artsinging4

Sophia Institute online Waldorf Certificate Studies Program

"True art is an expression of the human being's search for a relationship with the spiritual, whether the spiritual longed for when his soul leaves the body, or the spiritual which he desires to remember when he dips down into a body, or the spiritual to which he feels more related than to his natural surroundings, or the spiritual as manifested in colors when outside and inside lose their separateness and the soul moves through the cosmos, freely, swimming and hovering, as it were, experiencing its own cosmic life, existing everywhere; or ... the spiritual as expressed in earth life, in the relationship between man's soul-spirit and the cosmic ... " - Rudolf Steiner

The element of melody guides the musical element from the realm of feeling up to that of thinking. You do not find what is contained in thinking in the thematic melody, but the theme does contain the element that reaches up into the same realm where mental images are otherwise formed. Melody contains something akin to mental images, but it is not a mental image; it clearly takes its course in the life of feeling. . .. The significance of the element of melody in human nature is that it makes the head of the human being accessible to feelings. Otherwise, the head is only open to the concept. Through melody the head becomes open to feeling, to actual feeling. It is as if you brought the heart into the head through melody. In the melody you become free, as you normally are in thinking; feeling becomes serene and purified. All outer aspects are eliminated from it, but at the same time it remains feeling through and through. - Rudolf Steiner in The Inner Nature of Music and the Experience of Tone

And just as man experiences the inherent nature of music, so the forms of his body are shaped out of music itself. Therefore, if the teacher wishes to be a good music teacher he will make a point of taking singing with the children from the very beginning of their school life. This must be done; he must understand as an actual fact that singing induces emancipation; for the astral body has previously sung and has brought forth the forms of the human body. Between the change of teeth and puberty, the astral body frees itself; becomes emancipated. And out of the very essence of music emerges that which forms man and makes him an independent being. No wonder then that the music teacher who understands these things, who knows that man is permeated through and through with music, will quite naturally allow this knowledge to enrich the singing lesson and his teaching of instrumental music. This is why we try not only to introduce singing as early as possible into the education of the child, but also to let those children with sufficient aptitude learn to play a musical instrument so that they have the possibility of actually learning to grasp and enter into the musical element which lives in their human form, as it emancipates and frees itself. - Rudolf Steiner in Human Values in Education

Course WC/ART

Singing

Lesson 4

Course Outline

Singing
Lesson 1 - Traditional Songs Part 1
Lesson 2 - Traditional Songs Part 2
Lesson 3 - Children's Songs
Lesson 4 - Seasonal Songs Part 1
Lesson 5 - Seasonal Songs Part 2
Lesson 6 - Pentatonic Songs
Lesson 7 - Lullabies

Introduction

Music is an essential part of the Waldorf curriculum and permeates the school day from kindergarten through eighth grade. Music not only enlivens the spirit but increases a child's capacity for learning. Through the study of music, we learn to sensitize our hearing, allowing us to better listen to the sounds of the world and to each other. In the earliest years (kindergarten through first grade), the children sing primarily pentatonic melodies without harmony. In grade one, the interval flute and pentatonic flute are introduced and in second grade we add the pentatonic harp. Beginning in grade three, the students learn a more mindful approach to music, in keeping with their developing self-consciousness. In this grade, we move on to the diatonic flute and sing rounds and write music. The Waldorf music teacher takes a primary interest in each child's musical development but other adults also contribute to and support these efforts. The class teacher plays a vital role either by singing with the class and/or by playing recorder with them. The relationship each student develops with his or her private teacher is an important one, while parents help by supporting concentrated and regular practice times at home. Music is an important element of the Waldorf curriculum. According to Rudolf Steiner, the human being is a musical being, and the making of music is essential in experiencing what it is to be fully human. Music in the Waldorf curriculum awakens and nurtures the deep inner life of the child. As the main lesson curriculum follows the very specific stages of child development, so also does the music curriculum. Engaging the soul activities of thinking, feeling, and willing in the child, the study and experience of the various elements in music arouse and cultivate the very forces necessary to be able to meet the challenges of the world with enthusiasm and confidence. The music program in each Waldorf school reflects the specific skills, talents, and interests of the class teachers and of the music faculty. The size and configuration of the school building, the number of students, and the funding available also play a role. In every school, however, is the realization that music is necessary and essential to the entire Waldorf school experience.

Tasks and Assignments Singing Lesson 4

1. Set up your own portfolio collection of seasonal songs. Watch videos or listen to audio files, and/or study music sheets. See some examples given below. Use resources as needed and wanted.
2. Practice singing for a minimum of 5 days singing 5 or more songs several times each day.
3. Record one session each day. Each recording should include 5 or more songs. Submit 5 recordings of 5 or more songs at the end of the 5 days.

Please submit files of completed art project(s), comments and questions via the online form or via email.

Examples of Seasonal Songs

Candlemas Eve Carol

1. Down with the rosemary and bays,
Down with the mistletoe ;
Instead of holly, now up-raise
The greener box, for show.

Refrain:
Thus times and seasons oft do shift; each thing his turn doth hold ;
New thoughts and things now do succeed, as former things grow old.

