No Place Like by Kerry Andrew
No Place Like by Kerry Andrew: An exciting introduction
Lemn Sissay explores Kerry Andrew's brand new song with facts, insight and animation.
No Place Like is a brand new commission written specially for Ten Pieces about home and place. The song takes inspiration from words submitted by children, giving young people the opportunity to contribute to one of the Ten Pieces for the first time.
Written for a cappella voices, which means singing with no musical accompaniment, No Place Like showcases the amazing range and power of the musical instrument all of us are born with – the voice.
The piece was created from words sent in by Ten Pieces students who completed a literacy exercise asking them to think about their home. Kerry Andrew used the words they sent in to create a longpoem which then formed the basis for No Place Like.
Listen out for: The middle section which has a wide range of overlapping sounds from everyday life – can you identify what they are? This musical collage of free flowing sounds is called a soundscape. You can have a go at creating your own soundscape of your area by listening to the sounds around you and either recording them or recreating them yourself!
Watch the introduction film at the top of the page then starting exploring the music:
Watch the full performance
Watch the full performance of the piece by the Ten Pieces Children's Choir, conducted by Grace Rossiter:
MP3 and backing tracks: Download the music
Download the No Place Like MP3
Download the No Place Like piano backing track as an MP3:
To save to your computer: PC - right-click and save, Mac - ctrl-click and save.
Lesson plans: Six weeks of learning and activities
Download lesson plans for six weeks of learning and activities for No Place Like, as Powerpoint presentations or PDFs.
To enable all images to work in the Powerpoint files please save the file to your computer. To save to your computer: PC - right-click and save, Mac - ctrl-click and save.
Primary lesson plans:
- Primary lesson plan for No Place Like (Powerpoint)
- Primary lesson plan for No Place Like (PDF)
Suitable for:
- Key Stage 2 in England and Wales
- Second Level, P5-P7 in Scotland
- Key Stage 1/Key Stage 2 in Northern Ireland
Secondary lesson plans:
- Secondary lesson plan for No Place Like (Powerpoint)
- Secondary lesson plan for No Place Like (PDF)
Suitable for:
- Key Stage 3 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland
- Third and Fourth Level, S1-S3 in Scotland
Written by Rachel Leach and Kerry Andrew.
Arrangements: Sing the piece with simplified parts
- Primary school version - for children's voices. Includes performances notes and composition tips
- Full score - for children's voices plus SATB voices. Includes performance notes
Please get in touch with the Ten Pieces team if there are minor adjustments you would like to make for your ensemble.
Watch the full performance
No Place Like by Kerry Andrew: The full performance
Watch the full performance of Kerry Andrew's song by the Ten Pieces Children's Choir.
About the composer
KERRY ANDREW
BORN: 1978 / NATIONALITY: British
Kerry Andrew is a composer, performer and writer. She was born in Britain and studied composing at York University where she completed a PhD. She is perhaps best known for her work with voice; she specialises in experimental voice and choral music, music theatre and community music. She has written massed choir pieces for 600 performers using their voices and bodies, a 'wild swimming opera', a work performed by 25 ensembles around the UK and a piece to fight for the NHS. One of her most famous works however is called The Song of Doves and was written to remember victims of the July 7 London bombings. She has won several awards including three British Composer Awards (one for Community or Educational Project in 2014). Alongside composing she sings in a vocal group called Juice who have released two albums, You are wolf - an alt-folk group, and DOLLYman – an 'anarchic jazz/ classical/ rock collective'. Kerry has even found time to write a novel which will be published in 2018.
