Muc313 - Spring 2020 - Remote Instruction Period - everything is really and truly fine and normal

Project 3: Modal Nursery Song Composition

For this short composition assignment, you are to compose a short, nursery rhyme/children’s song.

Requirements:
● Your nursery rhyme should be in a diatonic mode other than Ionian or Aeolian. (Hybrid
modes like Lydian-Mixolydian are fair game.)
● You may not just switch the mode of an existing nursery rhyme.
● It should be comparable in length to traditional nursery songs: one verse of “Mary Had a
Little Lamb” at the short end, “Three Blind Mice” at the long end.
● It should have lyrics, but the good news is they can be about literally anything: a list of things
(“Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”), the futility of work in the face of nature (“The Itsy
Bitsy Spider”), or even: nothing (“Pop Goes the Weasel” - what is that song even about?).

Some sample nursery songs:

Ring Around the Rosy Row, Row, Row Your Boat
I’m a Little Teapot Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes Frère Jacques
Old MacDonald Pop Goes the Weasel
The Itsy Bitsy Spider The Wheels on the Bus
Three Blind Mice London Bridge
How to submit it:
● Submit your project via Blackboard.
● You can submit your composition in one of two formats:
○ As notation: either with notation software (as a PDF please) or as a black-and-white
scan (or picture, if need be) of neatly written hand-notation.
○ As an audio file of at least you singing it (see bonus option below); I am not
interested in the audio created by notation programs. Your recording could be
created with the voice memo on your phone - nothing fancy required.

Some additional options:

● If you choose, you could write something that is adaptable to multiple verses (like “Old
MacDonald”) or something that functions as a round (like “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”).
● Bonus points: In the interest of promoting communal music-making during this time of
increasing social isolation, I’m offering bonus points if you submit an audio recording of you
singing your nursery rhyme with a family member or a friend. It 100% counts to record it
over the phone/FaceTime/Zoom/etc.

Any questions? Please post them in the Blackboard discussion board.