Last weekend I was lucky to attend a really exciting music festival for children in the very grand opera house in Lille, northern France. The festival, Happy Day des Enfants, was organised by the Belgian company Oorsmeer and it focused on bringing dynamic, interesting music performances and installations to a young audience.
All the events took place in the beautiful opera house and every space was utilised. In fact the first performances I saw were all in dressing rooms. One of these involved a pianist and guitarist who played in time with a model train set. As the train moved round in a circle it hit a piece of paper off the side of some lego buildings. The lego blocks were linked to contact mics so the train produced some controlled feedback which the musicians then responded to melodically and rhythmically. It was really interesting and unique.
There was an ongoing installation throughtout the day called Bambouphones. This huge bamboo instrument was a big hit with the audience, young and old, as it offered a range of squeaks and honks which changed throughout the day.
http://www.hansvankoolwijk.nl/index.html
There were several other really interesting events: a lovely, quiet performance on accordion by Anne Niepold, a rocking performance from the Balaxy Orchestra and a very interesting performance by a group who played some glass instruments created by Charlotte Van Wouwe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KT2mwEHNEw
It was a really great day in a very beautiful setting!
Wednesday 31 March 2010
Tuesday 23 March 2010
Tweetakt
I'm just back from the Tweetakt international children's theatre festival in Utrecht, Holland. It was a really rewarding experience as the quality of work was very high. I was there for the first two and a half days and managed to fit in twelve performances.
On day one we saw two very contrasting performances by the always-exciting Theatergroep Max. First up was Help, a fantastic play about the formation of the Beatles. It was a really fast-paced story with some superb live music and excellent acting from all the performers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHC5L55hcMg
We then had to rush off to see another performance by TG Max called Toneel. This show, set in a school gym hall, was in stark contrast to Help. It was a thoroughly original and bizarre piece of physical/music theatre in which five performers carry out a boring movement sequence before it all starts to go wrong. Amidst the madness of this show there was a moment of real beauty where all the lights went down and 20-30 mobile phones, stuck on the walls of the hall, all lit up one after the other and played a lovely twinkly tune!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60STE66hGIA
Another great show was Under The Influence by the Belgian company Ontoerend Goed. Again, I'm a fan of their work but I knew how controversial and dangerous they could be so was slightly apprehesive about attending a show set at a flat party where people are 'under the influence' of drugs. It's a high-octane assault on the senses - you're physically there with the performers as they dance, pass round beer and joints (not lit!), stripp off, vomit and, at one particularly harrowing moment, have seizures... At the end of the party the audience are led off to different places by the cast; I ended up in a dressing room listening to a girl chat in Dutch for 20 minutes - very surreal!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AV1nvUBKPs
On the second day we saw two shows which explored gender issues. Gentlemen was a piece performed by two androgynous female performers set in a clothes shop. The perfomers tackled the notion that men/boys don't have to wear only male clothing and that girls/women don't only have to wear female clothing. At the centre of this interesting subject area were two astounding performances. A performance in the evening was You Can Have None, a piece performed by a solo female student. She was dressed as a man and taunted the audience with her drill! It was a funny, clever piece of live art for a teenage/adult audience.
Strange Days, Indeed was my favourite piece of dance from the weekend. The young Basel company performed a piece which explored friendship, independence and unity. The four female dancers and one male dancer performed a highly physical piece involving phones hanging from the ceiling, lots of clothes swapping, and excerpts of real-life stories from a Basel newspaper. It was fun and many moments from the show have really resonated with me. The piece was choreographed by Ives Thuwis who was co-creator of Rennen, the great dance piece I saw in Nuremberg.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBXkao-iej4
I think my favourite show of the festival though was another student piece called Krampig (Crampy). This short little show was a real treat. It was about a very tall man living in a very small house. He struggles to even turn around. Things become even more cramped when his girlfriend comes to visit. It was a very warm and romantic piece that had adults and children laughing out loud.
