Well, I never!

"Well, I never!" (pl. "Cos takiego!") is a song cycle for soprano and piano that was commissioned by the Association of Polish Artist Musicians SPAM and first performed in 2014 at the Polish Music School at a concert for children. This song cycle (or singing game) is a story of the cheerful, self-centered girl who needs to solve the riddle to break the spell of infinite singing! She must discover what is hidden under the magic hat using only her sense of touch. She cannot see anything, she cannot talk, and she can only sing until she finds out the secret. In each song, she can touch a part of the object hidden underneath the hat. The imagination and surroundings change during this mind travel. Songs seem to be present in different places: the park (I. Hop Hop), the rainy street (II. Drop Drop), the forest (III. Forest Spirit), (IV. Night), and a dirty room (V. Achoo!), leading to the final unexpected solution (VI. Well, I never!).

Songs can be performed in a concert (duration, c.a. 20 minutes). They can also be played by interacting with the audience, allowing the listeners to choose the order of the songs (for example, by selecting the action cards). The duration of the full singing game is c.a. 40 minutes.

The music is published as a piano-vocal score in English and Polish vocal text. It can be sung in English or Polish.

Several motives are added to be used with the singing game form of performance.

NOTE:

The main character - if the main character is changed to a teenage boy, he will be named Ross. The storyline remains the same: he solves the riddle and discovers what’s hidden beneath the magic hat. The vocal line will be adjusted to fit his character.

The vocal line might be adjusted by adding the octave transposition mark under the violin (treble) clef. ("8" is a transposition mark.)