In Honor of Dolly Parton – A Modern Composer Study Curriculum

I am so sad that Dolly Parton has died. I spent most of my life not really knowing her music, but being inadvertently surrounded by it. In the last few years, I have been taking a modern approach to Composer Study in our homeschool, and last year we really got to know Dolly Parton and her music. We read biographies of her life, we listened to her music, we learned about the Great Smokey Mountains region of Appalachia where Dolly grew up, we talked about the music genres of bluegrass, country and honky tonk. We learned about the banjo, the harmonica, and the fiddle. The more I got to know Dolly, the more I loved her and her music.

As I listened through Dolly’s music with my kids, I had the idea that I would put it into a 12-week curriculum so I could share Dolly’s legacy as a composer with the Charlotte Mason homeschool community. In my mind, she is just as important as Beethoven or Chopin in the history of music. Her contributions to music and the world deserve to be known.

Why Composer Study?

If we want to raise intellectually curious, creative children – we must introduce them to the works of intellectually curious, creative and inventive people. The arts and culture bring so much joy and awe to our lives.

In her book Modern Miss Mason, Leah Boden writes: “When we help children to connect with art, music, poetry, and plays, it heightens and increases what Charlotte referred to as their “Beauty Sense”. And beauty sense is what is required for us to truly grasp living insight. Charlotte described us all as having the “need to be trained to see, and to have our eyes opened before we can take in the joy that is meant for us in this beautiful life.”” (Leah Boden, p. 123, Modern Miss Mason)

Why Contemporary Artists?

One reason we learn the names of the plants in our backyard is so that we are acquainted with them, just as we are with people. It brings a feeling of home to a place, a certainty – to know what lives around you. The music that naturally surrounds your home – both within and outside its walls is also part of your child’s world. In Charlotte Mason’s day, she advocated for children to learn to recognize the work of great composers – so that when they were at a social event – they would recognize the music being played and feel like they are meeting an old friend. It is a pretty common human experience (I think) to be somewhere (like at a grocery store) and have a favourite song come on the speakers. “Oh I love this song!”, we say, and our day just gets a little bit better from hearing something familiar. In Charlotte Mason’s day, it was perhaps more common to hear Beethoven or Bach or Rachmaninov at a social event, or while out in public. But I have never heard Bach in the cereal aisle. Have you?

Charlotte Mason died in 1922, and so many new genres of music have exploded onto the scene since then. Certainly there is value in exploring the music of great composers in classical music and opera – but if that’s all we do in composer study, our students are missing out on a lot of art, culture, and human ingenuity, creativity and innovation.

What does a Modern Composer Study Curriculum Look Like?

With my kids, we listened to one Dolly Parton song per week and talked about the lyrics, composition, and instrumentation. We read a portion of a biography about her and talked about her life.

In this composer study curriculum, you will find twelve songs that are aligned with a children’s biography of her life and the person that Dolly was. As you listen through the song list and read about her both in the biographies and in the tidbits I’ve shared in the discussion questions, you will grow to love her (even more) and see how her music has shaped the world that we live in today.

Dolly was an original feminist (though she never called herself that because she didn’t like political labels). She broke through barriers and encouraged women in the workplace. She called out sexual double standards. She valued herself and taught women to do the same.

Dolly was wonderfully generous and a forward-thinking philanthropist who made a difference. She raised graduation rates in her small hometown community. She gave away millions of books to children to improve children’s literacy. She built Dollywood in her impoverished home region so that she could create jobs that lasted. She invested the royalties she earned from Whitney Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You” into the small business community where Whitney grew up.

Dolly was a self-taught musician who couldn’t read or write music. She played by ear and wrote by heart. Dolly worked hard and had fun doing what she loved. She didn’t let anyone tell her she wasn’t good enough.

I could go on and on…and I do – in the PDF curriculum you can download for free at the link below.

Here’s the list of songs we cover in the curriculum:

1. Big Dreams, Faded Jeans
2. My Tennessee Mountain Home
3. Coat of Many Colors
4. You Gotta Be My Baby
5. If You Hadn’t Been There
6. Just Because I’m a Woman
7. I Will Always Love You
8. Jolene
9. 9 to 5
10. Love Is Like a Butterfly
11. Islands in the Stream
12. Light of a Clear Blue Morning

I truly hope you enjoy learning about Dolly Parton’s music and her legacy through this modern composer study. And if you find any errors or typos in it or just have feedback about what worked and what didn’t – PLEASE don’t be shy. Send me a note. I’ve read it and re-read it so many times my eyes are blurry. Or if you try to download it and it doesn’t work – please do reach out. I have no idea what I’ve doing with my website more than half the time. It’s a real trial and error situation over here.

Books I recommend reading on Dolly Parton’s life:

Dolly Parton by Deborah Hopkinson

Who is Dolly Parton by True Kelley

Star of the Show by Dolly Parton

Reflecting back on her life as an entertainer, this coffee-table book is full of Dolly’s wit and wisdom, as well as beautiful photographs of her life.

Download the Free Dolly Parton Modern Composer Study Curriculum Below:

Warmly,

-Heather

ps: This post contains Amazon affiliate links from which I earn a small commission. Thank you for supporting my blog. I am a real person. This is not AI generated.

Enjoyed this post? Check out what else I’ve been up to lately:

• In Honor of Dolly Parton – A Modern Composer Study Curriculum
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