Listen to the Music

Hear the hens steadily pecking, scratching, clucking, and squawking in the repeated staccato notes and the accented grace notes of the piano, violins, and violas. The rooster tries to signal his presence in the trills on the piano.

Then the tempo changes. Up walks the strutting rooster, trying to impress the busy hens. They pause only for a moment, then gradually start their hungry pecking and scratching and clucking, little by little growing louder and faster in a frenzied crescendo and accelerando. The poor rooster tries in vain to get their attention — hear his cries in the clarinet — only to be drowned out in the hens’ loud cackling.

[ crescendo – accelerando – staccato – trill – accent]

[ Clarinet, Violin, viola ]

Listen for the sound of the rooster: