Britten songs added to Charanga programmes

Charanga, in partnership with Aldeburgh Music, is producing new, exciting and contemporary digital resources to support Benjamin Britten’s “Friday Afternoons”.

The first Unit of Work with resources for the songs “Ee-oh!” and “The Useful Plough”, is now available in two of the Charanga programmes, Musical School and Music Coach, plus as an embeddable widget for any school to use on its own website, as well as on the “Friday Afternoons” website. See the songs here.

The resources comprise six comprehensive units, each divided into six steps. The activities cover the elements of music through listening, creating, singing and playing instruments.

Each step of the unit is supported digitally and with detailed lesson plans and assessment to guide both Specialist and Generalist Teachers. These units cover many elements of the National Curriculum – listening, appraising, improvising, playing instruments and performing. There are differentiated printable parts for 22 instruments.

The material presents an integrated approach to music where games, elements of music (pulse, rhythm, pitch etc), singing and playing instruments are all linked. Other learning within the unit gives a class the opportunity to research Benjamin Britten’s life and to listen to many of his other works through links to Britten100.org and fridayafternoonsmusic.co.uk.

The unit can be also be used by Classroom and Instrumental Teachers who want to work together. All necessary planning and assessment documentation is provided. Classroom Teachers can use this unit to cover elements of their music curriculum; scores are provided for Instrumental Teachers.

The unit is broadly suitable for Upper Key Stage 2 (ages 9-11) and Key Stage 3 (ages 11-14).

The songs can be found in Charanga Musical School in the KS2 units section and in Charanga Music Coach under the KS3 tab.

About The Songs

In 1934 Benjamin Britten wrote a series of 12 songs for the school in Wales where his brother was a teacher. These songs, called Friday Afternoons (that was when pupils had their singing practice), started a long process of writing music for schools and Britten’s lifelong interest in music for young people and in music education.

Britten set to music text by many different poets and authors. The music always illustrates beautifully the mood of the text.

Mark Burke, Charanga Director, said: “We’d like to thank everyone at Aldeburgh Music who is contributing to making this development a success and to the Arts Council for funding it. I hope we can play our part in bringing Britten’s wonderful music to a new generation of school children around the country and stimulate interest in Britten’s work well beyond this centenary year of celebration.”