The traditional story of The Stone Cutter is told by Molly Rainford accompanied by members of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

The video

The Stone Cutter

Presenter: Molly Rainford
Composer: Daniel Whibley
Instruments: Tabla / Violin / Oboe / Cor Anglais

Synopsis

The Stone Cutter is unhappy with his humble job and wishes for greater things in life. One day he see's a rich man riding a horse and wishes that he was a rich man. He makes the wish and, when he opens his eyes, the stone cutter's wish has come true!

The stone cutter rides through town as a rich man. He hears the trumpet of elephants and sees a king sitting on a throne underneath a huge umbrella. The rich man closes his eyes and wishes that he was a king. When he opens his eyes, his wish has once again come true - he is now a king sitting in the shade.

The king looks down at the people fanning themselves under the hot and powerful sun. He thinks he should be the sun, shining down on everyone. The king closes his eyes and wishes to be the sun.

The king is now a great yellow, shining sun, enjoying making people hot. But then a cloud passes before him, blocking out his rays, so he closes his eyes and wishes that he was a cloud.

The sun is now a cloud, floating in the sky and raining down on the people below. But then the cloud's way is blocked by a huge mountain rising out of the earth. He thinks, 'I shouldn't be a cloud, I should be an enormous mountain.'

Once more his wish comes true, and he becomes a strong, tall mountain. In the distance, he can hear a stone cutter, chipping away at the base of the mountain and filling a basket with stones. 'I should be a stone cutter,' he thinks. 'They're much more powerful than a mountain.'

He closes his eyes and wishes to be a stone cutter once more. When he opens them, he has returned to a stone cutter, happy to be himself, chipping away at the side of the mountain.

Curriculum links

Music
The film and the accompanying Teacher Notes can be used to fulfil the following objectives of the Key Stage 1 music curriculum, which states that pupils should be taught to:

  • use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
  • play tuned and untuned instruments musically
  • listen with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music
  • experiment with, create, select and combine sounds using the inter-related dimensions of music.

English
The film and the accompanying Teacher Notes can also be used to target objectives from the Key Stage 1 English curriculum, particularly relating to Spoken language, Reading and Writing.

Resources

Teacher Notes. document

Download / print the Teacher Notes for this episode

Teacher Notes

The instruments. image

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The instruments

Vocabulary. image

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Vocabulary

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