2. The holly hitherto did sway ;
Let box now domineer
Until the dancing Easter day,
Or Easter’s eve appear. Refrain

3. Then youthful box which now hath grace
Your houses to renew ;
Grown old, surrender must his place
Unto the crisped yew. Refrain

4. When yew is out, then birch comes in,
And many flowers beside ;
Both of a fresh and fragrant kin
To honour Whitsuntide. Refrain

5. Green rushes, then, and sweetest bents,
With cooler oaken boughs,
Come in for comely ornaments
To re-adorn the house. Refrain

Oh Susanna

Oh! Susanna I come from Alabama with my banjo on my knee,
I'm going to Louisiana, my true love for to see.
It rained all night the day I left, the weather it was dry
The sun so hot I froze to death, Susanna, don't you cry.

Chorus

Oh! Susanna, Oh don't you cry for me,
For I come from Alabama with my banjo on my knee.

I had a dream the other night, when everything was still;
I thought I saw Susanna dear, a coming down the hill.
A buckwheat cake was in her mouth, a tear was in her eye,
Says I, I'm coming from the south, Susanna, don't you cry.

I soon will be in New Orleans, and then I'll look around,
And when I find Susanna, I'll fall upon the ground.
But if I do not find her, then I will surely die,
And when I'm dead and buried, Oh, Susanna, don't you cry.

Buffalo Gal

chorus:

Buffalo gal won't you come out tonight
Come out tonight, come out tonight
Buffalo gal won't you come out tonight
And dance by the light of the moon

verses:

As I was walking down the street
Down the street, down the street
A pretty little gal I chanced to meet
Oh, she was fair to view

(chorus)

She was the prettiest gal I’ve seen in my life
In my life, in my life
And I wished to the Lord she’d be my wife
Then we would part no more

(chorus)

Oh, yes, dear boy, I'm coming out tonight
Coming out tonight, coming out tonight
Oh, yes, dear boy, I’m coming out tonight
And we’ll dance by the light of the moon

(chorus)

I danced with that gal with a hole in her stocking
And her heel kept a-rockin' and her toe kept a-knockin'
I danced with that gal with a hole in her stocking
And we danced by the light of the moon

(chorus)

Applepicker's Reel

Hey, ho, makes you feel so fine
Looking out across the orchard in the bright sunshine.
Hey, ho, you feel so free
Standing in the top of an apple tree.
Up in the morning before the sun
I don't get home until the day is done;
My pick-sack's heavy and my shoulder's sore
But I'll be back tomorrow to pick some more.
Start at the bottom and you pick 'em from the ground
And you pick the tree clean all the way around;
Then you set up your ladder and you climb up high
And you're looking through the leaves at the clear blue sky.
Three-legged ladder, wobbly as hell
Reaching for an apple---whoa!---I almost fell.
Got a twenty-pound sack hanging 'round my neck
And there's three more apples that I can't quite get.
Hey, ho, makes you feel so down
Picking up windfalls, crawling on the ground.
Hey, ho, you feel so free
Standing in the top of an apple tree.
Hey, ho, you lose your mind
If you sing this song about a hundred times;
Hey, ho, you feel so free
Standing in the top of an apple tree.

Home on the Range

Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Chorus Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Where the air is so pure, and the zephyrs so free,
The breezes so balmy and light,
That I would not exchange my home on the range,
For all of the cities so bright.

The Red man was pressed from this part of the west,
He's likely no more to return,
To the banks of the Red River where seldom if ever
Their flickering campfires burn.

How often at night when the heavens are bright,
With the light from the glittering stars,
Have I stood there amazed and asked as I gazed,
If their glory exceeds that of ours.

Oh, I love these wild flowers in this dear land of ours,
The curlew I love to hear cry,
And I love the white rocks and the antelope flocks,
That graze on the mountain slopes high.

Oh give me a land where the bright diamond sand,
Flows leisurely down in the stream;
Where the graceful white swan goes gliding along,
Like a maid in a heavenly dream.

Then I would not exchange my home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Oh Mary Don't You Weep

Well if I could, I surely would,
Stand on the rock where Moses stood,
Pharoh's army got drownded,
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Oh Mary don't you weep no more,
Oh Mary don't you weep no more,
Pharoh's army got drownded,
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Well Mary wore three links of chain,
On every link was Jesus name,
Pharoh's army got drownded,
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Oh Mary don't you weep no more,
Oh Mary don't you weep no more,
Pharoh's army got drownded,
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Well one of these nights about 12 o'clock,
This old world is gonna rock,
Pharoh's army got drownded,
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Well Moses stood on the Red Sea shore,
Smote the water with a two by four,
Pharoh's army got drownded,
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Oh Mary don't you weep no more,
Oh Mary don't you weep no more,
Pharoh's army got drownded,
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Well old Mister Satan he got mad,
Missed that soul that he thought he had,
Pharoh's army got drownded,
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Brothers and sisters, don't you cry,
There'll be good times by and by,
Pharoh's army got drownded,
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Oh Mary don't you weep no more,
Oh Mary don't you weep no more,
Pharoh's army got drownded,
Oh Mary don't you weep.

God gave Noah the rainbow sign,
No more water, but fire next time,
Pharoh's army got drownded,
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Oh Mary don't you weep no more,
Oh Mary don't you weep no more,
Pharoh's army got drownded,
Oh Mary don't you weep.

Pharoh's army got drownded,
Oh Mary don't you weep,
Oh Mary don't you weep no more,
Oh Mary don't you weep no more.

Pharoh's army got drownded,
Oh Mary don't you weep.