The Handwork teacher

I am a mother to two beautiful girls and I teach Handwork and Fine Arts in our local waldorf charter school in Arizona.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Mood of the fifth pentatonic songs

Have you heard of the mood of the 5th?

I am just so mesmerized by the whole theory behind it

the music is sung in a way that it has a center point and it makes a figure eight around the center note. SO if you start on A the note will got up and come back down to A and then go down and come back up to A again. 8

like amazing grace is a pentatonic song sung in the mood of the 5th and so is old man river.

The below info is from wiki

A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five pitches per octave in contrast to an heptatonic (seven note) scale such as the major scale. Pentatonic scales are very common and are found all over the world, including but not limited to Celtic folk music, West African music, African-American spirituals, American blues music and rock music, Sami joik singing, children's songs,

5 comments:

Lizz said...

I'm happy to have your "inside information". Blessings.

denise said...

YES! :) Music is in my blood. Thanks for the reminder of theory - we sing, and play and listen - but could tie in the ideas and other music with it. Interesting!

Mama Randa Morning Glory said...

I have long wondered about the mood of the fifth, and your short description told me more than any of the waldorf song books ever have! I still have my doubts though.. I don't really think that every song a child hears and sings should be in the mood of the fifth. I think hearing (and singing) a wide variety of music helps to develope appreciation. To me, songs in the mood of the fifth sound a bit monotanous. I'd love to hear more of n this from you if you're willing to share! Thanks for the post!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for explaining this so simply...it's exactly what I was wondering! Peace to you!

Anonymous said...

Hi. I wondering if I could make a private inquiry which will not be published on your blog. I work in a Steiner school library in Tasmania, Australia. We have been given a folder of music (with introduction) called Mood of the fifth. As is seems to be photocopied I am trying to find the origin of this work. Are you the author of this work? If not, are you able to tell me the origin of this work? The reason for my inquiry is whether it is ok (copyright wise) to catalog this work into our library. My email address is library@tarremah.tas.edu.au