My mother was a very creative person. She could sing and dance and play the piano. She also was good at making things. She could cook and sew and was quite artistic. She always had wonderful ideas for her little children when they couldn't think of anything fun to do on rainy days. I remember the little felt puppets she had made to illustrate the story of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff." She taught us, my brothers and I, how to do a puppet show to act out the story. My brothers always fought over who got to play the ugly, mean troll. It was fun.
As I was pondering how to write the script for my Mini-Musical of "The Tale of The Three Billy Goats Gruff," this memory flooded back to my mind. I simply had to design the mini-musical around acting out a puppet show to this story. I also remembered how she used to say "the grass is always greener on the other side" whenever we wanted things that we just couldn't get right then. Seemed like the perfect moral for this story. So, I started thinking of all the kinds of things we want but simply cannot have or things that are puzzling that we wonder about. With these thoughts in mind, the opener, "Why Is Grass Always Greener on the Other Side?" was born.
I also wanted to include musical themes borrowed from Norway's greatest composer, Edvard Grieg, to flavor this musical re-telling of the famous Norwegian folktale. Music teachers may want to point out these little nods to Edvard Grieg's music. I based the melody and accompaniment rhythms in "Why Is Grass Always Greener on the Other Side" on the "Norwegian Dance #2." I borrowed the sneaky minor themes and chord progression of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from the Peer Gynt Suite #1 for "The Troll Song." And I used the haunting melody from the opening of "In a Morning Mood," also from the Peer Gynt Suite #1, as a motive in "The Billy Goat's Song."
As I was pondering how to write the script for my Mini-Musical of "The Tale of The Three Billy Goats Gruff," this memory flooded back to my mind. I simply had to design the mini-musical around acting out a puppet show to this story. I also remembered how she used to say "the grass is always greener on the other side" whenever we wanted things that we just couldn't get right then. Seemed like the perfect moral for this story. So, I started thinking of all the kinds of things we want but simply cannot have or things that are puzzling that we wonder about. With these thoughts in mind, the opener, "Why Is Grass Always Greener on the Other Side?" was born.
I also wanted to include musical themes borrowed from Norway's greatest composer, Edvard Grieg, to flavor this musical re-telling of the famous Norwegian folktale. Music teachers may want to point out these little nods to Edvard Grieg's music. I based the melody and accompaniment rhythms in "Why Is Grass Always Greener on the Other Side" on the "Norwegian Dance #2." I borrowed the sneaky minor themes and chord progression of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from the Peer Gynt Suite #1 for "The Troll Song." And I used the haunting melody from the opening of "In a Morning Mood," also from the Peer Gynt Suite #1, as a motive in "The Billy Goat's Song."
Elementary classroom teachers already use this story to teach many things, such as comparisons (Little, Medium, and Big), story elements, describing characters, retelling folktales with a moral, building vocabulary, idioms, and so forth. This min-musical expands the range of experiences through use of music, art, poetry, and drama, with a little about the history and culture of Norway, and possibly, through extension into science, studying about why the grass really does look greener from a distance. Now, perhaps, Classroom teachers, as well as Music and Drama teachers may use "The Tale of The Three Billy Goats Gruff" a Mini-Musical as a fun part of their curriculum.
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