Fibred algebraic surfaces and commutators in the Symplectic group

We describe the minimal number of critical points and the minimal number s of singular fibres for a non isotrivial fibration of a surface S over a curve B of genus 1, exhibiting several examples and in particular constructing a fibration with s=1 and irreducible singular fibre with 4 nodes. Then we consider the associated factorizations in the mapping class group and in the symplectic group. We describe explicitly which products of transvections on homologically independent and disjoint circles are a commutator in the Symplectic group Sp(2g,Z).