The third method I will use is drawn from musique concrete, a French term for compositions that use a collage like technique. We again refer to
Hickory, Dickory, Dock.
Some students would be directed to make a clucking sound with their tongue that would imitate the tick-tock of a clock. We could use a glockenspiel and have an upward glissando occur as the mouse runs up the clock. Then the glissando would go downward for the mouse running down. The tongue clucking would continue throughout.
Humpty Dumpty
would also suit this treatment.
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Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
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Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
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All the king's horses and all the king's men
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Couldn't put Humpty together again.
A medium sized drum and a low drum could play an alternating steady beat throughout the rhyme. If that was not available a group could be directed to say bom-bum in a low steady voice. When Humpty falls there will be a long downward glissando on the glockenspiel followed by a cymbal crash. The glissando could also be done vocally, starting on a high note and getting lower, then ending by making a big clap. The horses could be imitated by a clip-clop sound made vocally or by wood blocks. The king's men could be evoked by several students marching as that line is read. The last line could be read with no other sounds being made.
Another rhyme to try might be Rain
On The Green Grass
.
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Rain on the green grass,
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And rain on the tree;
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Rain on the housetop,
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But not on me.
For this poem we might use a shaker or a rain tree stick to imitate the falling rain on the grass. The shaker could continue and then we would use desktops or claves to symbolize rain on the trees. Those two parts would keep going as we added light drumming on books or a tambourine for the rain on the roof, then silence while the last line is read.
With this sound-montage idea, our imaginations make the boundaries. What do certain actions or things sound like? Once we have decided that something can be imitated or mimicked in a certain way, there is no place for a counter argument. In this way we are using the imagery of the words to help us develop our own associations with them. I believe that this will help the student poets to write more creatively and assertively because they will use inventive ideas in their writing.
