Main /

Song

Song


Page Content:

Definition:

A song is a piece of music with text for the voice. It is a lyric poem with a musical setting that has a number of repeating stanzas (verses) written to be set to music for vocal performance or with accompaniment of musical instruments. Song combines words, tunes, and rhythm in a planned sequence.

Purposes:

  • To experience lyrical performance
  • To entertain
  • To highlight the significance of an event
  • To portray nature
  • To combine words, tune and rhythm in a planned sequence
  • To appreciate rhythm, sound patterns and musical qualities of language

Characteristics:

  • Music and words may be composed together or one after the other
  • Verse is often the equivalent of stanza
  • Does not always follow narrative conventions of theme, characters, setting, plot
  • Forms: ballad, war song, chant, lyric, hymn, madrigal

Author’s craft:

  • May use rhyme
  • May use nonsense verse
  • Repetition of ideas
  • Figures of speech
  • Repetition of sound patterns (e.g. alliteration, assonance, consonance, etc.)
  • Rhythm/cadence
  • Imagery
  • Figures of speech
  • Musical qualities of language
  • Poetic arrangements

Grade Level Instructional Scope for COMPREHENDING the Genre and Text of Songs:

Grade K

Opportunities to Teach:

  • Basic form
  • Purpose
  • Prosody (pitch, loudness, tempo and rhythm patterns in spoken language)
  • Activation of prior knowledge
  • Setting, characters, events (if narrative)
  • Predicting
  • Connecting to ideas and to other songs
  • Retelling
  • Students respond to songs through performance, drawing, and by approximating written language (letters, letter clusters, beginning vocabulary).

Booklists:

Access to the Documents:

Complete K-8 Genre Project
From the Michigan Department of Education

Complete K-8 Genre Booklist
From Kent Intermediate School District


Page last modified on February 27, 2009, at 02:28 PM