The Little Christmas Book - Book
Mary Helen Solomon

This music, appropriate for elementary music classes, is written with the Orff philosophy of music education as its guiding principle. Nine of the thirteen selections are from the traditional and folk music heritage. They, along with the composed pieces, are simple in melodic, rhythmic and harmonic structure, making them adaptable for working with children, the Orff instruments, and the Orff-Schulwerk pedagogy.

The orchestrations for the songs are constructed with short ostinati accompaniment patterns, which are sometimes only one or two measures in length. These accompaniments are similar to those found in the Orff-Schulwerk, Music for Children, Volumes I-V by Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman, and Keetman's work, Elementaria. My experience with this style has led me to conclude that it can be very musical and very successful for the children. It is also simple enough for the children to duplicate in their own creations or to restructure, given material you and they find suitable.

It is appropriate to mention in the beginning of a collection of arrangements in the Orff style that the Orff pedagogy emphasizes the importance of involving children in the music-making process, not only as instrument, movement, and vocal performers, but also as creators of the music. In keeping with this aim, the intent of The Little Christmas Book is to present music for children with orchestrations containing:

1. short ostinati accompaniment figures based on rhythmic building bricks and model words, thus providing models for their future compositions; and,
2. options and suggestions for ways to involve children as co-creators of the music.

Gunild Keetman demonstrates the principles of using rhythmic building bricks and model words in her publication Elementaria. I recommend that anyone interested in learning more thoroughly about this process should study her work.

Following is a brief summary of how this process is used in The Little Christmas Book and how it can be further extended by you and the children to facilitate their creative participation.

Model words provide "handles" for "rhythmic building bricks" (the short rhythm patterns below) which young composers and improvisors can select and combine to create accompaniments, melodies, and short forms.

The rhythmic building bricks for 2/4 meter are:

These short rhythmic configurations can be readily handled by the students if names or words are attached. The speech element makes it a natural process if well chosen words (which match the stress and accent of the rhythms) accompany them. It is beneficial to use words which refer to the world of nature and universal themes rather than words referring to pop culture or "educational" subjects.

For example, using a cat, apple, or conifer theme, the preceding rhythms can be matched with the following words. The students will enjoy creating similar word list:

Children are guided by the teacher to echo-clap and say the names of the model words. The children are then invited to create longer patterns by combining two of the building bricks together, such as tiger, mountain lion. These short patterns become accompaniments to songs or poems when transferred to movement, body percussion, or unpitched instruments. Or, they can be a starting point for creating short rhythmic forms or simple melodies.

The children also take rhythmic notation and practice their rhythm reading skills using the model words as "handles" for the rhythms. It is most useful to remain with a particular set of model words for several months at least.

The rhythmic building bricks which are useful in 3/4 meter are:

The model words can be taught using the activities mentioned above and with more ideas from Elementaria, then used as a means to guide children as they prepare the instrument parts for songs in The Little Christmas Book. Invite the children to create other accompaniments for the songs using rhythms they create from model words. Layering two or three model words at a time on instruments of varying tone colour is another possibility. New sections can be added to the pieces, i.e. introductions, interludes, codas, or longer sections using the model word rhythms with simple pitched or unpitched instruments.

Obviously, the rhythmic building bricks for 2/4 meter can also be used with 4/4 and easily modified for 2/8 or 2/2 meters. The rhythmic building bricks for 3/4 meter can be modified for 3/8 or 3/2 meters and by extension, adapted for use with compound duple meters-6 /4 or 6/8, and compound triple meters such as 9/8.

These are just some of the possibilities for encouraging children to be apart of the creative process. My hope is that The Little Christmas Book will become a small but valuable resource in your quest to nurture the creative, child-centered musical development in each of your students.