Continued Exploration

I decided to do this blog post on another music and the fictive dream. I chose Mary Poppins this time around. It is an American musical- fantasy, directed by Robert Stevenson in 1964. The movie was also produced by Walt Disney. The movie takes place in London. A nanny comes to the Bank’s home and takes care of the two children. The children don’t spend much time with their father, and tend to act out. Mary Poppins helps the children learn how to act in a more proper manner, and have a better relationship with their father. Mary Poppins is magical and they go on adventures and sing songs throughout the day.

I remember growing up watching this old time classic Disney movie. I enjoyed all the musical aspects of the film, and still remember some of the songs. My favorite in particular was “Spoon Full of Sugar.” Not only was it catchy, but the scene in the movie I thought was really fun. I also really wished that I could clean my room with just snapping my fingers when I was a child, like Mary Poppins did.

“Spoon Full of Sugar” was composed by  Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman, in 1964. It was sung by Julie Andrews, who Played the role as Mary Poppins. The song talks about how hard daunting tasks can be not so bad if you add an element of fun to it. Since the children thought cleaning up their room was so dreadful, Mary Poppins introduced a song and some magical elements to it so the work was more pleasant.

Musical Elements

The beat is steady, and the tempo of the song is upbeat, and slows down little and picks up speed through out the whole song.

The pitch of Julie Andrews is very high. Her range was very broad as well.

Social Commentary

“There is a double meaning to this message. On the one hand, the spoonful of sugar provides the extra sweetness needed to transform an unpleasant task to “a piece of cake.” On the other hand, once that “element of fun” is discovered, the task activity itself becomes rewarding, and even as mundane an activity as cleaning up one’s room can become enjoyable. This principle of having an intrinsic motivation replace an extrinsic one is used extensively in behavior modification, particularly as applied with children. The goal is to have the learner become more motivated by the intrinsic features of the desired behavior.” (Susan Krauss Whitbourne)

At first you may just think the song is a catchy tune, but there is a deeper meaning. It helps make tasks go quickly and not as dreadful. Especially for children, they may not want to clean up, but if their is a way to make it fun then it won’t be so bad. Some examples could be by playing/singing music, or make a game out of it. You could say whoever picks up the most toys wins. This can make tasks more motivating.

References Cited

“A Spoonful of Sugar.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Dec. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Spoonful_of_Sugar.

“Mary Poppins.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 3 Dec. 1964, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058331/.

“Mary Poppins (Film).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Dec. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Poppins_(film).

Whitbourne, Susan Krauss. “A Spoonful of Sugar.” SpringerLink, Springer, 1 Jan. 1986, link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4613-8618-6_7.