In my role as a composer at large, I have often been asked to compose music and design composerly tasks around the general subject of bananas.

The pinnacle of my banana-related composing career thus far was in St. John Vianney’s primary school in Manly, Queensland, Australia when I designed and delivered an entire term’s-worth of banana-centric arts activities, not only in my specialist area of musical endeavour, but also branching out into drama, visual arts, dance, craft, media, and indeed also those curriculum areas on the margins, literacy, history, geography, economics and maths. A proper cross-curricular banana feast it was, and no mistake, culminating in “Banana Day” in which the results of our efforts were put on display, winners were announced, live competitions were held, performances were mounted and the entire afternoon was spent in the singing of banana songs.

While not losing sight of the central, rather serious messages of this Fairtrade Fortnight, that the production of bananas worldwide, by small-holders and farmers working for large multi-nationals should be rewarded with fair prices for their produce or fair wages for their efforts, and that their livelihoods should not be put in peril by price wars between large retailers or multi-national companies squeezing their costs by lowering wages, I thought I would share some of the activities I came up with. This will enable you to have fun with bananas, in an artsy way, as you consider the potential you have to make a small difference to those whose lives are dedicated to bringing that banana to your studio.

Feet Bananas, Year 1 Photography Competition!

I have learned from my research into fairtrade bananas that in the UK, we eat over 5 billion bananas a year – 13 million each day. This is all the more remarkable, when you consider that in the time of Henry VIII, bananas had not yet reached the British Isles …or had they…? Henry VIII was a remarkable man, as we know…serial marrier, son seeker, composer, dancer, warrior, stander-up to the Pope, and the first British monarch to eat a banana? Well perhaps. In 1999 archaeologists found a compost heap near the Tower Of London dating from the early 1500s. They found all sorts of interesting artefacts from the Tudor period, such as shoes, toys, pottery and what is believed to be part of an ancient bagpipe. But the thing which was the most interesting to us, was a blackened banana skin. It would be hard to imagine that such a delicacy from far-off lands would have been fed to the prisoners, but a royal personage in the form of dashing Henry, actual or soon-to-be young king? Well you can, I’m sure, imagine him tucking into a banana or two before heading off to compose a romantic ditty , or foot it with the delectable Catherine.

This story, along with others formed the basis of the Year 7’s “Historical Banana Dramas” for which they researched the stories, wrote scripts, acted them out, gracefully accepted the applause of visiting parents and other classes. The Sixth Duke of Devonshire (Cavendish), Tim Henman (one-time winner of the “Fit Banana” trophy), Carmen Miranda, World War 2 parsnips, Adam and Eve (was it an apple, or as some would have it, a banana with which she tempted him?), Alexander The Great, 19^th century Chinese migrant workers – they’ve all played their parts in the remarkable history of the banana, you know!

“Stick with Foncho to make bananas fair” is one of the slogans of Fairtrade Fortnight, and is emblazoned on a banana sticker. The Year 2 children of Manly undertook a detailed study of banana stickers, analysing the purposes of them, the design, the message each producer was attempting to convey. They then designed their own banana stickers, scanned their designs, and printed them onto appropriate sticky-on-the-back paper. These Year 2s also took part in the Edible Art Banana Challenge, the results of which you can see on this video:

The music in the video, Banana Fanfare 2, played its own significant part in our banana mayhem. Just as this Fairtrade Fortnight focuses on troubles and potential solutions in the banana industry, there were issues facing the banana growers of Queensland then. The Philippines wanted to export bananas to Australia, but Australia had a policy of not importing bananas. This was because of the risks of diseases being brought in to the country. This was understandable, because in the 20^th century many banana plantations were wiped out as a result of imported diseases. The Philippines government argued that this was against the rules of free trade and they threatened to take the matter to the World Trade Organisation as well as refuse to allow Australian beef into their country.

Banana Crotchet, Year 1

The Year 4 classes addressed this issue by writing arguments for and against the importation of foreign bananas into Australia, and also by learning about the diseases to which banana plants were, and still are, susceptible. They presented their work in the form of a Banana Diseases Musical Dance Drama. Banana Fanfare 2, which they sang beautifully, was dubbed the “Healthy Banana” music, then in a series of composing tasks, they infected the healthy banana music with each disease in turn. The music displayed the same characteristics as a banana plant infected with these diseases: Banana Wilt, Black Sigatoka and Bunchy Top. They also created “Disease Dances” to illustrate the same symptoms. A visiting banana farmer who happened to be one of the grandparents of someone in another class (so no vested interest), commended us on our realistic musical and choreographic interpretations of the fear of his very livelihood!

Busby-Berkeley-inspired Giant Banana Dance, Year 3

Other activities from that term that leap into my memory are Year 1 Banana Joke-Telling and Poetry Reading, Year 3 Giant Banana dance inspired by Busby Berkeley, Carmen Miranda dance competition, the “Banana Fling” in which Year 4 students had to dance in time and throw their banana to their partner in every 5^th  bar, Banana Product Videos with Year 5, Banana Hat Competition inspired again by Carmen Miranda, Live Banana Recycling Art, the Year 1 Banana Photography Competition and all the banana songs I composed or found for our afternoon finale. Oh what fun we had!

Thoughts of the Fairtrade Fortnight “Man with a plan” Foncho the banana farmer from Colmbia, remind me of another banana activity which started with several random items (a banana, a postcard, a ping pong ball, an umbrella, a feather, a key, a torch….etc). A class of Year 1 students in Alnwick, Nortrhumberland began the day with a numeracy problem. Which was the heaviest of these items and which was the lightest? Out came the balance scales. Could they put them in order of weight? Eventually, yes! They constructed mathematical sentences using ‘heavier than’ and ‘lighter than’. These items then became a literacy problem. We made up the beginning of a story which had to contain all of these items. They came up with Mario who was a banana farmer – he went on to have adventures with his umbrella. So then they found out all about banana farmers, wrote descriptions of Mario and his wife, sang a song, danced a dance, performed a performance in which all their new banana knowledge was displayed. And all from a little maths starter! Brilliant!

To find out more about Fairtrade Fortnight and the way fairandfunky are participating, visit their website http://www.fairandfunky.com/ or watch the video that accompanies my fairandfunky song.

I hope you have found amongst these composerly memories some activities to inspire you during this Fairtrade Fortnight celebration of bananas. Go Bananas for Fairtrade!