Lesson 1: Learning “Mo Li Hua”
Aim: How are melodies and movements used in Chinese Traditional music?
Summary: Students learn the song “Mo Li Hua” with its accompanying movements, and create pentatonic melodies and hand gestures of their own.
Materials: Musical Explorers digital resources, Musical Explorers Student Guide, classroom instruments
Standards: National 2, 6, 10
Vocabulary: gesture, pentatonic scale, pipa
“Mo Li Hua”
Text
Chorus:
Hao yi duo mei li de mo li hua,
Hao yi duo mei li de mo li hua,
Feng-fang mei li man zhi ya,
You xiang you bai re ren kua.
Wo you xin cai yi duo dai,
You pa ren xiao wo sha,
Mo li hua ya mo li hua.
Translation
Chorus:
What a beautiful jasmine flower,
What a beautiful jasmine flower,
Fragrant, beautiful, full branches,
Fragrant and white, everyone praises you.
I want to pick you to wear,
But am afraid people will laugh and think I’m silly,
Jasmine flower, oh, jasmine flower.
Explore Hand Gestures in “Mo Li Hua”
- The song “Mo Li Hua” is about a jasmine flower. In Chinese opera, the performers use formal hand gestures to enhance their performance. Qian Yi drew on this tradition to create gestures for “Mo Li Hua” that allude to a jasmine flower opening and closing.
- Learn the gestures for “Mo Li Hua” as you listen to the song. Try singing along as you do the movements. Use the teaching video above for a demonstration of the hand gestures.
- Compile photos of flowers in various scenarios to provide for your students (e.g., a budding tulip, a fully bloomed rose, or a sunflower that has been rained on). You also can use unusual flowers, like a cactus or Venus flytrap.
- As a class, use photos of the flowers as visual aids to give your students the inspiration to create gestures to mimic the flowers. Encourage them to give these gestures movements, as in “Mo Li Hua.”
- For an added challenge, your students can add simple lyrics describing the flower to accompany the movements they have created.
Explore the Pipa
- The pipa is one of the most popular traditional Chinese instruments and has been played in China for almost 2,000 years. Sometimes called the Chinese lute, it has a pear-shaped wooden body and four strings. The strings used to be made of soft silk and plucked with the fingernails; today, the strings are steel, so pipa players attach fake fingernails to their fingertips. Pipa players also make percussive sounds by striking the instrument’s body or twisting its strings to make a cymbal-like sound.
- Listen to the pipa demonstration audio track and refer to Explore the Pipa (PDF) for your students.
- Listen again to “Mo Li Hua.” Note how the pipa plays the melody in unison with the singer.
- How is Qian Yi working with the pipa?
- Describe the different sounds you hear the pipa making.
Musical Word Wall
Add the words gesture, pentatonic scale, and pipa to the Musical Word Wall.
Don't Forget
Image Credits
“Jasmine” by Carolyn Jewel is licensed by CC BY-NC 2.0.