Mary Yong

Historical and Cultural Lesson Planning Project

Dr Gerrity: MUSE 293

Historical aspects of Song/Artists

For this assignment I chose the song ​I Will Always Love You​ written by Dolly Parton and

later covered by Whitney Houston. In this brief essay I will give a background of Dolly Parton,

Whitney Houston, and the song ​I Will Always Love You​.

Dolly Parton was born in Tennessee on January 19, 1946. She was one of 12 children and

grew up in a very small farmhouse. Her success came when she was discovered by Porter

Wagoner, who loved her voice and decided to put her on his show, The ​Porter Wagoner Show.

Later, Parton went on her own way and began her career as a solo artist in 1974. Some of her

greatest hits include, ​9 to 5, All I Can Do, Joshua, a​ nd​ Jolene.​ She is significant because she

opened up the doors for other female country artists and became an icon for many.

Whitney Houston was born in New Jersey on August 9, 1963. She grew up in the church

and sang mostly gospel style music. Houston was discovered at age 19 in a Night Club by ​Arista

Records' Clive Davis. She went on television for the first time in 1983 on The Merv Griffin

Show where she sang ​Home f​ rom the musical ​The Wiz. I​ n 1985 she released her first album.

Some of her greatest hits include ​I Wanna Dance with Somebody,​ ​I Look to You, How Will I

Know, a​ nd ​I Have Nothing. ​Whitney Houston is significant because she helped to remove racist

views towards black female artists and helped mold what pop music is today.

While the song ​I Will Always Love You​ seems to be about a romantic break up it was

actually about her professional one with Porter Wagner. When Parton was planning on leaving

The Porter Wagoner Show it was hard on Wagoner who did not want to see her go. It created a
lot of tension between them and Parton, out of a lot of deep emotion, went home and wrote, ​I

Will Always Love You.​ She then performed the song to Wagoner who cried with her,

understanding better that it was time for Parton to go on her own way. The song was able to tell

Wagoner how much Parton loved and appreciated him dearly, and always will, despite her

leaving to start her own solo career.

Citations:

https://www.biography.com/musician/whitney-houston

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dolly-Parton

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/a30570197/dolly-parton-i-will-always-love-you-lyrics-mea

ning/

Venn Diagram (Table)

Dolly Parton Similarities Whitney Houston

Starts off with instruments Starts off acapella

Recitative, with a little Lots of runs, and moving

moving to head voice from from chest, belt, and head
soft chest voice

About 3 minutes 4 and half minutes

Climax of repeating the vocal Huge vocal climax repeating

line by speaking it chorus and belting out

Emotional ballads

Repetition of “I Will Always

Love You”

Message of a final goodbye

of a good love/friend
 Letter To Friend

Dear Julz,

Hello! I hope you are doing well! I write to you regarding a lesson plan I am creating for
my middle school general music class. We currently just finished our unit on all things rhythm
and am now moving towards teaching about ​tempo​ and ​tempo markings​. The kids know the
basics and I wanted to find a fun way to teach them more complex terminology through a song
they like. I want to mainly focus on an ​Andante ​tempo marking, since it is basically in the
middle of the most common Italian tempo markings​, ​and thought it would be a great place to
start. All of the tempo markings we will be going over with this unit are as follows: ​Grave,
Lento, Largo, Adagio, Adagietto, Andante, Moderato, Allegretto, Allegro, Vivace, Presto​,
and ​Prestissimo​. Recently, they have been going around the hallways belting out Whitney
Houston’s ​I Will Always Love You. ​This year I have a pretty goofy, outgoing class, and they are
obsessed with singing the big climax in the song. Due to this, I figured this song would be
perfect to use in the lesson in order to keep their interest.
Now, here is where my mind was blown. I began doing research on the song and came to
realize that it is not Whitney Houston’s song, it was actually written by Dolly Parton! This came
as a shock to me because you only ever hear people perform Houston’s version. This discovery
put me in a predicament and I didn’t know which song to use for the lesson. Of course, using
Houston’s would excite the kids, but I feel like I’m losing an opportunity to educate them on
who actually wrote the song they enjoy singing. So I have decided to use Houston’s version as
the main song for the lesson but begin the class by playing Parton’s version, just to see the kids
reaction and teach them about the origin of it all.
The reasoning behind picking Houston’s version was partially due to the kid’s interest
but also because of what I found after analyzing both pieces. Dolly Parton’s ​ballad​ was pretty
recitative​ throughout. She used her ​head voice​ a lot to add more emotion but nothing too insane.
I personally find the song heart wrenching, slow, sweet, and meaningful. However, I don’t think
my 11-14 year old will have the same reaction. To them, I’m afraid it might be a bit too ‘cheesy’
and ‘lovey dovey.’ Also, with Parton's simple ​instrumentation,​ only a few instruments are used
in the ​musical accompaniment, ​which is another factor that won’t be of interest to the students.
Houston’s version however has a lot more going on that will help keep my middle
schooler’s engaged. Her cover starts off ​acapella​, and she has a lot more ​repetition, ​especially
when singing her many ​runs ​and ​riffs​. The song has way more instruments used and even has a
saxophone ​solo​, to go with Houston’s powerful ​belt.​ Also, not to mention the kids already really
like the song. I also think Houston’s version fits my lesson better. The lesson will focus on
Andante tempo marking, which both versions have, but Houston’s version changes more
drastically so it’ll be easier for the students to differentiate.
I’d love to hear your feedback on everything I’ve said!
Thank you! Kind Regards,

