BBC Teach > Primary > EYFS / KS1 Music > Musical Storyland
A musical re-telling of the ancient legend of The Great Race, told by Nihal Arthanayake and accompanied by members of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra with guest guzheng player Zi Lan Liao.
The video
Voiceover: Come to a magical place,of fairy tales and adventure.Let the music take you far away,to Musical Storyland.
Nihal: Welcome to Musical Storyland with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. My name is Nihal and these are my friends and their instruments.
Zi Lan: Hello my name is Zi Lan and I play the guzheng.
Jenny: My name is Jenny and I play the piccolo.
Simon: My name is Simon and I play the violin.
Jess: My name is Jess and I play the cello
Nihal: Together we're going to tell the musical story of The Great Race, a tale that is told in China.
Many years ago, the Jade Emperor of China held a race across a great riverto decide the order of the years of the Zodiac.
The Jade Emperor invited all the animals of the world, but only twelve chose to race.
Twelve daring animals
trying to win the race
for the order of the Zodiac
each will find a place.
The river's current was very strong and the rat was small,he knew he would find it difficult to swim across safely.
But the rat was also clever and so he asked the Ox if he could hitch a ride across the water.
The Ox agreed and swam them both across, the rat jumped off and ran to cross the finish line first.
The hard-working Ox soon followed behind in second place.
Twelve daring animals,
trying to win the race
for the order of the Zodiac
each will find a place.
The tiger was determined and swam fast across the river.He finished in third place.
The dragon flew up into the sky.
The rabbit was nimble jumping from stone to stone across the water.
But suddenly the rabbit slipped and started to float downstream.
The Dragon was kind and flew back to help the rabbit.
With a powerful puff of air, she blew the rabbit safely across the river.
The rabbit finished in fourth and never knew who had saved her.
The kind dragon followed behind in fifth place.
Twelve daring animals,
trying to win the race
for the order of the Zodiac
each will find a place.
The snake hitched a ride on the horse's leg.
When they reach the other side of the riverthe Snake took sixth place and the horse was seventh.
The monkey, the goat and the rooster were not good swimmers,so they decided to work together and build a raft.The rooster steered the raft, and the monkey and the goat paddled.
The goat, monkey and rooster crossed the finish line togetherand the Jade Emperor was impressed by their teamwork.
He gave the goat eighth place, the monkey ninth, and the rooster tenth.
Twelve daring animals,
trying to win the race
for the order of the Zodiac
each will find a place.
Just two animals were left the dog and the pig.
Once she was in the river, the dog forgot all about the race.She swam and splashed and had fun.
Eventually the dog remembered and happily crossed the finish line in eleventh place.
The Jade Emperor was about to call the end of the race, when finally the pig arrived.
The pig wasn't worried about winning and had spent a lovely day eating and sleeping.She was happy to finish in twelfth place.
So that is the legend of how the years of the Chinese Zodiacwere put in their order.
The Jade Emperor was satisfied, one year for each of the twelve animals.
Twelve daring animals
trying to win the racefor
the order of the Zodiac,
each will find a place.
Twelve daring animals
trying to win the race
for the order of the Zodiac,
each will find a place.
The Great Race
Presenter: Nihal Arthanayake
Composer: Daniel Whibley
Instruments: Violin / Piccolo / Flute / Cello / Guzheng
Synopsis
The Jade Emperor of China held a race across a great river to decide the order of the years of the Zodiac. He invited all the animals of the world, but only twelve chose to race.
To cross the river with a very strong current the clever Rat hitched a ride on the back of the hard-working Ox. Once across the Rat jumped off and ran to cross the finish line first, followed closely by the Ox in second place.
The Tiger was determined and swam fast across the river, finishing third.
Next was the Rabbit, who had started to float downstream when the Dragon kindly blew the Rabbit safely across with a powerful puff of air to finish in fourth. The kind Dragon followed behind in fifth place.
The Snake hitched a ride on the Horse's leg to finish sixth, with the Horse in seventh.
The Monkey, the Goat and the Rooster were not good swimmers, so they decided to work together and build a raft. The Rooster steered the raft, and the Monkey and the goat paddled. The Goat, the Monkey and the Rooster crossed the finish line together and the Jade Emperor was impressed by their teamwork. He gave the Goat eighth place, the Monkey ninth, and the Rooster tenth.
The last two animals were the Dog and the Pig. Once she was in the river, the Dog forgot all about the race. She swam and splashed and had fun. Eventually the Dog remembered and happily crossed the finish line in eleventh place.
The Jade Emperor was about to call the end of the race, when finally the Pig arrived. The Pig wasn't worried about winning and had spent a lovely day eating and sleeping. She was happy to finish in twelfth place.
That is the legend of how the years of the Chinese Zodiac were put in their order, with one year for each of the twelve animals.
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
The instruments. image
Click to display image full size
Vocabulary. image
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BBC Teach > Primary > EYFS / KS1 Music > Musical Storyland