by Sally-Anne Brown
Working as consultants on the musical retelling of the Gingerbread Man with the BBC Philharmonic for CBeebies in 2021 was an absolute delight for Zoe, Vic and Sally-Anne. Writing the educational resources for a programme which proved to be very popular was a real privilege and so when Jennifer Redmond of the BBC Philharmonic approached us again in July 2022 asking us to be involved in a much bigger project of ten stories we were over the moon – and so began our Musical Storyland journey!
Musical Storyland is unique in that it is the first time an orchestra has been commissioned to make a series of films for network television. The music is specially composed and introduces children (from 3-7) to the instruments of the orchestra and also instruments from around the world. The programmes feature live action and animation, are narrated by presenters Nihal Arthanayake, Jan Blake, Sean Chandler and Molly Rainford and are accompanied by brand new teaching resources written by Note Weavers and as well as being aired this week on CBeebies they are also now available on the BBC Teach website: KS1 Music: Musical Storyland – BBC Teach
The Premise of the Series
Jennifer Redmond explains more about the point and purpose of Musical Storyland: ‘Musical Storyland is a place where children’s favourite fairy-tales and traditional folktales are retold and re-imagined with the magical, musical touch of musicians from the BBC Philharmonic, inspiring a love of music and singing, and a fascination in musical instruments in the children who will watch it.
Each episode features a fairy-tale or a traditional folktale from the UK, Europe, W. Africa, India, Jamaica, E. Asia and has specially composed music which reflects the musical tradition of the story.
The BBC Philharmonic musicians are integral to the story telling and use their instruments in traditional and unexpected ways to help tell the stories and inspire curiosity in the instruments.
The ensembles of Western Classical orchestral instruments are enhanced with additional musicians from various traditions to ensure a breadth of authentic diversity in styles and representation on screen.’
The Early Stages
Towards the end of 2022 Vic, Zoe and Sally-Anne were involved in discussions around story selection for the series. The BBC shared their list of European tales and stories from other cultures which were being considered and we spoke to childminders and teachers for their thoughts too.The titles were eventually whittled down to the final ten stories – five of which make up the series being aired now with the remaining five being scheduled to be shown in Spring 2024.
In February we travelled to the BBC Philharmonic’s home at MediaCity in Salford to meet Jennifer Redmond (BBC Philharmonic and Producer), Sam Roberts (Sustain Video and Producer) and composer Daniel Whibley – for discussions and workshopping around a number of the selected stories which included considerations for the scores, the main themes and elements in each tale, as well as identifying opportunities for both musical and non-musical learning within each programme. We met again a few weeks later to work on the remaining stories. To be part of the conversation, adding our thoughts, planning resources and getting an insight into the sheer amount of work that would go into creating and producing these stories was incredible.
Resources and Plans
After our workshopping meetings we then went away to plan and make notes around the stories. Our next involvement came when we were sent audio files and scripts where we gave feedback and ultimately began an enormous excel spreadsheet of ideas for lesson plans and educational resources! For Sally-Anne and Vic the Summer of 2023 was mainly spent listening to the audiofiles and discussing, planning and designing the resources. We felt that rather than write them for a specific ‘age’ we would write them as foundation, extension and advanced activities with all children starting on the foundation level and moving on only when ready to the extension and advanced activities.
While we were busy on this the BBC team were even busier with the business of recording the films!
Following submission of our plans we then had feedback meetings and spent September and October making tweaks and amends and in early November we visited MediaCity once again, this time to record some short supporting films for our musical activities, these are now available on Note Weavers website Musical Storyland – Note Weavers
Preview and Broadcast!
Finally on 18th November we went to watch the preview screening in the BBC Philharmonic studio with all the presenters, musicians, cast and crew. It was so exciting to see the programmes now brought so vividly to life – thank you to Jennifer and all at the BBC, it has been an absolute joy to be a part of the journey of these beautiful stories and we are thrilled that they, and our educational resources, will now be shared with everyone on CBeebies and BBC Teach.
Links to programmes and teaching resources: KS1 Music: Musical Storyland – BBC Teach
Sally-Anne says: ‘Working on Musical Storyland has been fabulous. From the story selection process to filming supporting resources it has been a unique experience and I feel privileged to have been able to work with Jennifer and to be involved in workshops with Sam Roberts and Daniel Whibley – great to see a composer at work! Congratulations to all involved, I can’t wait to use the stories in my settings.’
Vic says: ‘Having the opportunity to be involved with Musical Storyland has been an amazing experience. It has been a pleasure to work with Jennifer, Sam and Daniel to help shape the stories and music, to take into consideration children’s musical learning, as well as the possibilities for wider learning. Even though it has been a lot of hard work, it has been enjoyable from start to finish and fantastic to see the finished programmes.’
Zoe says: ‘It has been a pleasure to be part of this partnership, so skillfully facilitated by Jennifer Redmond. The BBC Philharmonic are to be commended for their recognition of the need to include early years expertise in the team from the very beginning of the project to ensure that the music, songs and associated resources are appropriate for young children and provide support for teachers in the classroom.’
Spinning Threads 