On day one we saw two very contrasting performances by the always-exciting Theatergroep Max. First up was Help, a fantastic play about the formation of the Beatles. It was a really fast-paced story with some superb live music and excellent acting from all the performers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHC5L55hcMg
We then had to rush off to see another performance by TG Max called Toneel. This show, set in a school gym hall, was in stark contrast to Help. It was a thoroughly original and bizarre piece of physical/music theatre in which five performers carry out a boring movement sequence before it all starts to go wrong. Amidst the madness of this show there was a moment of real beauty where all the lights went down and 20-30 mobile phones, stuck on the walls of the hall, all lit up one after the other and played a lovely twinkly tune!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60STE66hGIA
Another great show was Under The Influence by the Belgian company Ontoerend Goed. Again, I'm a fan of their work but I knew how controversial and dangerous they could be so was slightly apprehesive about attending a show set at a flat party where people are 'under the influence' of drugs. It's a high-octane assault on the senses - you're physically there with the performers as they dance, pass round beer and joints (not lit!), stripp off, vomit and, at one particularly harrowing moment, have seizures... At the end of the party the audience are led off to different places by the cast; I ended up in a dressing room listening to a girl chat in Dutch for 20 minutes - very surreal!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AV1nvUBKPs
On the second day we saw two shows which explored gender issues. Gentlemen was a piece performed by two androgynous female performers set in a clothes shop. The perfomers tackled the notion that men/boys don't have to wear only male clothing and that girls/women don't only have to wear female clothing. At the centre of this interesting subject area were two astounding performances. A performance in the evening was You Can Have None, a piece performed by a solo female student. She was dressed as a man and taunted the audience with her drill! It was a funny, clever piece of live art for a teenage/adult audience.
Strange Days, Indeed was my favourite piece of dance from the weekend. The young Basel company performed a piece which explored friendship, independence and unity. The four female dancers and one male dancer performed a highly physical piece involving phones hanging from the ceiling, lots of clothes swapping, and excerpts of real-life stories from a Basel newspaper. It was fun and many moments from the show have really resonated with me. The piece was choreographed by Ives Thuwis who was co-creator of Rennen, the great dance piece I saw in Nuremberg.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBXkao-iej4
I think my favourite show of the festival though was another student piece called Krampig (Crampy). This short little show was a real treat. It was about a very tall man living in a very small house. He struggles to even turn around. Things become even more cramped when his girlfriend comes to visit. It was a very warm and romantic piece that had adults and children laughing out loud.
Friday 19 March 2010
Silence
And so we come to the final workshop in my schools listening project. I was really sad to see it come to an end as it's been a hugely rewarding process for me and (I like to think) for the pupils as well. The schools have all been really accommodating and the kids have been enthusiastic, interested, interesting, stimulating, inquisitive, questioning, intelligent, surprising, enlightening, creative, responsive and good fun!
The final workshop was something that I was eager to get to right from the start of the project. I always knew I wanted to push the kids to the very edge of musical understanding and the best way to do this is to make them think about silence. As a musician I have always been interested in the thoughts and teachings of John Cage and so it seemed logical for this to be the starting point in the workshop. We discussed his famous 4' 33" which is, of course, 4' 33" of "silence". I told them about the very first performance and that the audience had reacted with curiosity and then anger. It's really surprising that even now, almost 60 years after that performance that it still has the power to confuse and divide opinion and the reactions of the participants highlighted this. Just speaking about the piece caused confusion and a divide of opinions. My favourite very astute comment came from a girl at Preston Street who made the realisation that since the piece is intended to draw the listener's ear to the sounds of the surrounding environment "the silence is the music" - a beautiful statement that I think John Cage would have been proud of. We then sat in silence for a minute (although one group at Dalry hilariously opted to sit in silence for 1' 33" in homage to Cage!). When I asked the kids to do this exercise at the start of the project the kids realised that there were sounds that could not be quieted and that there would always be sound. Watching the kids performing a minute's silence after hearing about 4' 33" seemed to go deeper than this. You could feel their questioning; their search for silence - it was really electrifying.
