot of furs and diamonds
Music is silly

I hate music but I like to sing

La, la, la, la, la

IV. A Big Indian and a Little Indian

A big Indian and a little Indian were walking down the street.
The little Indian was the son of the big Indian,
But the big Indian was the not the father of the little Indian.
You see the riddle is,
If the little Indian was the son of the big Indian, But the big Indian was not the father of the little Indian,
Then who was he?
I'll give you two measures.
His mother!

V. Im a Person Too
I just found out today, that Im a person too, like you.
I like balloons; lots of people like balloons,
but everyone says isnt she sweet she likes balloons.
Im a person too, like you.
I like things that everyone likes.
I like soft things and movies and horses and warm things and red things.
Dont you!
I have lots of thoughts. Like whats behind the sky;
And whats behind whats behind the sky.
But everyone says isnt she cute, she wants to know everything.
Dont you!
Of course, Im very young to be saying all these things,
in front of so many people, like you.
But Im a person too, though Im only ten years old.
Im a person too, like you.
 Design a Song Cycle!
Names:___________________________________________
Directions: In this activity you are going to design a song cycle in which you develop the story or
emotions of a character by grouping multiple songs together Instead of finding poems or writing your
own music you are going to use the radio and your iPods as your inspiration! You can pick any of your
favorite songs to help advance your character. Work as a group to create a well-rounded character, and
maybe even create a bit of a story! Try to come up with at least 5 songs, and list the reasons why you
picked that song. Finally, make a list of traits and qualities that your character has in the top box, or
update it as you go along!
Character Characters Traits:
Name:

Song #1 Why did you pick this song?

Name:

Song #2 Why did you pick this song?

Name:

Song #3 Why did you pick this song?

Name:

Song #4 Why did you pick this song?

Name:

Song #5 Why did you pick this song?

Name: