Carnaross National School, Kells, Co. Meath

‘Music Makes Words Fly’, performed by the 40-strong Carnaross National School Ensemble.

Primary Finalist in the 2020 Waltons Music for Schools Competition.

Carnaross National School approached the 2020 Competition theme – ‘Where words fail, music speaks’ – by giving the children ‘uninfluenced’ time (by teachers or peers) to consider the theme and jot down their thoughts in private as part of their homework. The following day they shared, compared and compiled ideas in school. They listened to a range of instrumental pieces and imagined what messages they were trying to convey to the listener. They read random song lyrics and imagined if the accompanying music would be fast, slow, loud or soft. And they watched clips from movies, both with and without music. All agreed that although words are powerful, it’s often music that makes words fly! The idea of using a teacher struggling to convey an idea or a feeling to her young students arose. Maybe some music would help? ‘The Butterfly’, arranged by the children with a counter melody by the teacher, was chosen as students were learning the tune at the time and had mentioned many times how it put them in good form and made them feel like dancing. They then decided to add ‘The Caterpillar’ to convey the stunning transformation from slow and lumbering to light and playful – the miracle of metamorphosis. This is followed by Glen Ballard and David A. Stewart’s ‘Ordinary Miracle’, chosen because it describes miracles (like the life cycle of a butterfly) happening around us every day. Although they used an existing arrangement of the song, the children chose to break it up into sections in order to emphasise the climax of their ‘ordinary miracle’.