![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/20170306_163258-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve ever been to Meadowlark, my music class for children and caregivers, you\u2019ve seen our weekly felted puppet show. \u00a0\u00a0Today I\u2019m going to share more about what goes into creating a Meadowlark puppet show. \u00a0And I want to let you in on the story behind our current puppet show song, \u201cAll the Pretty Little Horses.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I learned to make handmade felted puppets during the years I spent teaching in Waldorf early childhood programs. \u00a0Through observing a few different mentors as they created their own puppets, I learned the art of needle felting.<\/span><\/p>\n In needle felting, you bind together tufts of colored wool, poking them into place with a barbed needle. \u00a0It\u2019s careful work, but it’s also very intuitive and forgiving, as little by little, your creation comes into form. \u00a0Needle felting is a great craft to do while watching your children play, and older children can try their hand at it too, though supervision is required. My four year old son is always eager to try his hand at the needle. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I usually create puppet shows to accompany songs in languages other than English, so that the visuals can help people understand the words. \u00a0But every now and then, I come across a song in English that\u2019s so visually \u00a0evocative, I can\u2019t help myself– I have to bring it to life with puppets. \u00a0\u201cAll the Pretty Little Horses\u201d is one of those songs.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the Pretty Little Horses\u201d is an American folk lullaby. \u00a0Most people know this song by its iconic first verse:<\/p>\n Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry<\/strong> These words, and the hypnotic melody accompanying them, conjure a warm, tender scene– a mother rocking her baby to sleep. \u00a0Like so many lullabies, the song feels soothing but also melancholy, owing to its minor key.<\/p>\n But in this song, there’s more behind the melancholy. \u00a0A lesser known second verse sheds some light on the song\u2019s history.<\/span><\/p>\n Way down yonder<\/strong> –This version transcribed by Dorothy Scarborough, 1925)<\/p>\n I first discovered this song as a young musician, leafing through the dog-eared pages of our family singalong go-to, <\/span>Rise Up Singing. \u00a0<\/span>This was also where I first learned of the story behind the song. \u00a0\u00a0Apparently, this second verse dates back to the times of the American slavery. \u00a0The song, it is believed, reflects the perspective of an enslaved woman, who is being forced to care for the master\u2019s child, while her own child is out in the fields, left to fend for itself. \u00a0As she sings, she describes how her own child must be missing her. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This story speaks powerfully to me as a mother. \u00a0It describes the worst heartache I can imagine, to be forcibly separated from my children. \u00a0It also poses an interesting challenge for me in the interpretation. \u00a0To share the verse in class as it’s written above doesn’t feel right to me in a class for small children, given that it refers to fear and separation. \u00a0At the same time, this history is so important, and speaks so strongly to us as mothers that I’ve wanted to share it with the caregivers in the class. \u00a0Just so that we can all remember that\u00a0long ago woman, and honor her by acknowledging the reality of her lived experience. \u00a0<\/span>Then I realized, I could tell you here.<\/span><\/p>\n The puppet show is my attempt to bridge the gap between what feels right to bring to the children in class, and what is likely historically true. \u00a0I\u2019ve represented the singer as an African-American woman. I\u2019ve also reunited her with her child. \u00a0This felt right to me, because we hold our children in the tenderness of our hearts, even when we are physically separated. \u00a0We hold them in our hearts when circumstances require us to seek other caregivers to be with them. \u00a0We hold them when we go back to work. \u00a0When they start school. \u00a0When they grow up, get married, have children. \u00a0If my mother and Grandmothers are right (and lord knows they pretty much always are<\/strong>!) we will hold them forever, even as we let them go, to follow their own paths. \u00a0And they will probably never know how we hold them, until, when they become parents, they discover it themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n One thing I know for sure… \u00a0When our children grow up, they\u2019ll remember the songs we sang together. \u00a0Maybe they\u2019ll even pass them onto their children. \u00a0Songs like this help reweave our connection to\u00a0that long ago mother, and to\u00a0all the mothers who have been.<\/span><\/p>\n Source– Traditional<\/strong>. \u00a0Vocals, guitar, and production– Noe Venable, \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Violin– Alan Lin<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Horse-needle-felting-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/h1>\n
The Story Behind the Song<\/b><\/h1>\n
\nGo to sleep little baby<\/strong>
\nWhen you wake<\/strong>
\nYou shall have<\/strong>
\nall the pretty little horses<\/strong>
\nBlacks and bays, dapples and greys,<\/strong>
\nCoach and six little horses.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nIn the meadow<\/strong>
\nPoor little baby crying Momma<\/strong>
\nThe birds and the butterflies<\/strong>
\nFlutter round his eyes<\/strong>
\nScares the poor baby cryin\u2019 Momma<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/butterfly-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.noevenable.com\/singingcircles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/20170306_163113-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAbout the Puppet Show<\/b><\/h1>\n
Hear the Song<\/strong><\/h1>\n