Halloween Dances
First Grade
15-20 minutes
Purpose:
Encourage young children to feel the strong beats in three dances and to identify
the sounds of certain instruments (harp, violin, cello, xylophone, trombone). In
the first two dances, the beats are grouped in 3’s, ONE-two-three, ONE-twothree. In the third dance, the beat is irregular.
Equipment: CD player
CD selections:
“Danse Macabre,” Saint-Saens
(repeat above)
“Dance of the Furies,” Gluck
“Danse Infernale,” Stravinsky
Total music time:
2:40
2:40
1:35
1:40
8:35
Pictures of instruments: harp, violin, cello, bass, xylophone, trombone
Introduction:
A grand entrance can be fun. Arrive in a skeleton mask to instantly get the
children’s attention!
DANCE MACABRE by Camille Saint-Saens (cah-MEEL SAN-sohn), 1874
I’m going to play a short piece for you that you can just listen to first. Then I’ll
play it again and talk a bit about it.
Play the first two and a half minutes of track 1 and listen with the children.
What do you think this piece of music is about?
Today we’re listening to dances, but they’re not just any dances – they’re scary
Halloween dances. The piece of music we just is a dance that takes place in a
graveyard! It’s called “Dance Macabre (pronounced MaCAUB)” by Camille
Saint-Saens (SAN-sohns). Death appears at midnight and plays the fiddle so the
skeletons can get up and dance. How do we know it’s midnight? At the
beginning of the piece, a harp plays 12 notes, the strokes of 12 o’clock Midnight) show picture of a harp. Have any of you seen a harp before?
After the clock strikes, we will hear the low stringed instrument, cellos and
basses, play a scale going up as skeletons come up from their graves. Show
pictures of cello and bass.
Next, Death plays the fiddle. The skeletons dance. What instrument do you might
be used to hear the rattle of the skeleton’s bones. The Xylophone sounds like
rattling bones. Show picture of xylophone. Have you seen a xylophone before?
Maybe in the music room?
I’m going to play the song again, but this time you need to bring ghosts to dance
with the skeletons. You can make one of your hands into a ghost that lands like a
feather in the palm of your other hand. As the music plays, your ghost is going to
land on your hand on teach strong beat – ONE – and then float up during the
weak beats – two, three. ONE-two-three, ONE-two-three.
Play Excerpt 1 again,
You can count to 12 along with the harp to show it’s midnight. Lead the
conducting with your own “ghost”. Point out the harp, low strings, violin and
xylophone when you hear them (they come in at 2:01, so play at least the first 2
and a half minutes).
How do you think the skeletons moved in this dance?
DANCE OF THE FURIES by Christoph Gluck (CREE-stoff GLOOK), 1762
from the opera Orfeo ed Euridice (or-FAY-oh ed yur-i-DEE-chay)
Now I’m going to play a different sort of Halloween dance. This is called The
Dance of the Furies by Christoph Gluck. Furies are spirits that whirl around in
the underworld. Again, the song’s beats are in groups of 3. Can you bring your
ghosts along to help conduct?
What instrument do you think might be used to represent the furies?
Let's use our ghosts again to help conduct this next song.
Play the first few minutes of Excerpt 2
What instruments were used? How did the furies move in this dance? Slow?
Fast? Wasn’t that fast music?!
DANCE INFERNALE by Igor Stravinsky (EE-gor stra-VIN-ski), 1910 from
the ballet The Firebird
Our final piece of music is scary because it has sudden loud noises. It’s called
Dance Infernal by Igor Stravinsky. It is about an evil ogre, or monster, who has
green claws. The ogre guards a magical garden. He wants to keep everybody out
of the garden because his soul is inside a magic egg.
Why does the ogre want to keep people away from the egg? (They might break
it and then the ogre would die.)
A beautiful firebird lives in the garden. A young prince named Ivan (ee-VON)
sneaks into the garden, creeps up behind the firebird, and captures her. The
firebird begs him to let her go. He does, so she gives him a magic feather as a
thank-you present. Ivan wants to leave the garden, but the ogre will not let him.
The ogre is getting ready to turn Ivan to stone. Just in time, Ivan waves the feather
and the firebird comes to the rescue. She tells Ivan about the egg, and he smashes
it. That takes care of the ogre.
Shall we try to conduct this music while we listen?
Start to Play track 3 and conduct. Then Stop after 10 or 15 seconds.
Isn’t that hard to conduct? There are no groups of ONE-TWO-three in this one.
Stravinsky keeps changing the rhythm. Let’s just listen and see if we can hear the
ogre and the firebird.
Play the next three minutes or so of Excerpt 3. If the kids seem into it, play
the whole thing (4:35)
Did you hear the Ogre? What did he sound like?
Did you hear the Firebird? What did it sound like?
(it might be hard to hear what instruments represent what. That’s okay. Just
listen to what the kids think).
Did this music make you want to dance?
Which dance did you like best?
I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to some of these spooky dances. Have a happy
Halloween!