We then listened to a piece by Cage's friend Morton Feldman - Projection 1. This piece is one of Feldman's graphic score compositions, where choices are to be made by the performer/s with regards to the performance of the piece. I chose this piece to play to the groups as Feldman's use of silence is extraordinary. In much of his music solitary notes or chords are heard in isolation, the surrounding silence/spaces full of the resonance of what has come before and the anticipation of what is coming next. I was honest with the kids and told them that the music is very challenging to listen to but close listening would be fruitful. Having said that the piece did cause some squirming as the kids lost interest. Some children listened patiently but were full of questions by the end. For anyone who listens to this music it is possible to ask "why that sound?" "and why that sound, there?" The answer is, I guess, why not? Silence is used to give sparkling quality to the most simple of sounds. Isolation lends them a ghostly quality that bewilders and amazes in equal measure.
We the listened to two pieces by Kotra and Zavoloka - Diminutive, and A Taste of Live Life. These Ukrainian artists create bristling electronic music that bridges the gap between dance music and experimental noise. I chose these two tracks as they encompass silence in very different ways. In Diminutive familiarity is built up through a repetitive dance beat before a huge gap after about 40 seconds. The beats then continue and grow. Each group reacted to the gap in the same way - a questioning look to me "is that it?". Some children even asked that question out loud. All laughed when the beats resumed. In A Taste Of Live Life silences are fragmented and broken up around eclectic electronic bleeps and squeaks. This piece caused some hilarious robotic dancing from the kids!
We then listened to another piece by Morton Feldman - The Straits of Magellan. As they listened the kids drew. As the music is so abstract I found a huge variety in the drawings produced. Some kids resorted to drawing the instruments they could hear - piano, horns, a guitar. One of my favourite drawings was of a tree with a bird squawking out a scrambled pattern of noise and a man standing on top of the tree with a bag of money! Unfortunately the girl who drew it didn't want to talk about it but in a way it's quite nice for it to remain a curious mystery!
The final piece we listened to was a version of I Loves You Porgy by Gershwin. This version was played on piano by Ran Blake and it doesn't so much use silence as suggest a sense of space through the rubato elongation of chords. It was a lovely jazzy way to finish the workshops.
At the end I explained to the kids that I would see them in a few weeks time as I will be sending out questionnaires for the kids to fill in and will then come to collect them. At the start of the process I asked the kids to fill in questionnaires to give me an overview of their perception and understanding of music. The final questionnaires will help me to see any changes in thought for individual kids over the course of the workshops.
The final workshop was something that I was eager to get to right from the start of the project. I always knew I wanted to push the kids to the very edge of musical understanding and the best way to do this is to make them think about silence. As a musician I have always been interested in the thoughts and teachings of John Cage and so it seemed logical for this to be the starting point in the workshop. We discussed his famous 4' 33" which is, of course, 4' 33" of "silence". I told them about the very first performance and that the audience had reacted with curiosity and then anger. It's really surprising that even now, almost 60 years after that performance that it still has the power to confuse and divide opinion and the reactions of the participants highlighted this. Just speaking about the piece caused confusion and a divide of opinions. My favourite very astute comment came from a girl at Preston Street who made the realisation that since the piece is intended to draw the listener's ear to the sounds of the surrounding environment "the silence is the music" - a beautiful statement that I think John Cage would have been proud of. We then sat in silence for a minute (although one group at Dalry hilariously opted to sit in silence for 1' 33" in homage to Cage!). When I asked the kids to do this exercise at the start of the project the kids realised that there were sounds that could not be quieted and that there would always be sound. Watching the kids performing a minute's silence after hearing about 4' 33" seemed to go deeper than this. You could feel their questioning; their search for silence - it was really electrifying.
