Florence Price, an African-American composer from Little Rock, Arkansas in the US, wrote this short and lively piece of music in 1951. It is full of jumps and flourishes and describes a mosquito flying around and disrupting things, as a Goblin tries to go about his day!
Encourage the children to experiment and find ways that best help them best to focus, which can be different for each person. There is no ‘right’ way to listen, and the more opportunities children have to practice active listening the more likely they are to weave music throughout their daily lives, supporting their health and well-being – reflecting, lifting or calming their mood.
- Eyes open, watching the screen as pianist Alexandra Dariescu performs the piece
- Eyes closed, either sitting up or with their heads resting on the table or desk
- Drawing or making marks on paper – ‘painting’ the sound as they listen
- Listening to music as they colour in or draw freehand – this can help children who find it more difficult to focus develop their active listening skills
Listening activities:
We can see the mosquito onscreen, showing us where we are in the music (so helpful!), but what do the children think the Goblin looks like? Ask the children to listen first and picture the Goblin in their minds as they do so, then to draw him/her afterwards
Questions and prompts:
What do the children think this music tells us about the relationship between the Goblin and the Mosquito? Are they friends, enemies? Are they having a fight, joking around?
How does listening to this piece of music make the children feel? Do they feel different after they hear it? What expressive language can they use to describe those feelings?
Writing a piece of music about a Goblin and a Mosquito is a pretty funny thing to do! Why do the children think Florence Price chose those two characters? What characters would they like to write a piece of music about, and how would their piece of music sound? What instruments would they use? What instructions would they give the performers to play it?