What's the music this week? w/c 5 December

This week it's all about: Musicals

This week’s MaBaL (musical at break and lunch) is literally as it says on the tin from across the eras and across the genres. From Broadway to Broadgate - as it is the week of the school production held on the evenings of Tuesday, 6 December and Wednesday, 7 December.  

The musical began in the days of the ancient Greeks included music and dance in their stage comedies and tragedies. Staged in open air amphitheatres, these plays featured humour, political and social satire, jugglers, and anything else that might entertain their audience. The songs were often a means for the chorus to comment on the action, but they also took part in the plot, and musical solos were sometimes used. To make their dance steps more audible, Roman actors attached metal chips called "sabilla" to their stage footwear – the first tap shoes.  

Today, in Western theatre, there are three main kinds of dramatic performance involving music.  

1. Ballets communicate their story almost entirely through dance.  
2. Operas are dramatic productions in which the dialogue is nearly entirely sung by the performers. 
3. Musicals are where the actors will often sing, but most of the mundane dialogue and much of the plot is spoken and acted. 

These are the defining differences between musicals and operas, and the category into which our staging of Mary Poppins belongs. 

MABAL is music played through the school's tannoy system during break and lunch.  Chosen by Mr Taylor, Lead Teacher for Music, this is designed to offer exposure to the curriculum in different ways, and support pupils' appreciation of music.

The focus is on one theme each week across a genre, a country or from history.  The theme could also link to the season or an event in school, such as the production.  Any further suggestions are welcomed - pupils should see Mr Taylor or email a.taylor@priory.lancs.sch.uk