Background Information – Mr. Frog Went A-Courtin’ is an old folk song with many regional variations. One story has it that the original was written in 1580 in England with the title of “A Most Strange Wedding of the Frogge and The Mouse.” Tradition suggested that this song told the story of the romance between Queen Elizabeth I and a warty (or pox scarred) French royal who may have been one of the Medici sons.[1] However, the first known appearance of this song was in Scotland in 1549 and it is possible that the mouse was Elizabeth’s sister Princess Mary, later known as Mary Queen of Scots.[2]

Teaching suggestions – The activities below are snippets of lesson ideas that were all derived from the theme of Mr. Frog and the wide cast of characters that appear in the many versions of this song. Planning explorations around a single piece of content:

• Helps create unity between lessons, especially in cases where students are only seen weekly
• Facilitates smooth transitions between different media because no new content needs to be introduced
• Engages the children in a creative process that moves them from the starting point (song) to many ways to explore and learn from the musical elements in the song

A specific version of the song is not suggested in these lesson prompts. One version found on YouTube features John Langstaff and has a very simple, repeated refrain of “Um-hm! Um-hm!”

Other versions, like this one sung by Amdela Riddle (collected by Alan Lomax), have a verse/chorus form. Find your favorite and have fun! After an introduction to the song with vocal play, there is no implied order in the listing of teaching ideas. Jump around and choose what fits your students’ ages and stages of musical development. Activities might be done in a series of lessons, spread out during the school year, or even take place over consecutive years as students’ skills allow for more complex exploration.

Many of the teaching suggestions are presented as inquiries to spark student discovery…leave the door open for further explorations. Performance is a possibility but planning for this option too early in the process is limiting for both the teacher and the children. Any staged sharing of these activities should be organically derived from student ideas.

Begin with Vocal Play

The song has more verses than children can learn at one setting but they can easily learn the repeated refrain or chorus.

• Children can sing the refrain in duets or trios as the teacher sings the verses (instant vocal assessment).
• Another day, sing a different version with a more complicated refrain. Here is a fun version from the South (claimed by Kentucky and Oklahoma) with a refrain of Shadle-addle-ababa-ladda-baba-linkus, ring-tum body minchy cambo.[3]

• Invite children to make up new verses using the rhyme scheme. To start the ball rolling, brainstorm animal (or other) guests and rhyming words. Children can work in duets or trios to create a verse to share with the class.

Character Development

Each of the activities below explores music and movement based on the wedding guests. Create a list of guests from the versions of the song you have experienced and make it visible in the classroom. Be sure to include descriptors (e.g., Pesky Old Fly, Fluffy Yellow Chick). Invite the children to add new characters to this list as they engage in the music and movement explorations.

Movement Play – How might each of the characters move? Explore this first as non-locomotor movement and then moving through space.

• What use of force best expresses this character (e.g., smooth/sharp; heavy/light; tight/loose; free flowing/bound/balanced)?
• How might the character change levels while moving? What pathway might it take? What happens if it changes tempo while moving?
• How might un-pitched instruments accompany the movement?
• How might you accompany the movement using barred instruments? (Set up might be pentatonic or the tonality of a version of the song the children have experienced.)
•  Pair movers and instrument players. The instrument player must be guided by the movement and not the other way around. How many characters should move at once? Can you find a way to start/stop the mov’t to create an interesting mov’t/instrumental composition?

Rhythmic Play – Explore the natural word rhythms of the character names; be sure to include the descriptors.

• How would you clap the word rhythms?
• Model a body percussion pattern for one of the characters and invite children to work with a partner to create BP for their favorite character (or a new one!).
• Do any of the BP patterns work as an ostinato with the song? Can we combine two BP patterns to create contrasting ostinati?
• What happens if we layer BP patterns? Can we play a game where we turn BP patterns on and off while layering? What works best together? Are any really hard to combine? Why?
• Create a seating plan for the wedding reception. Who is sitting together? Speak the names in a sequence. Clap the rhythms of the names in the sequence. What number of names makes a pleasing rhythmic phrase? What order of names makes a pleasing rhythmic phrase? What happens if you take a name away from the sequence and repeat one of the remaining names?
• Can you transfer your rhythmic sequence to body percussion?