We then listened to a piece by Cage's friend Morton Feldman - Projection 1. This piece is one of Feldman's graphic score compositions, where choices are to be made by the performer/s with regards to the performance of the piece. I chose this piece to play to the groups as Feldman's use of silence is extraordinary. In much of his music solitary notes or chords are heard in isolation, the surrounding silence/spaces full of the resonance of what has come before and the anticipation of what is coming next. I was honest with the kids and told them that the music is very challenging to listen to but close listening would be fruitful. Having said that the piece did cause some squirming as the kids lost interest. Some children listened patiently but were full of questions by the end. For anyone who listens to this music it is possible to ask "why that sound?" "and why that sound, there?" The answer is, I guess, why not? Silence is used to give sparkling quality to the most simple of sounds. Isolation lends them a ghostly quality that bewilders and amazes in equal measure.
We the listened to two pieces by Kotra and Zavoloka - Diminutive, and A Taste of Live Life. These Ukrainian artists create bristling electronic music that bridges the gap between dance music and experimental noise. I chose these two tracks as they encompass silence in very different ways. In Diminutive familiarity is built up through a repetitive dance beat before a huge gap after about 40 seconds. The beats then continue and grow. Each group reacted to the gap in the same way - a questioning look to me "is that it?". Some children even asked that question out loud. All laughed when the beats resumed. In A Taste Of Live Life silences are fragmented and broken up around eclectic electronic bleeps and squeaks. This piece caused some hilarious robotic dancing from the kids!
We then listened to another piece by Morton Feldman - The Straits of Magellan. As they listened the kids drew. As the music is so abstract I found a huge variety in the drawings produced. Some kids resorted to drawing the instruments they could hear - piano, horns, a guitar. One of my favourite drawings was of a tree with a bird squawking out a scrambled pattern of noise and a man standing on top of the tree with a bag of money! Unfortunately the girl who drew it didn't want to talk about it but in a way it's quite nice for it to remain a curious mystery!
The final piece we listened to was a version of I Loves You Porgy by Gershwin. This version was played on piano by Ran Blake and it doesn't so much use silence as suggest a sense of space through the rubato elongation of chords. It was a lovely jazzy way to finish the workshops.
At the end I explained to the kids that I would see them in a few weeks time as I will be sending out questionnaires for the kids to fill in and will then come to collect them. At the start of the process I asked the kids to fill in questionnaires to give me an overview of their perception and understanding of music. The final questionnaires will help me to see any changes in thought for individual kids over the course of the workshops.
Tuesday 16 March 2010
Clarinet Workshop
Hello! So the aim of my seventh workshop in my schools listening project was to introduce the pupils to the sounds of the clarinet. I was working with a friend of mine, the clarinetist Fran Pybus. As always, I delivered a workshop on Tuesday at Dalry Primary and Wednesday at Preston Street Primary.
Fran began by playing a piece on her clarinet to introduce the pupils to the sound. In every group the pupils sat very still and with focused attention. They really fell under the spell of the beautiful tone of the instrument. In contrast to the beautifully melodic Romance that Fran played, I then asked her to play an improvisation exploring some of the stranger sounds that can be produced by a clarinet. We heard trills in various registers, glissandi (slides) in the highest register which sounded like shrieks, overblowing (literally when Fran blows too much air through the instrument and achieves a multiphonic, intense sound), slap tonguing (which produces a percussive sound) and key slapping. These odd sounds were all very intriguing and the pupils enjoyed reacting to each new sound. We then explored some of these sounds in more detail and the pupils used their sound diaries to describe individual sounds.
