Big Rock Candy Mountain -

Straight and dotted syncopation within a melody
which has no leading tone.

Description

Grade: Fifth
Origin: USA – Folk Song, circa. 1920’s
Key: C Major
Time: 4/4
Form: phrases: ABACDEF – song: AB
Rhythm: intermediate: | ta ta ta ta | ta ta/a ti ti |
| ta/a (ta) ti ti | ti ti ti ta ti ti | ta ti ti ta ti ti |
| ta ta ta/ ti | syncopation, | ta ta/a ti/ ri | syncopation, | ti ti ta ta ti ti | ta ta ta ti ti |
Pitches: intermediate: Do Re Mi Fa So La Do – no leading tone: seventh (7, Ti)
Intervals: intermediate: Mi/So (m3), La\Fa/La (M3), La/Do\La (m3), So\Re (P4), Re/Fa (m3), So\Do/So (P4), Fa/Do (P5)
Musical Elements: notes: half, dotted quarter, quarter, dotted eighth, eighth, sixteenth; pickup beat, fermata, melodic rhythm patterns
Key Words: USA history, hobo, daydreams, “Hobo Paradise,” “Hobo Heaven,” land, fair bright, handouts, bushes, sleep, night, boxcars, empty, shines, snow, rain, wind, blow, sycamore tree, soda water, water fountain, lemonade, springs, bluebird sings; contractions: that’s (that is), doesn’t (does not), there’s (there is); abbreviation: buzzin’ (buzzing) I’m (I am), isn’t (is not)
Recorder: intermediate: alternating repeated pitches, four measure phrases

**“Big Rock Candy Mountain”**
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains, There’s a land that’s fair and bright, Where the handouts grow on bushes And you sleep out every night. Where the boxcars all are empty And the sun shines every day. Oh, I’m bound to go where there isn’t any snow, Where the rain doesn’t fall and the wind doesn’t blow, In the Big Rock Candy Mountain. Oh, the buzzin’ of the bees in the sycamore trees Round the soda water fountain, Where the lemonade springs and the bluebird sings In the Big Rock Candy Mountain. Hobo’s dream of paradise.

Additional Formats (click to enlarge)

music

beats

rhythm

pitch numbers

solfeggio

letter names