Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

Tigers and Teapots is a collection of traditional children's songs, arranged for unison voices and strings, by David Banney. The pieces can be performed in many ways - they can be performed as indicated, for choir and strings, or the vocal lines can be performed by one or more instruments. The songs have been performed by a range of orchestras, choirs and schools around Australia, and Tigers and Teapots has become a staple of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra's education program.

As most of the pieces are very short, no separate parts are provided for different sections of the orchestra (with the exception of a few longer pieces). This allows children to learn to read from a score and allows for flexible rehearsals, in which, for example, the whole orchestra has the opportunity to learn one part before learning separate parts.

Work Details

Year: 2014

Instrumentation: Unison voices, strings.

Duration: 12 min.

Difficulty: Easy — The vocal parts are easy, being traditional children's songs, and can be sung by primary school choirs. The orchestra parts range from easy to medium, with more challenging solo parts in some pieces

Contents note: I. My dog -- II. Big black train -- III. A rainy day -- IV. Bluebells -- V. Bye, bye, baby -- VI. Twinkle, twinkle, little star -- VII. Dinah.