It's Time For The Fall

If changing leaves and cooling air put a skip in your step, this song is for you! Lighthearted and lilting, it tells a mini tale of the changing of the seasons from summer to fall. Mostly, it has a bouncy and joyful feeling, which happens naturally in a major key in 6/8. The addition of the punctuating claps helps as well. When the lyrics remind us, however, that the days are getting shorter, the tone becomes decidedly more introspective. At that point the 6/8 slows down and switches over to a slow, gentle 4/4 time. Not to be taken too seriously, it is marked "quasi-poignantly," which could translate to almost theatrically, but not over the top. Fear not, the mood shifts back to joy as it speeds up and goes back into 6/8 just in time for another iteration of the chorus. At measure 45, it winds down by repeating all the verses, but backwards this time. That will keep your kids focused!

The optional second part adds to the delight of the piece with musical "commentary" that comes and goes. Kids will get a kick out of saying "fall-de-rol" and "fa-ha-hall," especially if you give them permission to be a tad silly about it. (Do tell them that the real word is "folderol," which means trivial, as in, no big deal.) To help teach this part, we have isolated it and put it on our web site.