1
SARUM VOICES WITH THE UGLY BABY
South American tour, March 2010
TEACHER’S RESOURCE PACK
This pack contains:
P1
P2
P3
P4
P5
P6
P7
P8
Preparation
Classroom warmup
Written tasks: background
Written tasks: poetry
Classroom brainstorm: poetry
The spoken word
Music and words
Classroom finale
PREPARATION
Ask students to look at the following websites:
www.actorstouruguay.com,
http://www.sarumvoices.co.uk
www.jclamb.com
http://www.expatdailynews.com/2010/03/expat-lifestyles-working-in-uruguay-as.html
What connections between the first three sites can they find? What is the objective of each site?
Younger students: what does a poet look like? Draw your idea of one.
Older students: research the tradition of English light verse. Some names: Edward Lear,
W.S.Gilbert, Hilaire Belloc, Dorothy Parker, A.A.Milne, T.S. Eliot, Mervyn Peake, J. Marriott
Edgar, John Betjeman, Donald Flanders, Roger McGough, Loudon Wainwright III, Tom Lehrer,
Roald Dahl, John Hegley. What connection with music has there been?
A presentation to prepare: The Limerick.
Example:
There was a young fellow who said,
‘I wish I could sit on my head.
But try as I might
I just can’t get it right,
So I’ll stand on my bottom instead.’
Draw a cartoon of this, or write a limerick beginning ‘There was an old man with a hat’.
2
CLASSROOM WARM-UP
Comprehension exercise. The teacher reads aloud the following passage about Sarum Voices,
as many times and with as much explanation as is required.
A young and up-and-coming British choir called Sarum Voices will be touring the River
Plate at the end of March 2010, hosted by www.actorstouruguay.com, a non-profit fund
which seeks to bring professional British shows to the Southern Cone.
The choir has made seven CD's so far. They are from Salisbury in the south of England,
near the prehistoric monument Stonehenge. Many of them have sung in Salisbury
Cathedral, a 12th’century treasure with the tallest spire in the country. They have toured in
Europe, and have worked in conjunction with a performance poet named Jonathan Lamb,
an Englishman resident in Uruguay whose website www.jclamb.com contains a clip of
Sarum Voices singing his lullaby ‘Night Night’, an unusual lyric to part of Beethoven´s
Pathétique sonata. The choir’s own website is http://www.sarumvoices.co.uk. Their
concerts, containing a mix of ancient and modern music interspersed with comedy
readings in English from Jonathan Lamb’s book The Ugly Baby, will take place at the
Millington-Drake Theatre, San Jose 1426 (tickets $225 or $150 for school groups of 20 or
more) on two dates only Wednesday March 24 at 8pm, and Thursday March 25 th, half an
hour earlier at 7.30pm. They last about eighty minutes. Before coming to Montevideo,
Sarum Voices will do two concerts in Buenos Aires. The British Ambassador will be
throwing a party for them, and they hope to end their tour by performing in Maldonado.
The 12 travellers leave for London on Sunday 28 March after a week in Uruguay, a country
which none of them know. They have been looking forward to discovering it.
A teacher's resource pack using the readings will be circulated beforehand, and publicity
for the concerts will be boosted by the PR departments of the AACI and Anglo, who are
hosting the shows. Last year, when www.actorstouruguay.com brought a sell-out show to
Buenos Aires and Montevideo about the Battle of the River Plate, the publicity included 5
TV and 8 radio interviews, plus feature articles in the Buenos Aires Herald, Galeria and El
País.
Then the teacher arranges all the students in a line. Tallest to the right. Starting at the left-hand
end, the teacher asks factual questions about the text. Eg what is the choir called? Where are
they from? If a student gets the answer right, the teacher passes to the next student along. If a
student does not get the answer right, the teacher asks the next one, the one after that, etc.
When finally a student gets the answer right, they take the place of the first student asked, who
drops down one place. So do all the others who were asked. The winner is the student who ends
up at the left-hand end.
