mother goose’s melody – clap your hands and stuff

mother goose’s melody is a piece of mine comprised of three short movements that are each a setting of a different nursery rhyme. clap your hands is the third movement.

This movement is as much as possible meant to be a mirror image of the first movement.  Like ring around the rosie it’s all about moving from one extreme of tessitura to the other.  It’s a barn-burner begins low and sober, in the men’s voices, and builds up to a shatter-climax of a chord on the last beat.

Also noteworthy is the fact that the while the first movement features high voice types, this one features the lows.  ring around the rosie begins with a back and forth with the tenors and sopranos while clap your hands is all about altos and basses.  One of the big draws for me with choral music is the idea that everybody gets to have a melody.  I began my musical life as a subservient drummer so I feel the tinge of dissatisfaction along side my sisters in the alto section as they plonk through their one note melodies.