On Mon, 22 Oct 2001, Imthurn Melinda wrote:
You don't say whether you're soubrette, lyric, coloratura, dramatic, etc.,
so I'm going to suggest a range of things, knowing some of them may not be
"right" for your particular voice.
> Arranged for piano and Soprano
>
> Mostly English pieces
Definitely consier Liza Lehmann's settings of Hillaire Belloc's
"Four Cautionary Tales and a Moral"- these are delightful
little "dark" morality stories about children, good and bad. My favourite
is "Henry King" - which starts:
"The chief defect of Henry King
Was chewing little bits of string"
and which goes on to tell the wretched child's woeful fate, which is just
grisly enough to delight 9-10 year olds without frightening them (not
that today's 9-10 year olds are easily frightened!). Matilda, the
little girl who is also a psychopathic liar is also accounted for, as is
the insufferably good Charles Augustus Fortescue. Lehmann's "There are
fairies at the bottom of my garden" might also be a possibility.
Edward German's JUST SO songbook - settings of Rudyard Kipling's poems
from his JUST SO STORIES - might also be a good source of material. Also
Oley Speaks' setting of "ON the road to Mandalay", or Percy Grainger's
"The Jungle Book" (the solo songs).
Kenneth Benshoof's setting of the folk-song "The Fox".
THere are a number of possibilities by Charles Ives. His "Cowboy Songs"
might be a good source (e.g., "Charlie Rutlage"). Also his songs "The
greatest man", "The Children's Hour", "The Circus Band" (from Street
Songs), "The see'r", "The cage", and his two-song cycle "Memories".
Charles Villiers Stanfords' "The bold, unbiddable child".
Samuel Barber's "A green lowland of pianos" (from his 3 Songs op. 45).
Arnold Bax's "The fairies"
One of the may settings of Blake's "The Tyger" - e.g., by William Bolcolm,
Benjamin Britten, Granville Bantock, Rutland Boughton, or Arthur Farwell.
You might also consider some of Britten's folk-song settings, e.g., "Lord!
I married me a wife" and "The false knight on the road". Also you might
look at his song cycle "Winter Words", and his early song "A Ship of Rio".
Similarly, some of the Aaron Copland folk-song settings, and also songs
like "What do we plant?".
Arthur Bliss's "Three jolly gentlemen" and "The hare", and possibly
something from his cycle "A Knot of Riddles".
Ivor Gurney's "Bread and cherries" and "I will go with my father
a-plowing".
Sir Lennox Berkeley's "Poor Henry".
Sibelius' cycle "Three Songs for American Schools" - especially the
"Cavalry Catch".
Some Michael Head songs, possibly - "Lone dog", "Matron cat's song", "The
Twins" (a little grisly, but also very funny).
"Rhyme" from William Walton's cycle "A Song for the Lord Mayor's Table" is
a setting of the famous rhyme about the bells of the different East End
churches in London (i.e., "Oranges and lemons say the bells of St.
Clements") - which could be fun both to sing and to explain.
There is also the Leonard Bernstein "I Hate Music" song cycle, subtitled
"A Cycle of Five Kids' Songs", which includes the songs "My mother says
that babies come in bottles", "Jupiter has seven moons", "I hate music!",
"A big Indian and a little Indian", and "I just found out today".
You might also consider doing "Monica's Waltz" from Menotti's THE MEDIUM,
which is all about imagination and make-believe, and I don't think it
would be above the heads of 9-10 year olds.
> 1-2 foreign language pieces
"O mio babbino caro" is an aria kids even that age might just have heard,
and might recognise - and even if they don't, it's so pretty they will
probably like it.
I don't know if such a thing exists as a really good singing translation
of Poulenc's "Quatre Chansons pour Enfants" or his "Quelle aventure (La
puce et l'elephant)" from "La court paille", or his "La bestiaire" cycle -
but if so, these would be delightful for your audience. Similarly, if you
could find Manuel Rosenthal's "Chansons de Monsieur Bleu" in a good
English singing translation. Ditto Delibes "Les animaux de Grandville" and
Satie's "Ludions" cycle.
If you're a coloratura, you might also consider doing "Chacun le sait" f
rom Donizetti's LA FILLE DU REGIMENT, or perhaps Adele's laughing song
from DIE FLEDERMAUS, or better yet, the Olympia "Doll aria" from LES
CONTES DE HOFFMANN (*if* you're willing to act the part as well). The last
one's particularly good as the words are completely irrelevant - the whole
thing is to be a convincing mechanical doll with totally
mechanical-sounding (albeit impressive) coloratura vocal abilities.
At the other end of the vocal spectrum, if you're a dramatic-leaning
soprano with good chest notes, you might do the witch's aria (Hurr hopp)
from HANSEL UND GRETEL.
You might also try finishing up with one or two songs that the kids can
sing along with - either a round, or a many-verse song like "Green grow
the rushes". Or just a folk-song with a good chorus, like "Alive, alive o
(Molly Malone)".
Karen Mercedes
===
On Neil Shicoff - http://www.radix.net/~dalila/shicoff/shicoff.html
On yours truly - http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
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