We then had a discussion about proximity and what effect this can have on the listening experience. Even before exploring it in more detail most kids were able to realise that being in close proximity to an instrument would affect the volume and tone of the sound. We then conducted some experiments to explore this:
1. Fran played a crescendo and diminuendo (got louder and quieter) on a fixed pitch
2. Fran played a fixed pitch, fixed volume and walked past us
3. Fran played a fixed pitch, fixed volume as we walked past her.
It was interesting to note that at Preston Street primary it was easier to hear differences in volume in these last two experiments than at Dalry.
We then tried some of the following (some of which were suggested by pupils):
1. Fran played a fixed pitch, fixed volume whilst turning around on the spot
2. Fran played a fixed pitch, fixed volume whilst turning around on the spot and with one pupil turning around at the same time. (result - a changing volume for most of the audience, a fixed volume for the individual pupil)
3. Fran played a fixed pitch, fixed volume whilst one pupil placed their hand against the bell of her instrument (result - a drop in volume and a slight lowering of pitch when the hand covered the hole)
4. Fran played a fixed pitch, fixed volume whilst standing outside the classroom
5. Fran played a fixed pitch, fixed volume whilst the class stood outside the classroom and Fran was inside.
6. Fran played a fixed pitch, fixed volume whilst spinning the bell of her clarinet in a circle (result - a surprising siren-like effect)
7. Fran standing on the opposite side of the room, playing a fixed pitch. She played a diminuendo as she walked towards us (result - the volume remained fairly constant but the tone changed)
Fran then played us a short improvisation on her bass clarinet. Some pupils thought it was a saxophone due to its shape. They all enjoyed listening to how deep the instrument could go.
The last thing we tried was to create a group composition exploring proximity. The class decided on four "performance situations" where they had to pick where Fran performed, where the class were, and what Fran was to play. This exercise was quite good fun but was slightly chaotic. The groups explored such things as: fanfares (with the pupils marching around the room), angry music with trills and squeaks, pupils walking around Fran in a circle.
Fran began by playing a piece on her clarinet to introduce the pupils to the sound. In every group the pupils sat very still and with focused attention. They really fell under the spell of the beautiful tone of the instrument. In contrast to the beautifully melodic Romance that Fran played, I then asked her to play an improvisation exploring some of the stranger sounds that can be produced by a clarinet. We heard trills in various registers, glissandi (slides) in the highest register which sounded like shrieks, overblowing (literally when Fran blows too much air through the instrument and achieves a multiphonic, intense sound), slap tonguing (which produces a percussive sound) and key slapping. These odd sounds were all very intriguing and the pupils enjoyed reacting to each new sound. We then explored some of these sounds in more detail and the pupils used their sound diaries to describe individual sounds.
We then had a discussion about proximity and what effect this can have on the listening experience. Even before exploring it in more detail most kids were able to realise that being in close proximity to an instrument would affect the volume and tone of the sound. We then conducted some experiments to explore this:
1. Fran played a crescendo and diminuendo (got louder and quieter) on a fixed pitch
2. Fran played a fixed pitch, fixed volume and walked past us
3. Fran played a fixed pitch, fixed volume as we walked past her.
It was interesting to note that at Preston Street primary it was easier to hear differences in volume in these last two experiments than at Dalry.
We then tried some of the following (some of which were suggested by pupils):
1. Fran played a fixed pitch, fixed volume whilst turning around on the spot
2. Fran played a fixed pitch, fixed volume whilst turning around on the spot and with one pupil turning around at the same time. (result - a changing volume for most of the audience, a fixed volume for the individual pupil)
3. Fran played a fixed pitch, fixed volume whilst one pupil placed their hand against the bell of her instrument (result - a drop in volume and a slight lowering of pitch when the hand covered the hole)
4. Fran played a fixed pitch, fixed volume whilst standing outside the classroom
5. Fran played a fixed pitch, fixed volume whilst the class stood outside the classroom and Fran was inside.
6. Fran played a fixed pitch, fixed volume whilst spinning the bell of her clarinet in a circle (result - a surprising siren-like effect)
7. Fran standing on the opposite side of the room, playing a fixed pitch. She played a diminuendo as she walked towards us (result - the volume remained fairly constant but the tone changed)
Fran then played us a short improvisation on her bass clarinet. Some pupils thought it was a saxophone due to its shape. They all enjoyed listening to how deep the instrument could go.
