10 Selected Songs:

1. Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen. 0:38
2. Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Prelude and Fugue in C, No.1. Glenn Gould, piano. 4:48
3. Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor. 2:55
4. “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05
5. “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38
6. Holborne, Paueans, Galliards, Almains and Other Short Aeirs, “The Fairie Round,” performed by David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London. 1:17
7. Mexico, “El Cascabel,” performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México. 3:14
8. China, ch’in, “Flowing Streams,” performed by Kuan P’ing-hu. 7:37
9. Bach, “Gavotte en rondeaux” from the Partita No. 3 in E major for Violin, performed by Arthur Grumiaux. 2:55
10. Senegal, percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle. 2:08

To be honest, when I played the songs for the group of Grade 4/5 learners in my care, words such as “depressing”, “weird”, “it sounds like funeral music” were used to describe many of the songs. And I agreed. I appreciate that diversity and cultural representation was one of the record’s goals (which is fantastic), but I can’t help but wonder why so many of the songs chosen also sound rather depressing to me?

So, for my criteria on the given selection, I chose the songs that simply sounded the most appealing to me, and what songs I noticed the children dancing, moving, or showing the most positive regard to.