Introducing the Song

Ask the students if they have ever heard bells ringing in a nearby church or other location.

Bells were used to help tell the time for people who lived nearby. Churches and schools would ring their bells to let the people know that a church service was ready to start or classes were ready to begin.

Students can be encouraged to move their bodies to simulate the movement of a large bell ringing its message. It is a slow, swaying motion.

Students may know another song about the bells. The traditional song Frère Jacques/Are You Sleeping is about brother John needing to wake up because the morning bells are ringing.

Listen Friends is about bells ringing to signal the end of the day. Children will be in their beds, dreaming pleasant dreams.

Expressive singing

Listen Friends could easily be considered a lullaby. The gentle melody is accompanied by chords that mimic ringing bells.

Discuss how the song should be sung to portray the feeling of calm and quiet preceding the time when children are sleeping.

The English lyrics ”Ding dong ding” and the French lyrics “din, dan, don” represent the sound of ringing bells. Decide how you will use your diction to make the words sound like bells. Singers may want to gently accent the beginning consonant and let the end of the words be soft and gentle.

Simple Chord accompaniment

Handbells/handchimes

The accompaniment for the A sections of Listen Friends is written using two chords that alternate. Use handbells or handchimes to create the two chords: D-F#-A and A-C#-E-G.

Older students can discuss how these chords are built by adding intervals of a third above the base notes of the Tonic/do and dominant/so notes from the D major scale. Younger students can be assigned a bell to create the chords and simply be instructed to play when it is their turn (either group 1 or group 2). Ideally, if two octaves of the same chord can be generated, playing the lower octave and then the upper octave in each bar creates lovely movement.

Arrange students in four groups. D chord – lower and upper octave, and A chord – lower and upper octave.

Place the lower octaves together and the upper octaves together so hand signals can be used with no confusion as to which group is supposed to be playing.

Group handbell/handchime details are in the download.

Orff instruments

Using Orff instruments is also an option for creating an accompaniment. Keep a steady, open-fifth “bordun”. Metallophones and/or glockenspiels are preferred as they will have a lingering bell-like tone. Orff instrument scores are included in the download for this song.

The metallophone score is the suggested arrangement if there is only one octave of instruments playing with no alternating between lower and higher octaves. If the option exists to alternate between lower and higher octaves, use the metallophone/glockenspiel score.

It is expected that students will most likely learn the Orff accompaniment parts by rote or with teacher signals (similar to the handbells). The Orff scores are included as a reference and an aid for teachers.

Language Study

A French adaptation of this song provides the opportunity for a language study, or to use this song with young French immersion students. With the ABA form and lyrics that repeat in the A section, the lyric load is accessible for young singers learning a new language. The vocal score is provided with one verse in English and one verse in French, creating a longer performance piece with both languages represented.

Introducing the song – Father Christmas

Discuss with the students if they have ever written a letter to Santa.

What did they request in their letter?

Did they receive the gift they requested? How did they feel about that?

Have students ever asked for a gift that they did not receive? How did they deal with their feelings?

Did students ever give someone a gift that was exactly what that person wanted? How did it make the student feel to be the one to give that gift?

NOTE: Because there is such a variety of economic circumstances surrounding gift giving, I ask students not to specify the gift they wanted, but just to talk about their feelings of wanting a gift, their excitement or disappointment with their request.

Introducing the song – In the Winter

Ask the students who enjoys winter weather and who prefers weather that is warmer.

Ask them how they feel about going outside when they have the proper winter clothing to wear.

Have they ever been caught in weather for which they were not prepared? How did they cope?

What are the five most important items of winter clothing the students think they would like to have to stay warm? Do those choices match the clothing items included in the song lyrics?

Winter Lyrics

When learning the lyrics, discuss the order of the verses with the students. The winter clothing items are listed from head to toe (after the coat, of course!) to assist with remembering the order of the verses. Socks are sung before boots, because socks cannot be put on after boots!

Performance and Staging

Students may be divided into two groups to sing the call and response lyrics between the two groups. This helps decrease the amount of lyrics each student is required to remember – a useful adaptation for younger singers.

Students may carry to the stage items that they have included on their wish list. Props can add visual interest, as long as they don’t detract from the singing! Students may hold colourful letters that they wave to the beat of the music for the repeated sections: “Father Christmas, did you get my letter? Father Christmas, this is what I want.”