The last thing we tried was to create a group composition exploring proximity. The class decided on four "performance situations" where they had to pick where Fran performed, where the class were, and what Fran was to play. This exercise was quite good fun but was slightly chaotic. The groups explored such things as: fanfares (with the pupils marching around the room), angry music with trills and squeaks, pupils walking around Fran in a circle.
Friday 5 March 2010
Workshop 6 - Percussion
I was really looking forward to the schools workshops this week as I was working with percussionist Adam Clifford. I knew that the children would really enjoy listening to some percussion as there is something very immediate and powerful about the act of hitting a drum that children respond to positively.
Adam brought a range of instruments with him for the children to hear. These included: a snare drum, a suspended cymbal, a tambourine, a guiro (scraper), an old chain, a squeaky dog toy, some bells, two differently sized metal hoops, an old scrubbing brush, and a range of various sticks and beaters.
As an introduction he played the groups a short piece on snare drum called Hugh's Chilled Red by Alan Emslie. This piece covers a full specturm of possible snare drum sounds ranging from very quiet to extremely loud. The kids all really enjoyed the contrasts in the piece and there were some unexpected jumps from some kids at the louder moments - one girl at Dalry actually threw her sound diary into the air with fright at the first really loud roll! The piece was always followed by enthusiastic applause. Adam then explored the different sounds that were involved in the piece.
We then had an opportunity to listen to some more percussion sounds. These were improvised pieces and Adam carefully considered some very interesting sound worlds. There were giggles from the kids when they heard things like the dog toy or the chain being dropped on the floor. At Preston Street there was an audible gasp from the kids when Adam picked up a bass bow - as he drew this against the edge of the suspended cymbal, producing eery shrieks, many kids shivered or covered their ears. The range of sounds that the participants were exposed to in these short pieces was really exciting and they all loved it. We had a discussion about the difference between pitched and unpitched percussion, with Adam demonstrating that a xylophone could be played using four beaters to produce many notes at once.
We then played some short rhythmic games. Firstly, we sat in a circle and passed a clap around the circle. We tried to do this as quickly as possible. We then did the same thing but attempted to clap individually to a steady pulse. The group found this quite tricky. Adam discussed how important it is as a percussionist to be able to hold a steady beat and that this task can seem deceptively simple.
We then moved on to a more abstract idea. I asked the children to tell me a short story. I explained that this was to be quite brief and we would break it into 5 or 6 main parts. These parts would then be translated into percussive sounds by the group and Adam to tell a sound story. The stories for each group were really different:
Dalry, Group 1
I got up out of bed
I went to the toilet to brush my teeth
I heard my sister crying
I go and see her and she stops crying
I fell down the stairs and landed in the swimming pool
So I got the day off school.
Dalry, Group 2
It was a dark and scary night
I heard screaming
I looked round the corner and saw a shadow
It was a zombie and it bit Ross
Then the zombie's mum called the zombie in for dinner
I woke up. It was all a nightmare.
Preston Street, Group 1
The mangoes and the bananas had a fight
A steak and gammon joined in to marry each other
Then the coca cola exploded
Meanwhile the steak accidentally peels the banana
So the mango had revenge by eating the steak.
Preston Street, Group 2
Once upon a time in a great castle there lived a king and a queen called King James and Queen Mary.
Also there is a secret panel
In the secret panel there is a golden dragon
There is a prince called Prince Jaffyburg
The prince opened the secret panel and the dragon attacked him
The prince died.
As you can imagine, these wildly different stories brought out a range of percussive ideas and sounds from the groups. They all had great fun composing these short sound stories.
