I have started working on the next stage of my residency with Imaginate. I will be working with 3 Primary 5 classes in Edinburgh schools on a music listening research project. I'm interested in hearing the pupils' thoughts and opinions on lots of differnet pieces of music. All of the music has been chosen to be challenging as I think it will be interesting for the pupils to listen to music that they might not often get the chance to listen to. I want them to be honest and tell me what they think of the music and I will be getting them to respond in various ways. I'm also going to be working with musicians throughout the project: a singer, a trombonist, a percussionist, and a clarinetist.
I am working in Pirniehall on Tuesdays and Preston Street on Wednesdays. In the second block of workshops I will work with Dalry rather than Pirniehall. The workshops have been structured in this way so I can see whether the children at Preston Street show advanced signs of music listening due to receiving double the amount of workshops.
The first workshop was all about listening to pieces fro solo instruments from late 20th century or early 21st century composers. The first piece we listened to was Kaija Saariaho's Sept Papillons (1st movement) for solo cello. I asked the children to try and identify what instrument they thought was playing and also to listen to the texture of the music.
Most of the children thought the instrument was a violin, but with a bit of prompting they guessed cello. Some of the words they used to describe the texture were: "scratchy", "rough" and "squeaky". They were all quite surprised when I told them that the piece was inspired by butterflies!
The next piece of music we listened to was Continuum by Gyorgy Ligeti - probably my favourite 20th century composer. Continuum is written for keyboard instrument and in this recording it is played on a barrel organ. I asked the participants to close their eyes as they listened and listen out for the speed.
This was a very interesting piece and the effect it had on the children was pretty incredible. Most children felt compelled to move in some way or another. Several mimed the playing of the piece by moving their digits furiously over an invisible keyboard. Some children began to shake and convulse or roll about on the floor. I was also really taken back by a young girl at Pirniehall who hovered her hands above her head throughout the piece - she was completely lost in her own world!
The final piece of music that we listened to was from the Sequenza series by Luciano Berio. These are some of the most respected pieces for solo instruments from the last century and are regarded as being incredibly difficult to play (as well as pretty challenging to listen to!). I played them the Sequenza 7 for solo oboe. During this exercise the participants were asked to draw whatever came into their heads. They all had a sheet of A4 paper plus coloured pens and pencils. There were some great drawings created during this task. Obviously some copying occured but on the whole they were very original. Lots of children at Pirniehall drew saxaphones or horns. Their drawings were all very pictorial. At Preston Street there were a more abstract drawings. Many of the participnats in this school drew in rhythm with the music or even with their eyes closed. One young girl at Preston Street drew a picture which contained a duck, a man crying and a very tall building. The day before at Pirniehall three separate children drew a swan, a man crying and a tall building...
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