Speech Play – How will we say each guest’s name with vocal expression that tells us something about the guest? (e.g., Bum-ble-bee = buzzy; Lit-tle Flea = quick/tiny)

• Play the layering game (turning patterns on/off) using just speech. Focus on expression more than rhythmic speech.
• Play the layering game with rhythmic speech. How does this feel different from the game using expressive speech?
• Is there a way to combine rhythmic and expressive speech?
• Introduce or review diminution and augmentation. How might that change the speech?
• Create a sequence of guest names using speech. How many names work best? What order of names is most interesting? Decide if you want to focus on vocal expression, rhythmic speech, or both. Do you want to add spoken ostinato/ostinati?

Instrument Play – Make aesthetic choices about timbre that matches the characters.

• What un-pitched instrument would best suit each wedding guest?
• How might you create an instrumental piece based on a rhythmic sequence created from wedding guests’ names? Does adding instruments suggest any changes to your rhythmic sequence? If so, why? Consider adding: introduction, coda, ostinato.
• Set barred instruments in a pentatonic mode. What instrumental pattern might you create for each character? Listen to all of the patterns and decide how they might relate to each other. Think about unity and contrast. Do we need all of the patterns playing at once? How can we keep it simple and interesting at the same time?

Extending the Play

Playing with Form – What elements from the explorations with the characters might be combined to create a larger musical form? Consider formal elements (e.g., introduction, coda, rondo, canon, etc.) as well as timbre (e.g., speech, singing, body percussion, unpitched percussion, barred instruments). List all student ideas and then begin the process to refine, revise, and rehearse. Allowing time for children to explore all or most of the suggestions before making choices will allow all students to be part of the final performance.

Notation Exploration – What is the role of notation in sharing your compositions?

• Create a graphic notation for a rhythmic sequence of character names. This may include body percussion or un-pitched percussion.
•  Teach your notation system to someone else. Can they perform your composition using your notation system?
•  Do you need to modify anything to make it easier for someone to read and perform your notation?
• What does this experience teach you about what a notation system needs to do in order to share musical experiences?

Digging Deeper

Exploring Oral Tradition – It is helpful to discuss the concept of oral tradition with children when presenting folk songs because there is often more than one version of the same song. Interesting regional variations occur in the many versions of this song. For example, a version from Nova Scotia has a “snail with bagpipes on his tail” while a more contemporary rendition references Minnie Mouse. As folk songs – learned at family and community gatherings – were passed along orally across generations and communities, the changes over time and place became like an intergenerational and regional version of the “Telephone” game.

• Historical/regional context: Compare versions of the song from different times and places. Are there any elements that seem constant? What differences do you see? Why do you think the differences occur?
• Oral tradition is still alive: Create a new version of the song with guests representing fauna from your local environment.
•  Communicating through music: Why do you think people used oral tradition to share songs? What differences might you find in songs passed down through oral tradition and songs passed down through written notation? What are the values of both means of communicating music?

Picture Book Versions

•  Randolph Caldecott, illus., A First Caldecott Collection: The House That Jack Built and A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go (1986, Penguin Books Ltd.) – This charming version, illustrated by Caldecott, has Mr. Frog wearing his opera hat and includes quite a bit of “merry-making.”
• John Langstaff, Frog Went A-Courtin’ (1995, Harcourt Brace Javanovich, Publishers) – When this was published, the illustrations by Feodor Rojankovsky were awarded the Caldecott medal as “The most distinguished American picture book for children.”
•  Iza Trapani, Froggie Went A-Courtin’ (2002, Charlesbridge Publishing) – This version has a surprising feminist twist at the end.
• Marjorie Priceman, Froggie Went A-Courting, An Old Tale with a New Twist (2000, Little Brown and Company) – Set in New York City, this version shows a modern and very localized adaptation.
•  Chris Conover, Froggie Went A-Courting (1986, Farrar, Straus and Giroux) – Fanciful illustrations feature a sea-faring Froggie.
• Dominic Catalano, Frog Went A-Courting, A Musical Play in Six Acts (1998, Boyds Mills Press, Inc.) – This book harkens back to the Scottish origins of the song with Frog wearing his kilt and playing the bagpipes.
• Gary Chalk, Mr. Frog Went a-Courting, Discover the Secret Story (1994, Dorling Kindersley Limited, London) – Each verse includes a back-story and very clever illustrations.

[1] Doug Elliott, Crawdad, Doodlebugs & Creasy Greens: Songs Stories & Lore Celebrating the Natural World (1995, Native Ground Music) pp. 41-43
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frog_Went_a-Courting (Accessed 7/5/21)
[3] Richard Johnson, Folk Songs North America Sings (Toronto, 1984, Caveat Music Publishers) p. 364