Using Tolkien for Teaching Music

Key Stages 1 and 2

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The following suggestions are an attempt to show how the works of J.R.R.Tolkien could be used effectively for music teaching for Key Stages 1 and 2. We have chosen The Hobbit and Roverandom, as most suitable for children of this age, but one could also explore the possibilities inherent in such works as Farmer Giles of Ham, Smith of Wooton Major, Mr. Bliss, Father Christmas Letters or even utilize episodes from The Silmarillion or The Lord of the Rings. In addition, when choosing lyrics for song compositions, neither the poems from the Trilogy or from the Adventures of Tom Bombadil should be overlooked. The numbered Units refer to the corresponding section of the QCA: our "Unit 1" presents our suggestions for the first unit of the QCA, Our "Unit 2" the suggestions for the second QCA unit, and so on.

The Educational Team of the Tolkien Society would be delighted to hear of any teacher having already used Tolkien in class work, and will acknowledge gratefully any comments or improvements on the present work.

Unit 1

Roverandom

Ask the children to use their voices for imitating the animals in Roverandom as, for example:

• Tinker the cat
• Moon-dog
• The Moon-sheep

The Hobbit

Ask the children to use their voices to imitate the following characters:

• The trolls( low voice)
• The Elf-king (medium range)
• The small goblins (high voice)
• Beorn's animals: horses, bees, sheep, dogs and Beorn himself as a bear.

Unit 2

Roverandom

Tell the children the first part of Roverandom (from the beginning to the landing on the Moon) and ask the children to create sounds for accompanying it.

The Hobbit

Select an episode from The Hobbit and illustrate it with sounds. For example: Goblin-town.

• Bilbo, Gandalf and the dwarves are sleeping at the entrance of the cave (soft, quiet sounds)
• The goblins come in (soft trampling feet), seize Bilbo and the dwarves (shrieks)
• The goblins bring their prisoners to Goblin-town (heavy trampling feet)
• The prisoners are presented to the Great Goblin (mocking laughs and growling of the goblins)
• Gandalf appears and kills the Great Goblin (a big explosion or a thunder noise for Gandalf's staff. The Goblins cry in dismay.)
• Gandalf leads Bilbo and the dwarves out of Goblin-town (noise of trampling feet which fades out)

Unit 3

Roverandom

Ask the children to imitate long and short sounds to illustrate Roverandom, for example:

• long: the sea
• short: the footsteps of the magician
• long and short combined: Roverandom barks and growls.

The Hobbit

Ask the children to imitate long and short sounds to illustrate The Hobbit, for example:

• long: the snoring of Smaug as he sleeps on his hoard
• short: Gandalf knocking at Bilbo's door
• long and short combined: Bilbo and the spiders. The spiders growl (long), Bilbo shrieks (short)

Unit 4

Stories are not used as resources in this unit

Unit 5

Roverandom

Holding a xylophone vertically with the lowest notes at the bottom illustrate:

• Rover flying to the moon (from middle range to high range)
• Rover coming back to the Earth (from high range to middle range)
• Rover descending into the Sea (from middle range to low range) and back again.

Find short melodic phrases to represent characters of the story:

• Little boy Two
• The Man-in-the-Moon
• The singing flowers in the Moon
• Mew the Seagull
• The sand-sorcerer
• The Great White Dragon
• The Mermaid (princess PAM)
• Roverandom himself. This phrase should be played:
• in the middle-range (young Rover playing in the garden at the beginning of the story)
• in the high range (Rover as a fairy dog)
• in the low range (Rover as a full grown dog)

The Hobbit

Holding a xylophone vertically with the lowest notes at the bottom illustrate:

• Bilbo at the shore of Gollum's lake (low notes)
• Bilbo coming out of the cave (low to middle range)
• Bilbo finding Gandalf and the Dwarves (middle range)
• Bilbo climbing at a tree (middle range to high range)
• The Eagles's eyrie (high range)
• The Eagles bringing Gandalf, Bilbo and the dwarves from the eyrie to the Carrock (high range to middle range)

Find short melodic phrases to represent the following characters of the story:

• Gandalf
• Bilbo
• Thorin Oakenshield
• the Chief Warg
• Bard
• the thrush

Unit 6

Roverandom

Use a scene from Roverandom as a scenario for a class composition, for example: Artaxerxes going to the Sea-Serpent's cave. The sounds could be:

• quiet, middle range, and slow (everybody creeps to the cave)
• quiet, high and quick (Roverandom bites the shark's tail)
• loud, high and quick (The sharks bite one another's tails)
• loud, low and slow (the Sea-serpent turns his tail)
• loud, low and quick (the sandstorm provoked by the Sea-serpent)
• loud, high and quick (everybody flees)

The Hobbit

Use a scene from The Hobbit as a scenario for a class composition, for example: the Trolls. The sounds could be:

• quiet, middle range, moderate (Thorin and Company see a fire in the woods)
• quiet, high, slow (Bilbo creeps to the troll's fire)
• loud, low and slow (the trolls)
• quiet, high, quick (Bilbo steals the troll's purse)
• loud, high, quick (the troll's purse squeaks)
• loud, low and slow (the trolls seize Bilbo)
• loud, high and quick (the Dwarves come and are seized by the trolls)
• loud, high and slow (the Dwarves lament)
• loud, low and quick (the trolls quarrel among themselves)
• loud, low and slow, ( the trolls are changed to stone)
• loud, high and quick (Bilbo and the Dwarves rejoice)

Unit 7

This unit deals with the weather. One could ask the children to devise sounds or create class compositions on weather descriptions from our stories, for example:

Roverandom

• The garden in the sun (with Rover playing with his ball)
• The mist on the sea at night (just before the appearance of the Moon's path)

The Hobbit

• The sun of May (as Gandalf, Bilbo and the Dwarves begin their journey)
• Rain on the Lone-lands (just before the encounter with the Trolls)
• The Thunder-Battle.
• Also related: drops falling on Gollum's lake.

