Shake the Papaya Down - Dwyer & Walker

Title: Shake the Papaya Down
Composer/Lyricist: Ruth Dwyer & Judith Walker
Publisher: Colla Voce Publishing
Catalogue #: 21-20222
JW Pepper Cat. #: 1925650
Price: $1.55 (as of 8/6/09)
Duration: 2:15
Voicing: 3-part Treble, piano
Obligatto: None
Key: F
Tessitura: c-c'
Piano Difficulty: Easy
Recording Available: None publicly available as of 8/6/09


Notes: This song is on no way meant to be a serious concert piece, and for that reason will probably be immediately popular with the group that performs it! I love a lot of what Colla Voce Publishing puts together and the Henry Leck Choral Series in particular. In this case, the inside cover of the octave lists helpful teaching tips, optional percission parts, etc. - invaluable to a beginning teacher/conductor and for students who are expected to do some learning on their own.

There are very few rhythmic challenges in this piece, as most of it is built from repetition of rhythmic patters - no more difficult than any partner song. The only difference here would be that it is a partner song of 3 partners, not 2. If there is any challenge, it comes in the syncopated rhythm in the 1st part, an the tied rhythms going from the upbeat of beat 2 into the downbeat of beat 3 in both the 2nd and 3rd parts.

Melodically, the song sings itself and is internalized fairly quickly. This can be a problem at the cadences with more than one part, as young/inexperienced singers will likely have a tendancy to stray to a familiar/favorite part instead of holding their own. The 2nd and 3rd parts are very easy for an advanced elementary school or middle school treble or 6th grade chorus to sink their teeth into, and to have some relatively quick success in reading. High School choirs should have no problem performing both parts at sight. The 1st part, however, with its many skips and rapid changes from head to chest voice may require a bit more time to teach effectively, and high school choirs may need a moment or two to look at it before performing it. Putting all 3 parts together may prove a challenge for younger choirs with their tendancy to stray (as stated before), but it shouldn't take long with some preparation on the director's part and careful listening on the singers' parts.

This piece is fantastic for school choirs as an in-depth learning piece or one that needs to be rote-learned quickly for a performance, or for community choris as a "fluff" number that won't require much rehearsal prep.