3
WRITTEN TASKS: BACKGROUND
Define the following terms from the text:
Up-and-coming
Non-profit fund
Performance poet
Throwing a party (why ‘throwing’?)
Teacher’s resource pack
Feature articles
Check out Salisbury Cathedral on the Net. What is the square around a Cathedral called? Why?
How long did this cathedral take to build? What famous document does it contain? Why is that
document important? What unusual plaque does the Cathedral contain, in memory of someone
who died before they were born? Which famous artist painted this cathedral? Which NobelPrizewinning author wrote a novel about its construction? (ADVANCED: What central irony did
that novel contain?) To what branch of what religion does Salisbury Cathedral belong? To what
beliefs does it hold? Who is its leader? (ADVANCED: what socioeconomic interests can it be
expected to advance? In what ways is it currently divided?)
What are the most famous choirs in modern England? When would you hear choral music?
What link is there to English folk music? What future does choral music have in the technological
era?
Imagine you are presenting Sarum Voices to a concert audience. What would you say about
them?
4
WRITTEN TASKS: POETRY
Preparation: what is a poem? What makes it different from prose? What do you think are the
three most famous poems in English? Why is English a good language for poetry? Why do so
many people try to publish poems?
Listen to the actor Timothy West reading ‘Thoughts on a Salmon and Cucumber Sandwich’ at
www.jclamb.com.
Write out the poem as you hear it, with punctuation.
Draw a picture to illustrate the poem.
Think of some other things we eat that make strange combinations. Write a short poem about
them. Eg bacon and eggs, or pigeon pie:
I ponder long
On pigeon pie
And find it
Quite absurd
That birds
Eat grain
And when they die
The grain consumes the bird
Look in an anthology of English light verse for other poems about food. Choose one and explain
why you have chosen it.
Study the following poem carefully. It is called ‘Out of Schnauzers’ and will be performed at the
concert. Try doing it with one person telling the story and the other being the assistant. Make the
assistant superior to the customer.
I went to get some photos done.
The assistant said 'Yes?'
I said, 'I've got these photos...'
He said, 'Standard, or LMNOPQRS?'
'Family photos, is it? Size of family?
Parents...twins...dog...that's four.
Camping holiday? Tent or caravan?
Caravan? Flange style or sliding door?
I said 'LMNO what?' He said, 'Hmm.
Standard…
Printed on paper, was it, or discs?’
I said 'Paper'. He said, 'Twenty-four
Exposures, or thirty-six?'
‘Roadjammer – Elite - beige. Yes, that’s OK…
Now about the dog you mentioned before:
Small dog or large dog?
Schnauzer. White mark on paw.’
I said 'Thirty-six'. He said, 'Thank you…
Flash photography or exterior?
I said, ‘Exterior’. He said, ‘City, beach?
Woodland. Mm-hmm. Bavaria...'
'I'll just check on Schnauzers...no,
We're out of those', he said.
I can do you two Chows or a spaniel.'
So we’ve got a spaniel instead.
5
CLASSROOM BRAINSTORM: POETRY
The teacher divides the class into groups and asks each group to think of reasons for writing. Eg
a postcard, shopping list, text message, web posting. Why would people want to write for fun?
What might prompt someone to write a poem? How many different ways could it be written (pen
on paper, stick in sand, vapour trail on sky etc)? Love poems: do they have to be to another
person? Listen to Luis Alberto Lacalle on www.jclamb.com, reading ‘Uruguay’.
Grant me Lord
That when I die
Heaven will be like
Uruguay
Sunshine lemons
Pears and peaches
Miles and miles
And miles of beaches
Laughing chicas
In bikinis
Luscious cream cakes
Called Massinis
Steak-smoke heavy
In the street
Such meat
Such meat
Parrots gliding
On the breeze
The scent of
Eucalyptus trees
Sunsets on a
Silver sea
Turning pink
And gold for me
But best of all
O utter joy!
Several girls
To every boy
Grant me Lord
That when I die
Heaven will be like
Uruguay
Quickly make up a love poem to another group. Sing it and/or perform it to them.
