The Fox

Background information: The beloved English tale of a fox trying to take care of his family, and the farmers who are now lacking one goose and one duck, has been around for nearly 500 years (Feierabend, 2022). Although the song has been around for such a long time, the original medieval version of the song is still very similar to the version we have today. In most of the variants of this ballad the fox and his family are the winners, but there are a few where the farmer catches the fox (Winick, 2014).

The author, J.R.R. Tolkien, changes the words but used the tune of this ballad in The Lord of the Rings at the part where the character Samwise Gamgee sing the "Tale of the Stone Troll" (Hui, 2022).

Click the button below to download the sheet music

Video recording

Lesson Plans

Idea #1

-Sing the whole ballad.

-Have the students use the phrase "The fox went out" said to this rhythm as an ostinato

-This ostinato can be transferred to unpitched percussion instruments.

-Choose a variety of instruments that can play this ostinato. Use a different instrument for each verse.

Idea #2

-A chordal instrument such as piano, guitar, BoomWhackers, or ukulele can be used to accompany the song.

Idea #3

-There are several picture books of this song. One is by the illustrator, Peter Spier and can be found here:https://www.amazon.com/Went-Chilly-Night-Picture-Yearling/dp/0440408296

-The other is adapted by John Feierabend and illustrated by Taylor Herrington. It can be found here: https://www.giamusic.com/store/resource/fox-went-out-on-a-chilly-night-book-g10053

Idea #4

-The base line can be played on barred instruments or sung using solfege if the syllables "low sol" and "fa" have been learned.