Look To The Future

While this powerful and unique song involves many layers of orchestration, including a solo gospel vocal quartet, it is surprisingly simple for students to learn and perform because it is unison. The melody is easy, natural and repetitious, as are the lyrics. It is a "stand-up-and-sing-with-all-your-heart" type of song that gets people moving. It's energetic, positive, uplifting, and just plain fun to sing.

If you have the Performance/Accompaniment Cassette, have your students listen to it for style. They will no doubt pick it up very quickly. While the song starts rather simply and builds to a thick final chorus and big ending, all of the "hard" parts are in the backgrounds, not the student melody line.  You may note that the solo quartet is only cued now and then on the piano/vocal provided in this issue. That is because we approached the quartet as part of the orchestration, much like the trumpets or trombones, and we believed that most of you would not have an adult gospel quartet in your back pockets anyway. We did, however, figure that there would be a few of you who just might want to add your own quartet, so at the end of side 2 of the P/A cassette, we have provided an instrumental track version without the solo quartet. (For information on obtaining the parts for the quartet, contact our customer service department.)

During the a cappella section, the students are still only singing unison, and by that point they should be very familiar and comfortable with the chorus. To help them keep their pitch center, be sure they can hear the P/A cassette well. The solo quartet will help to keep them focused. If you are not using the tape, you may wish to consider playing just the single line melody part on piano. (Don't play the cues for the vocal quartet at this point. If you have been playing just piano all along, there would be no contrast in the texture and the impact of the a cappella section would be lost to listeners and performers alike.) If you are using the optional third version of the song from the cassette, be sure your students and soloists can hear the piano cues from the tape so they can keep their pitches.

It might be neat for your students to just listen to the instrumental/solo quartet version only of the song at the beginning of side 2 of the cassette. That way they can pick out all four parts and really hear what the group is doing. Use the opportunity to discuss what they are hearing. For example, even though there are four soloists, the soprano line is the most prominent. Her voice moves more freely and is either with the melody, close to it, or complimentary to it at any given point. She also sings a soaring solo over the last chorus and final held note. (See if your students can hear the very last note she sings. She takes the last D up the octave.)

If you use this song for a performance, you might want to have four students lip sync the solo quartet part for a little added visual effect. Have them dress like adults might - suits and fancy dresses, costumes, or solid colors (e.g., all black) that distinguish them from the rest of the kids.

We recommend you use as many singers as you can for this song if you do perform it live. This is one of those big anthem-quality songs that cry out for massive numbers if at all possible. If you hand out the words to your audience members, have them join in on the last choruses. It's easy to learn and by the time they've heard it once or twice, they will be ready to sing along. Turn around and conduct them, too, if you're conducting. Or have an assistant conductor help you out, such as another teacher, student, parent or your principal. Let the audience join in on the claps, too. But be sure that everyone claps on beat two of every measure, not beat one. Your students can lead the audience in the claps. Again, listen to the tape for reference.

F.Y.I. - Our solo vocal "quartet" singers are Anne Riggio and John Riggio. John is a regular writer for Music K-8, and Anne is the singer who was featured in Music K-8, Vol. 3, No. 5. They are brother and sister.