SING WITH ULLA BRITT
AND DANISH CHAMBER PLAYERS
FOR THIS YEAR'S SCARY HALLOWEEN CONCERT
Welcome to the Danish Chamber Players' Halloween concerts for 3rd + 4th grade in Næstved, Faxe, Guldborgsund and Lolland. We are looking forward to playing and singing together with you and the terrific choir leader Ulla Britt Simonsen and promise musical thrills and horror at children's level.
On this page you can find information, materials and inspiration for your preparation of the concert and work with the theme "Halloween" in general.
Introduction:
In the weeks after the autumn holidays, right around Halloween, the Danish Chamber Players hold four afternoon concerts in Faxe, Næstved, Guldborgsund and Lolland municipalities, where all 3rd and 4th graders are invited to sing along. In the run up to the autumn holidays, you must practice 4 songs at home at school, and on the day of the concert all the municipality's students meet at 13 to gather in a large community choir and get ready to perform for parents and others at the concert at 16.
Time and place:
Faxe Municipality:
Dalbyhallen, Bavnestræde 28, 4690 Haslev
Wednesday 26 October at 13 – 17 (concert at 16)
Næstved municipality:
St. Jørgen's Church, Parkvej 101, 4700 Næstved
Thursday 27 October at 15 – 19 (concert at 18)
Guldborgsund and Lolland municipalities:
Nørregade theatre, Banegårdspladsen 1, 4930 Maribo
Monday 31 October at 13 – 17 (concert at 16)
Traditionally, Halloween has always been associated with the dead, the gloomy and creepy, but in the American tradition it is increasingly about having a lot of fun in the same way as we know it from our Mardi Gras - both in terms of decorations, dressing up and 'trick or treat'.
Therefore, we hope that you will come to the concert dressed up, maybe just in black from head to toe or in your funniest, scariest or craziest costumes.
Find inspiration to make your own masks or costumes here .
Other ideas for preparation in teaching:
Read more about Halloween and All Saints' Day here.
More Halloween in music education can be found at Danish Song Digital,
if your school has a subscription.
Find more inspiration for teaching about classical music here.
Find inspiration to decorate your classroom with everything from spiders to pumpkins here.
The music:
The concerts will be an alternation between choral songs accompanied by the Danish Chamber Players and instrumental works performed by the ensemble alone.
The students must learn three songs which they will perform at the concert.
On this video Ulla Britt introduces and rehearses the three songs. Use the play-throughs and explanations as inspiration for your work in the classes.
Sheet music and text sheets for the songs can be downloaded via the "download sheet music" button
1. "When the wolves howl"/ from "Giraffen Gumle" / Linda Vilhelmsen
Listen here .
Find Ulla Britt's tips for rehearsal in the video 00:02:15
2. "Soon it will sound" from "Mosekonen" / Stine Michel.
Listen to the original here .
Find Ulla Britt's tips for rehearsal in the video 00:10:05
3. “Black song” / De Onde
Listen here .
Watch the original music video with De Onde here.
Find Ulla Britt's tips for rehearsal in the video 00:15:13
At the concert we also sing a joint song, i.e. together with the audience, which the students must also have practiced beforehand.
4. "Autumn" / melody: John Hoybye, text: Georg Metz.
Read more about the song in The high school songbook no. 369
Listen to the melody and find the accompaniment here .
Find Ulla Britt's tips for rehearsal in the video 00:21:07
The story of Dance Macabre
One of the instrumental pieces that the Danish Chamber Players play at the concert is "Dance Macabre" by Camille Saint-Saën.
You can possibly hear a recording here.
French composer Camille Saint-Saëns composed Dance Macabre in 1872 – first as a song. The text was a poem by Henri Cazalis that described how at midnight on Halloween Death calls the cemetery's dead out of their graves so they can dance the dance of death while Death plays the violin. The skeletons dance all night until the rooster crows at sunrise and they have to rush back into their graves. Later, Saint-Saëns rewrote the song into a large orchestral work – a so-called tone poem, where the violin has replaced the singer and this is what we will hear at the concert.
Can you hear the skeletons?
And can you hear Death??
The violin is here the instrument of death. The violin is often used as the instrument of Death or the devil in classical music. In the old days, many people actually believed that the violin really WAS an instrument of the devil and many religious people therefore believed that violins should be burned and that you should not invite violin players into your home.
Target group: 3.-4. grade
Subject: Music, Danish + possibly visual arts
Common goals in music:
Singing repertoire, singing technique, expressive possibilities of the voice, classical concert experience, instrumentation, etc
– or call Nina: 21 22 82 20
– or to the ensemble: 29 67 10 02
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