6
THE SPOKEN WORD
Written preparation. What are the differences between reading, reciting, storytelling and acting?
Give examples. What is ‘the oral tradition’?
Spoken preparation. The following poem is designed to be read to one sweep of the second
hand on a clock, to coincide with the years of a life that ends at 60 because of smoking. Find a
clock with a second hand, the bigger the better, and try to read the poem aloud, with more and
more coughing, so that the timing works. End by getting really hoarse.
ONE MINUTE ANTI-SMOKING ROCK POEM
I’m alive and I am three
Everybody look at me
Things are goin’ mighty fine
Before you know it I am nine
And soon I try a cigarette
I’m gonna live forever yet
Oh I look good and I look mean
On a pack a day when I’m nineteen
And it’s so great to be alive
Smokin’ hard at twenty-five
Smoke smoke smoke I know it’s dirty
But smokin’s cool when you are thirty
And it’s so great to be alive
Smokin’ hard at thirty-five
(COUGHING STARTS AND GETS PROGRESSIVELY WORSE)
I shouldn’t smoke, I know it’s naughty
But I’m in charge ‘cause I am forty
And it’s so good to be alive
Smokin’ hard at forty-five
But I am coughin’ fit to burst
By the time I reach my fifty-first
I wish I hadn’t smoked at all
Cancer hurts kids, hear my call
Quit smokin’
(Advanced) Record the poem over suitable music , eg 60’s rock ‘n roll.
(Really advanced) Make a YouTube film of it.
Further study: listen to the actor Robert Hardy read ‘Well-Done Wilkins’ at www.jclamb.com. This
poem will be performed in the concert.
Syndicate exercise: Why might one want to read aloud? What are the differences between
reading aloud, reciting, singing and acting?
7
MUSIC AND WORDS
Preparation
Songs are probably the rhyming texts that we hear most often. What is the difference between a
poem and a song? Who is your favourite songwriter? Why?
Listen to the soundtrack of a short film about eye care
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRea3aFIb9g
with music by Jonathan Lamb (who plays the doctor)
This tune has no lyrics as yet. Would it make a love song? Give a sample of a possible lyric.
Most modern songwriters start with a tune and fit the words to it. One rock megastar is famous,
though, for starting with the words and finding a tune. Who? Why?
Listen to the author play ‘The Lost Lyrics to Fur Elise’ at www.jclamb.com. (Older students: then
listen to Prunella Scales read ‘Tinkle, Tinkle, Little Dog’ on the same site.) What connection is
there between anger and comedy?
Finally, listen to Sarum Voices sing ‘Night, Night’. Then listen to the whole of Beethoven’s
Pathétique sonata. What would Beethoven think of these words? What films are famous for
using his music? If you were making a film, what other part of the Pathétique would you use? In
what sort of scene?
8
CLASSROOM FINALE
Practice singing ‘Night, Night’ from www.jclamb.com for the end of the concert.
(To the adagio cantabile from Beethoven’s piano sonata No 8 in C minor op.13, the ‘Pathétique’)
Night
Night
Sleep
Tight
Don’t let
The bed bugs bite
And when your toes
And your nose glow
Sleep
Sleep will come to fetch you
Blasted sheep
Night
Night
Sleep
Tight
It’s off to sleep you go
Away you fly
Through your mind’s eye
Go
Counting sheep will help you
One two three four five six sheep
One two three four five six sheep
One two three four five
Bar bar
And you’re still
Not asleep
Oh no
One two three four sheep in a car
One two three four sheep
In a bar
Night
Night
Sleep
Tight
It’s off to sleep you go
Yes it’s nice to know
You’ve enjoyed the show
So
I will just wish you good night
Night
9
‘The Ugly Baby’ by Jonathan Lamb, Poor Tree Press, 2007. 395pp, 15 USD or four for 50.
Schools and universities: 50 for 500 USD. Available from www.jclamb.com, by mail to
[email protected] or by phone or fax to (00 598) 2 712 6864.