The Fountain In The Park

Here's a happy, snappy, fun song for your intermediate to advanced groups. Titled "The Fountain In The Park," it is also known as "While Strollin' Through The Park One Day," or "In The Merry Merry Month Of May." It was written by a fella named Ed Haley in the late 1800s and generally is heard in barbershop style. We don't include a barber but we do have this 3-part version that was arranged in a barbershop style setting. You'll hear instrumentation typical of the era, revolving primarily around a piano, clarinet, and strumming banjo.

Younger groups could perform this piece in unison while your older groups can easily handle the SSA version. And you do have some whistlers in your ranks, right? The bridge requires it, although you could slide by without it because the clarinet plays the part.

About that bridge… You'll hear on the demo, at measure 13 the second time, an altered vocal sound. We're going for a muted trumpet sound here so have the kids cup their hands over their mouths while pinching their noses. Of course, they'll have to let go to whistle unless you use solo whistlers. And be on your toes right after the whistle for measure 20 which is a 6/4 bar.

While singing, we found that if we exaggerated the "bounce," punching and shortening some of the words like "park" and "month" (in the first two lines), it created a pleasing snappy effect. Also, as we mixed this song in the studio, we found that we had to be careful not to let parts 2 and 3 overwhelm part 1. You might want to watch out for that in your performance as well.

Actual strolling encouraged! - Or at least some period-appropriate movement. Melissa Schott has once again come up with some darling moves you can employ with your students in a performance setting or just for the fun of it. As always, she encourages you to change her suggestions any way you like to make it work for your kids. You can find her video demo online along with a PDF of her movement teaching notes. Add some costumes from the era to featured dancers or everyone to really make it special.