The Tortoise and the Hare

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

The Light In Space

Out of the Blue

Musical Motifs

I used musical motifs to depict characters for both my Aesops Fables pieces. For example, in The Tortoise and the Hare, I used a high pitch and disjunct melody to create the bouncy and excitable feeling of the Hare’s character, and show his fast paced and energetic energy in the story. The melody is major with a joyful upbeat feel, with quite a wide range spanning from A#5 to G6. The high voicing of the Piccolo allows it to cut through the mixture of instruments, presenting itself clearly and confidently, just as the hare does. In contrast to this, I used a low pitch Tuba with an Adagio feel to create the slow and calm pace of the tortoise, who has a more reserved and guarded persona. These motifs help to identify each character, when they arrive in the song, and what they are doing, which can be helpful for young listeners to follow the story. For this piece, I also used the classic whistle tune from ‘The Good, The Bad And The Ugly’ (“The Good, the Bad, the Ugly Theme”- Ennio Morricone ”) This iconic melody was a way to create the feeling of tension at the start of the race, as it does in the scene it was written for.

Chords and Harmony

Overall, I used simple melodic writing for The Tortoise and the Hare. The chords follow a basic pattern of Eb and Bb for most of the piece, until the B sections, where the ‘race’ starts and ends, here the chords become Cm, Eb, Gm, Ab to reflect the tense atmosphere of the story.

In The Boy Who Cried Wolf, I continued the use of motivic instrumentation, using a French Horn and chromatic scale to create a curious and suspicious sounding motif for the uncertain villagers. The chords of this piece are Bb major, Dm/A (second inversion), Gm7 in the first section, and then change to Bm, A, G, F# in section 2 creating a descending feel which is mirrored in the bass line. The 3rd section is Em to C#, and then Em, Bm, C, D.

For the Light in Space, I decided to use pentatonic writing for the chords and melody, to create an airy and unsettled feel for the piece. I wanted to steer away from conventional harmony as much as possible. The Verse chords are Ebm7, F#6, Bbm 11 #5, Ab7 sus2, the Chorus chords are F#5, F#, Ab5, Eb sus4. The bridge uses F#,Ab5/ Eb, F#5, Eb5/ Bb, Db5/Ab. I created a synth piano soundscape to begin the piece, and then over time I built up the sections with piano melodies and broken chord sections.

Out of the Blue was written using the Chord of A with a changing bass line- The verse chords are A, G6 (#11) sus 2, F#m7, Dmaj7 sus 2. The pre Chorus chords are E, D, A. The bridge is E, D6 (#11) sus2, C#m7 (b13), Caug maj7. Time signature is a simple 4/4 to compliment the complex chords, at 116bpm.

Lyricism

For all of my pieces, I wrote the lyrics as a poem structure before incorporating the music. Especially for the Aesops Fables, it made it much easier to include the full story and make sure it had a nice rhythmic feel to it. To prepare for lyric writing, I read the stories and watched a few different YouTube videos and BBC Bitesize (John, 2023) versions of the story to make sure I was retelling it accurately.

I wrote the lyrics for ‘The Light In Space’ using free writing around the theme of ‘Space’ to generate a collection of phrases and words. I circled the parts that I thought had some lyrical potential and then turned them into more rhythmically coherent lyrical ideas. I then used Double Tracking, Panning and Reverb on the main vocal line, to create a more full and ambient sound, to blend into the instruments. I also added a number of layered harmonies to the chorus, which I also double tracked and panned. For the chorus I also used fast paced panning back and forth on the lyric ‘light’, moving from left to right as the note oscillates, to create a dynamic and fluid sound, reflecting the feeling of moving through space at high speed.  

Finally, for my piece ‘Out of the Blue’, I used the semantic field of colour to write a set of heartfelt lyrics about falling in love. I thought about what different colours create different feelings for me, and used metaphors to write about ideas of unexpected new love. I used the idea of colour in the verses, with lines such as ‘out of the blue’, ‘green iris looks up at the sky’ and ‘blue seas’. The chorus then moved to a more literal style of lyrical writing, describing the feeling of being in love but knowing that it is too soon to say it aloud, so finding different ways to show it.

Educational Intent

For both the Aesops Fable’s adaptations, I would intend for these to be used as recourses to teach the stories to Level 1 Students, potentially accompanied by an animated video version of the story. They are both aimed to educate children, most likely in a school setting, about Aesops Fables, and teach them the lessons involved.

For the ‘Light in Space’, I have written a melody that contains vocal riffs and flips, so I would use this piece as a resource to help aid Level 3-4 singers that are trying to improve their technique in these skills. They could learn different sections, depending on what technique they want to learn. For example, the chorus would be perfect to practice and learn vocal flips, which could then be transferred into singing popular songs by artists who use this vocal technique such as Chappell Roan’s ‘Picture You’. (Roan, 2024)The verses would be more beneficial for more melismatic stylistic riffing.

Finally, I would use ‘Out of the Blue’ as a resource for Level 3- 4 students to teach them how to write lyrics using semantic field. The song uses the semantic field of ‘colour’ as mentioned previously, so the piece could be used as a good example of this technique, especially the first verse, to help teach the kind of outcome you might want to achieve when writing with a semantic field.

Bibliography

John, Rob . “Aesop’s Fable “the Hare and the Tortoise.”” BBC Teach, 2023, www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/articles/zdghvj6. Accessed 29 Apr. 2026.

Roan, Chappell. “Chappell Roan- Picture You (Official Audio).” Youtu.be, 2026, youtu.be/EqUHnojFH5Y?si=z99MBf59wuCA7ho5. Accessed 14 May 2026.

“The Good, the Bad, the Ugly Theme .” Youtu.be, 2026, youtu.be/J9EZGHcu3E8?si=077uSrNM5wdL35I6. Accessed 27 Apr. 2026.