The Sneaky Pumpkin - Rebecca Tompkins

Click HERE to view a perusal score.

The Sneaky Pumpkin is a fun little piece that will bring humor to your fall concert, a break away from scary themes associated with Halloween! This grade level 3 piece tells the story of a pumpkin which children have brought home to carve, not knowing that they have chosen an intelligent character who is crafty by escaping from them. The main melody, played in the cello part beginning in measure 4, indicates the beginning of the chase. Chromatic scales in the seconds and violas indicate the pumpkin is being sneaky
and fooling the children trying to catch it. After the expressed bewilderment of the children in the search because of the pumpkin cunningly outsmarting them, the chase comes to a significant break as the pumpkin does a “happy dance,” in waltz style.

Two melodies emerge in the pumpkin’s dance. One, a dreamy, lyrical melody depicting the pumpkin’s joy in his cleverness; and two, a percussive melody symbolizing his pompous skipping and laughing. These melodies occur most often in pairs of two sections together. Finally, the violas roughly lead us back into a repeat of the first section, yet with more intensity. The chase concludes with one last portrayal of the pumpkin’s slyness, this time in the cellos and basses, as the sneaky pumpkin manages to get away completely from the grasp of death by carving!

String Orchestra

3:38

Grade 3