Repertoire Project Piece 7: La Lluvia

"La Lluvia" could be a great way to start exploring music from around the world, or in this case, from Ecuador. The lack of text, or rather the lack of English, would be a great way to work on really pure and unified vowels and would side-step a the challenge of singing in English. This also allows for some creative thinking on the part of the teacher and the students to give meaning to the piece. One idea would be to assign ideas based on what each musical theme could be personifying. Each part has a relatively large range, but the ranges are expansive in an attainable way, making this piece perfect for an advanced middle school or early to intermediate high school mixed groups. The themes get passed around often, making all four parts very interesting to sing. It also has some really cool and accessible percussion parts, including use of the vibraslap. Other musical concepts that can be taught include phrase shape, tuning minor chords, and learning parts on solfege.