Expressive singing

Young singers tend to have voices that are lighter and that have less projection than more mature singers. Combining two (or more) classes of young elementary students helps create a stronger vocal performance volume without placing unreasonable demands on the voices of young singers. In a small group class, someone may be chosen to be the leader and sing the “call” sections using a microphone with the remainder of the group singing the responses.

Students may benefit from a discussion about the sentiment behind the lyrics. Is the singer worried that Santa has not received their letter? The items on the list being sent to Santa are very important to the singer. How will the singers use their faces and diction to convey the story of the song?

In the winter version of the song, is the singer very cold? Is the singer excited about all the winter clothing that is being added? How will you sing expressively to show these feelings?

Classroom activity (see separate PDF in download file)

Create images for each of the items mentioned in the song (printables are included in the PDF).

As you sing, attach the images of the items to a larger image (for Father Christmas - a Christmas stocking, and for In the Winter - a child). If you have access to a magnetic surface, using magnets to attach the items is ideal. If the surface is not magnetic, attach a clear baggie to the front of the image and place the smaller item images inside the baggie.

The order of the items can be different than the printed score by having the teacher point to the student whose image will be added next. Alternatively, to make it like a “game”, students who are chosen to hold images can line up with the image held behind their backs. The order of the students can be random or the same order as the song lyrics. When it is their turn to show what image they are holding, they will bring it out in font of them so the class knows which one to sing. This may be amusing if the winter boots are added before the socks!

Creative input

The students may be interested in creating their own list of items to include for the lyrics in this song. Choosing the lyrics is part of composing. Encouraging students to provide their ideas is empowering and creates a meaningful connection to the song. Some parts of this song rhyme and many other parts do not. The students can also decide if this is important to them when they are creating their own lyrics. Composers make these types of decisions!

Pre-Song Activity - Create a sound composition

Close your eyes and listen.

• What sounds can you hear that are created by the things that are around you?
• Are any of the sounds created by you?
• Do any of the sounds sound like music to you?

Use sounds to make musical patterns. Use the sounds you heard when you were listening or create your own (e.g. tapping a pencil, clicking of computer keys, jingling earrings, etc.). Organizing sounds into patterns is making music!

Create a sound composition.

How will you write down the sounds you use in your composition? Pictures, words, symbols, etc. help you remember the sounds you are using so you can re-create your composition on another day, or give it to someone else to play.

Pre-song Discussion

Discuss sounds you might hear if you were outdoors.

• Are those sounds music?
• Do you have a favourite sound that you like to listen for when you are outdoors?

What are some things you might see if you were outdoors?            

• Are those things a symphony for the eyes?
• Do you have a favourite flower, or something you enjoy seeing when you are outdoors?
  

Music Vocabulary

Read the lyrics of Garden Symphony to discover what the composer was hearing and seeing. Do you know what all those things sound like and look like?

Sing the song together.

A symphony is a large piece of music for an orchestra.

The word symphony can also mean a beautiful blend of sights or sounds.

What other words are used to label music? (e.g. melody, tune, song, concerto, duet, solo, concert, performance, recital, etc.)

What other words are used to label art? (e.g. painting, collage, drawing, mural, sculpture, etc.)

Create a poster, a word wall or a dictionary of music words and/or art words.

Expressive Singing

There are many descriptive words in Garden Symphony.

• Use clear diction and expressive singing to make the story more interesting for your audience.

There are long phrases in Garden Symphony.

• Decide where you are going to take a breath to create the best long and lyrical phrases possible.

Score Study

Garden Symphony is created using simple rhythmic elements. Because of this simplicity, it makes a great rhythm sight-reading exercise.

How many different rhythm elements are there in the song?

      (Quarter note, eighth note, half note, dotted half note, quarter rest)

Clap or say the rhythm duration syllables that create the melody of this song.

• Clap the rhythm in canon with another student or the teacher.
• Create a simple ostinato using only 2 rhythm elements and divide the class with one group tapping the ostinato and one group clapping the rhythm.
• Use instruments to play the rhythm and ostinato patterns.  
  • Is it better to have the ostinato louder or the rhythm of the lyrics louder? Try it both ways and make musical decisions about what you think works best.