Current Choir Repertoire 6-8

Hello All!

I just wanted to let you know about a few songs that the FLW Choir students and I are working on right now!

This song is called "Homeward Bound", in which the narrator promises that after some adventures, the narrator will "be homeward bound in time." The chorus has a rich, high melody in which the students can practice strong, clear singing in a part of their range that they sometimes shy away from.

This song is called "When I Close My Eyes" and was written by Jim Papoulis. Jim Papoulis frequently works with young choirs and will work together with a choir to write his music, writing about things that are important to young children including peace, quality time with family, and becoming the people they're meant to be. This song has a little more than an octave range and is an excellent introduction to harmony, especially for the 6th grade choirs!

Another song that we're currently working on is "Let Me Fly" which is a traditional African American spiritual, arranged by Dr. Rollo Dilworth (who I got to meet once, he's so cool!!). Students in every choir can expect to sing songs from the spiritual repertoire to unearth the rich historical content, meaning, and purpose of this resilient music.

Students in my classroom can also request school appropriate songs that we sing at the end of class if we have met all of our goals in the course of a lesson, or for part of class on Friday's or the last day of the week. Some of the songs we have sung already include: Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", "True Colors" by Joni Mitchell, "Smile", made famous by Nat King Cole and written by Charlie Chaplin (and may have even been inspired by an opera what?! How cool!), "Can't Help Falling in Love", "The Lotto" by Ingrid Michaelson, "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music, "How Far I'll Go" from Moana, and more!

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