Tu-e-tu-e-ba-ri-ma-tu-e (clap, clap)
Tu-e-tu-e-ba-ri-ma-tu-e (clap, clap)
These are the opening words to a song called ‘Obwisana’, a popular Ghanaian folk song that many students in the United States learn in general music elementary classes. I include myself in this group. It never ceases to amaze me how I can still recall, and find myself humming, a tune and rhythmically clapping to a song that I learned three decades ago. This song in particular brought so much joy because not only was it incredibly fun to make music with my classmates, we also had the opportunity to learn about different cultures around the world, especially from countries that had people who looked like me!
Music has always been an integral part of my life, and when it was time to decide what I wanted my dissertation topic to be, I found myself thinking about the music and joy created in the music classroom. How could I, as a classical pianist, make sure that teachers had resources for their students to continue to create those moments of joy, which stick with their students, while learning about other cultures? Researching how piano music by Black composers could be utilised for all teachers and students at different levels of musical development became the answer.
The following approaches show how I have used piano music by Black composers for general music classroom teaching and private piano teaching. The aim was to spark joy in our young music lovers while expanding their knowledge and appreciation for the contributions of Black Americans in music education across the globe.
William Grant Still: Animal Sketches
William Grant Still (1895–1979), a prolific Black American composer with over 150 works to his name, greatly influenced 20th-century music. Although many music enthusiasts are aware of Still's important contribution, few discuss his works for children or his deep love for youth. While compiling musical examples for my dissertation, I spoke to Judith Still, William's daughter, and discussed how her father had a childlike spirit, which can be found in the fascinating collection called Animal Sketches. Written in 1951, the collection includes five short character pieces, each depicting a different animal.
In the classroom, instead of racking my brain to create lesson plans utilising diverse music, I have used Animal Sketches and elements of this to help ‘discriminating listening’, or purposeful listening, in order for students to understand different musical sounds.
As Part I, taking the five animals found in Animal Sketches, I ask the class to describe the physical characteristics of each animal through imitating their movements, using the whole body. In the score, the composer William Grant Still writes ‘swaying’ for the camel piece, ‘clumsy’ for the bear, and ‘galloping’ (horse), ‘gamboling’ (lamb) or ‘heavy’ (elephant). These descriptors can aid teachers and students in their discussion of the music and what it is that makes these character pieces. While highlighting how children chose to imitate each animal, I then play the piano music depicting each animal.
For Part II, I then divide the class according to animal. When the students hear their animal being played on the piano, they imitate their chosen animal through the physical movements already discussed. This fun activity not only gets our young people up and moving around through music, it helps them start to recognise how musical patterns, articulations and dynamics can be a vehicle for depicting elements of their fascinating world.
In piano lessons, Animal Sketches is an incredibly fruitful pedagogical tool for the early-intermediate student. While the younger kids demonstrated how their full body could imitate an animal, the pianist has the opportunity to imitate animal movements with their hands, gaining more technical facility and musicality.
The first piece, ‘Camel’, for example, is a short study for developing LH two-note slurs, with its repeating pattern. On the page, the visual slurs are mirrored by the repeated ‘slur’ hand gesture, providing a great illustrative tool for how to tackle this popular pianistic technique. In ‘Bear’ (No. 2), an 8-bar piece, the student explores accents in both hands while voicing different triads in the RH.
In ‘Horse’ (No. 3) – a fan favourite in my studio – both hands ‘gallop’ across the keyboard while participating in contrary or parallel two-note slurs. A brief lyrical B-section is a wonderful opportunity to introduce ABA form.
In ‘Lamb’ (No. 4) the student plays the same notes but two octaves apart, learning to balance the register difference. Many repeated notes require the student to detach the notes playfully.
Finally, ‘Elephant’ (No. 5) highlights children's love of playing loudly! This short study encourages pianists to develop a full sound at the piano, while asking them also to voice thirds and triads, which fit comfortably in the hand.