Unit 8

There are no stories used in this unit.

Unit 9

Roverandom

Use for class composition episodes from Roverandom involving animals, for example:

• Mew the Seagull and Roverandom. Roverandom sleeps. He awakes. Mew greets him. Roverandom climbs on the bird's back. Mew flies to the cliff.
• Roverandom chasing rabbits on the Moon
• Roverandom chasing the Sea-Rover in the Sea-palace.
• The Moon-insects

The Hobbit

Use for class composition episodes from The Hobbit involving animals, for example:

• Beorn's friends: Beorn (with the voice of a bear) tell his friends (bees, sheep, dogs and horses) to arrange the table and to bring the dinner for his guests. The animals obey.
• The thrush and old Roac. The thrush invites old Roac to visit the Dwarves. He accepts eagerly. He comes to them and delivers the last news.

Unit 10

There are no stories used in this unit.

Unit 11

There are no stories used in this unit.

Unit 12

Roverandom

Make a song about the Great White Dragon using his description.

Enact the Great White Dragon episode with appropriate musical accompaniment. For example:

The Moon. The Great White Dragon comes and hides in his lair. Roverandom and the Moon-dog arrive. The Great White Dragon comes out, and menaces them. The dogs fly in a hurry. The Dragon chases them. The Man-in-the Moon sees all and decides to help the dogs. He goes for one of his spells. In the meantime the chase continues. When the Dragon is about to size the dogs, the Man-in-the-Moon comes back with his spell and throws it at the Dragon. The worm is hit in the belly and goes away. The dogs are safe.

The Hobbit

Make a song about Smaug using his description.

Enact the Smaug episode with appropriate musical accompaniment. For example:

The Lonely Mountain. The Dwarves work with their treasure. Smaug comes; they fly and leave their jewels. Smaug lies on the hoard and sleeps. The Dwarves come back with Bilbo and send him to the Dragon. Bilbo steals a cup from the hoard and goes away. Smaug wakes, misses the cup, and exits in a fury. The Dwarves come back, examine the treasure, but they hear Smaug and disappear. Enter Smaug and lies on the hoard. Bilbo comes and talks to him in riddles. Smaug will catch him - he flies.

Lake Town: the men of the lake talk of the dragon. Bard is among them, Smaug comes; they fly, except Bard. Bard takes his bow, chooses his arrow and shoots. Smaug dies.

Unit 13

Roverandom

Ask the children to do compositions describing the some locations of Roverandom, for example,

• The Shore
• The forest on the White Side of the Moon
• The children's garden
• The castle of the Sea-king

The Hobbit

Ask the children to do compositions describing some locations of The Hobbit, for example:

• Bag End
• The Mountains
• Rivendell
• Goblin-town
• Beorn's house
• Mirkwood
• The Elven-king's palace
• Lake-town
• The Lonely Mountain

Unit 14

There are no stories used in this unit.

Unit 15

There are no stories used in this unit. However, the teaching of staff notation could be enriched by associating the different note values with characters or things from the stories. For example:

Roverandom

• The longest value, the semibreve, could be Uin the whale.
• The minim, could be Princess PAM (She needs time for swimming)
• The crotchet could be a coral
• The quaver could be a Sea-goblin
• The semi-quaver could be a Sea-Fairy

Then explain that there are two Sea-goblins and four Sea-fairies living in each coral (1 crotchet = 2 quavers = 4 semi-quavers)

The Hobbit

• The longest value, the semibreve, could be fat Bombur.
• The minim, could be Beorn (He needs time and is not in a hurry)
• The crotchet could be a smial
• The quaver could be a woodland elf (they are nimble)
• The semi-quaver could be a hobbit (they are nimble also, but smaller and hence quicker than elves.)

Then explain that there is room enough for two elves and four hobbits in each smial (1 crotchet = 2 quavers = 4 semi-quavers)

Unit 16

There are no stories used in this unit.

Unit 17

There are no stories used in this unit.

Unit 18

Roverandom

Ask the children to compose soundscapes illustrating:

• Mew the Seagull flying to the Moon with Roverandom on his back.
• Roverandom and the Moon-dog flying
• The tower of the Man-in-the-Moon
• The music of the Moon-flowers
• The mountains of the Moon where the Great White Dragon lives.

The Hobbit

There is no space travel in this work. Hence it cannot be used in this unit.

Unit 19

There are no stories used in this unit.

Unit 20

There are no stories used in this unit.

Unit 21

Roverandom

The children could compose a piece, taking as stimuli excerpts from Roverandom not previously used in the class.

The Hobbit

The children could compose a piece, taking as stimuli excerpts from The Hobbit not previously used in the class.

This teaching pack is devised by Rosalia Fernandez-Colmeiro