Music for the Community

 
Welcome to our Music for the Community page! Since we can't take our music out to local nursing homes and libraries at the moment, we're inviting you in to enjoy it here instead. Each day you'll find a new student performance on this page, along with some info about the composer or instrument - and sometimes words too so you can sing along. 

If you're interested in a particular category, you can sort performances by student age, instrument, singalong music, composer and so on - click on the orange tags under the text. We hope you and your family will enjoy watching our students share their music! 

To have each week's videos and accompanying info sent to your inbox*, please subscribe via the orange button.

*Videos are delivered twice weekly; you can unsubscribe at any time, and we will never share or sell your info.

Subscribe to this Page

Monday, June 15 2020 00:00

Day 51 - The Happy Farmer

Violinist age 8 plays "The Happy Farmer"

German composer and pianist Robert Schumann lived from 1810 to 1856. He was a brilliant pianist and intended to make a career as a perfomer. Unfortunately a hand injury put an end to that idea, so thereafter he focused on composing. 

Meanwhile, he had fallen in love with his piano teacher's daughter, Clara Wieck - herself a wonderful pianist - but her father was very opposed to their marriage. Robert eventually won out, though, and married her in 1840 after a court battle.

By 1848 he and Clara had three young daughters (they eventually had eight children, seven of whom survived). He composed a collection of 43 easy piano pieces for them, "Album for the Young", and The Happy Farmer is one of these pieces. As with our other singalong songs, the words reflect the musical structure, which is little unusual here: A1 - A1 - B - A2 - B - A2, with the A section having two different endings. The B section is very short: the farmer (A) barely lets his wife (B) get a word in edgewise before interrupting her again!

(A 1) The happy farmer loves to plow his fields;
He rides his great big tractor with its big green wheels.
 
(A 1) The happy farmer loves to plow his fields;
He rides his great big tractor with its big green wheels.
 
(B ) His wife is quiet, and very small and neat -
 
(A 2)  The happy farmer loves to plow his fields;
He rides his great big tractor with its round, red seat.
 
(B ) His wife is quiet, and very small and neat -
 
(A 2) The happy farmer loves to plow his fields;
He rides his great big tractor with its round, red seat.
 
If you listen carefully to the piano part, you'll also hear the farmyard chickens going "cheep-cheep" in the background!
Read 4290 times Last modified on Monday, June 15 2020 13:16