Hale Smith: Faces of Jazz
The Black composer Hale Smith (1925–2009) began private piano studies at an early age, while also playing mellophone in his high school marching band. His collection Faces of Jazz: a set for the intermediate pianist is a wonderful resource for exposing young children to the sound of jazz, while helping them develop foundational musical patterns.
In the classroom, Faces of Jazz is a fitting introduction to the musical language and style of jazz, which often proves exciting to young people. With this collection of 12 short piano pieces, general music students can perform jazz alongside the class teacher while incorporating other musical instruments. One particular piece from this set is ‘Blooz’, which was dedicated to Ahmad Jamal (the famous jazz American pianist and educator, who died in 2023). The piece has the RH play a harmonic interval of a second (C and D) in quarter-notes [crotchets], throughout the piece. Having students play the quarter-note ostinato on Orff instruments, or any percussive instruments, while the teacher plays the LH melody, is a wonderful way to expose students to pulse, syncopation and musical phrase. Teachers can also share the historical background and impact of jazz, perhaps with reference to Ahmad Jamal.
In piano lessons, the young pianist learns about using the pedal through this piece, and its effect on colour, as well as about pulse, syncopation and musical phrase. When describing the music, Hale Smith wrote: ‘The repeated notes in the right hand are to be played as a quietly blurred background which surrounds the melody, much as fog surrounds a landscape.’ He adds: ‘The pedal should be used carefully throughout to create a harmonic haze, but the melody should never be obscured by over-pedalling.’
These first-hand descriptions encourage young pianists to explore pedal in innovative ways – in ways that we often don't expose pianists to until much later in their studies. Teaching about different levels of pedalling, and getting students to respond to the sounds being produced, is a wonderful aspect of this piece.
Blanche K. Thomas: Plantation Songs in Easy Arrangements for the Piano
Blanche K. Thomas (1905–1977) was a composer and music educator who was committed to teaching Black American youth all about Black composers. She graduated from the Juilliard School in 1928. Plantation Songs, or Spirituals, are not only a deeply meaningful musical genre; they are a great tool for understanding global histories.
In the classroom, Spirituals are wonderful for teaching young musicians from a musical and historical perspective. They are woven with illustrative narration in the lyrics, which can be analysed on many different layers. General music educators use Spirituals when discussing word-painting and the use of modal mixture to highlight emotive words. At the same time, teachers can use Spirituals to discuss symbolism in ‘Code Songs’, which were songs used to secretly communicate instructions for escaping slavery. The melodies often stay within an octave, making them suitable for the youngest musicians.
In piano lessons, teachers can point out how Blanche K. Thomas felt that pianists should be able to take the Plantation Songs in this set and transcribe them to any key. Moreover, she said that a student has not begun to master the songs from this collection until they can successfully play them in all keys! She also took time to highlight specific rhythmic patterns within each song presented in the collection, and explained that the student should learn to isolate these patterns before beginning to play them at the piano. Thomas's pedagogical approach to the songs in this collection allows musicians to incorporate aural and theoretical skills while learning at an early age.
Dr Leah Claiborne aims to ‘spark joy’ in young music lovers, at the same time as expanding the repertoire used by music educators. Photo: Tina Krohn PhotographyClosing thoughts
Teaching about cultural histories while simultaneously equipping the next generation of musicians with foundational skills is vital in our educational systems. By using innovative approaches to music by Black composers in both general class settings and in piano lessons, teachers and students of all ages can learn about the contributions of Black composers to all areas of repertoire, and develop a lifelong appreciation of this music.
The score of Animal Sketches is available at williamgrantstillmusic.com. ‘Blooz’, other pieces from Faces in Jazz, and all the Plantation Songs can be found in Expanding the Repertoire: Piano Music by Black Composers (vols. 1 and 2) published by Hal Leonard, compiled and edited by Leah Claiborne.