Mary Yong
 Glossary

Acapella: ​without instrumental accompaniment

Adagietto: ​rather slow

Adagio: ​slow and stately ( at ease)

Allegretto: ​moderately fast

Allegro: ​fast, quickly and bright

Andante: ​at a walking pace

Ballad: ​storytelling music, with two or more stanzas all with the same melody

Belt: ​when a singer carries their chest voice above their passaggio

Grave: ​slow and solemn

Head voice: ​described as the vibrations felt as sound that you experience in your skull or your
head when you are singing at a high voice level

Instrumentation: ​the particular instruments used in a piece of music; the manner in which a
piece is arranged for instruments

Largo: ​broadly

Lento: ​slowly

Moderato: ​moderately

musical accompaniment: ​part in composition to support another main or highlighted part

Prestissimo: ​even faster than Presto

Presto: ​extremely fast

Recitative: ​speech like rhythms and accents

Repetition: ​repeated sounds/sequences

Riffs: ​a repeated melodic idea

Runs: ​ a​ spontaneously created “run of notes” (generally pentatonic) used as an embellishment

to the melody
Solo: ​a piece or a section of a piece played or sung featuring a single performer

Tempo: ​t​he speed at which a piece of music should be played

tempo markings: ​writing in a piece by a composer to let performer know what tempo to play at

Vivace: ​lively and fast

 Lesson Plan

Anchor Standards and Indicators

Anchor Standard 3: connecting with music and musicians from various cultures and/or time
periods

Anchor Standard 5: listening and responding to music by analyzing, describing, and evaluating
music and its elemental components

Goals and Objectives

Students will be able to define the term ‘Andante’ in general sense and within the cover song ​I
Will Always Love You ​by Whitney Houston. Students will also be able to listen/sing along with
the cover song while also differentiating different tempo markings within it

Materials

-lyric dictation chart of Whitney Houston's version of ​I Will Always Love You

-recording of Whitney Houston’s version of ​I Will Always Love You

-recording of original ​I Will Always Love You b​ y Dolly Parton

-duck tape to mark the different sections of the room

Procedures

1) Start off class by playing the first minute of Dolly Parton’s song ​I Will Always Love You

QUESTION: Can you tell me the title of this song and also who it is by?

PROMPT: Students will listen to the song and will raise their hand when they know
either the title of the song or the singer.

2) After seeing who knew and didn’t know the answer, teacher will play Houston’s version
of the song for the students to listen to started at 2:58 to about 4:05

QUESTION: Alright I am going to play the same song but by a different singer. Can you
tell me who is singing this song?

PROMPT: Students will again listen to the song and raise their hand when they know

3) Ask the students who they thought sang the song first, and go on explaining the original
writer/singer of the song is Dolly Parton. Give a brief background on Parton and song
 PROMPT: Pass out lyric dictation sheets for Houston’s cover. Teacher will explain to
students that they will begin the song at the saxophone solo, have the students tap their
foot along as they fill out the lyrics. AFterwords go over the lyrics with students

4) Next have students get up with their lyric sheet and spread around the taped off section of
the room. This section is the middle of the room. Explain that you will count off the beat
and they will walk to the tempo as the song plays, again starting on the sax solo and
playing all the way to end of song

QUESTION: Does the tempo change at all during this section of the song?

PROMPT: Students will walk to the beginning tempo while also singing along (not
assessed just for fun) If they feel the tempo went faster they will move to the front of the
room and walk the faster tempo there, if they feel it went slower they will walk to the
back of the room and walk the slower tempo there. If they feel the tempo goes back to the
beginning tempo they will go back to the middle of the room and walk it there

5) Have the students perform the beginning tempo again, walking around the room.

PROMPT: As students are walking to a given tempo, explain to them as they know from
last class we are going to learn about more complex tempos, and how they would be
marked in music. This tempo they are currently demonstrating can be called Andante or
Moderato. Showcase on the board it is 2 of 12 tempo markings students will learn and
they are in the middle:

___

___

___

___

___

Andante

Moderato

__

__

__

__

__
 6) Teacher will define Andante as ‘at a walking pace’ and Moderato as a little faster than
andante but still at moderate speed.

PROMPT: Students will do the exercise again by this time shouting out when they feel
like the tempo moves to Andante to Moderato or vice versa by saying the name and also moving
to the front or middle of the room.

QUESTION: Can you hear when the tempo seems to go just a little bit faster? When is
the tempo andante vs moderato?

7) End Class with an exit ticket defining Andante and Moderato

Assessment of Goals and Objectives

Assessment will be informal and formal. Teachers will observe students' understanding of tempo
by watching them in the movement exercise. Also teacher will see if they can define the two new
terms with an exit ticket

Follow up Lesson

The Follow up lesson will begin to teach students about the 5 slow tempo markings before
Andante and Moderato, slowly filling up the board with the 12 terms.
 Lyric Dictation Sheet

I Will Always Love You 

by Whitney Houston 
 
I hope ____ treats you _____

And I hope you have all you've ______ of

And I'm wishing you ____ and _____

But above all this, I wish you ​_____

And I will _____ love you

I will _____ love you(X5)