The final task of the day was to stand in a circle and attempt to clap at exactly the same time as each other. This is often used by arts workshop practictioners to focus attention in groups. I was keen to do this task for this reason (so they went back to class a little less exciteable) but also so that we could discuss how it feels in that mioment before the unison clap. When it worked successfully the group said that they had felt tense, nervous, had sore hands (from the last clap), excited, calm. I'm really interested in these moments between sounds; after we've listened to a piece of music or sound and we are digesting it, and before we listen to the next piece of music or sound and are anticipating it. I will explore music which explores this concept with the groups in the last session.
Adam brought a range of instruments with him for the children to hear. These included: a snare drum, a suspended cymbal, a tambourine, a guiro (scraper), an old chain, a squeaky dog toy, some bells, two differently sized metal hoops, an old scrubbing brush, and a range of various sticks and beaters.
As an introduction he played the groups a short piece on snare drum called Hugh's Chilled Red by Alan Emslie. This piece covers a full specturm of possible snare drum sounds ranging from very quiet to extremely loud. The kids all really enjoyed the contrasts in the piece and there were some unexpected jumps from some kids at the louder moments - one girl at Dalry actually threw her sound diary into the air with fright at the first really loud roll! The piece was always followed by enthusiastic applause. Adam then explored the different sounds that were involved in the piece.
We then had an opportunity to listen to some more percussion sounds. These were improvised pieces and Adam carefully considered some very interesting sound worlds. There were giggles from the kids when they heard things like the dog toy or the chain being dropped on the floor. At Preston Street there was an audible gasp from the kids when Adam picked up a bass bow - as he drew this against the edge of the suspended cymbal, producing eery shrieks, many kids shivered or covered their ears. The range of sounds that the participants were exposed to in these short pieces was really exciting and they all loved it. We had a discussion about the difference between pitched and unpitched percussion, with Adam demonstrating that a xylophone could be played using four beaters to produce many notes at once.
We then played some short rhythmic games. Firstly, we sat in a circle and passed a clap around the circle. We tried to do this as quickly as possible. We then did the same thing but attempted to clap individually to a steady pulse. The group found this quite tricky. Adam discussed how important it is as a percussionist to be able to hold a steady beat and that this task can seem deceptively simple.
We then moved on to a more abstract idea. I asked the children to tell me a short story. I explained that this was to be quite brief and we would break it into 5 or 6 main parts. These parts would then be translated into percussive sounds by the group and Adam to tell a sound story. The stories for each group were really different:
Dalry, Group 1
I got up out of bed
I went to the toilet to brush my teeth
I heard my sister crying
I go and see her and she stops crying
I fell down the stairs and landed in the swimming pool
So I got the day off school.
Dalry, Group 2
It was a dark and scary night
I heard screaming
I looked round the corner and saw a shadow
It was a zombie and it bit Ross
Then the zombie's mum called the zombie in for dinner
I woke up. It was all a nightmare.
Preston Street, Group 1
The mangoes and the bananas had a fight
A steak and gammon joined in to marry each other
Then the coca cola exploded
Meanwhile the steak accidentally peels the banana
So the mango had revenge by eating the steak.
Preston Street, Group 2
Once upon a time in a great castle there lived a king and a queen called King James and Queen Mary.
Also there is a secret panel
In the secret panel there is a golden dragon
There is a prince called Prince Jaffyburg
The prince opened the secret panel and the dragon attacked him
The prince died.
As you can imagine, these wildly different stories brought out a range of percussive ideas and sounds from the groups. They all had great fun composing these short sound stories.
The final task of the day was to stand in a circle and attempt to clap at exactly the same time as each other. This is often used by arts workshop practictioners to focus attention in groups. I was keen to do this task for this reason (so they went back to class a little less exciteable) but also so that we could discuss how it feels in that mioment before the unison clap. When it worked successfully the group said that they had felt tense, nervous, had sore hands (from the last clap), excited, calm. I'm really interested in these moments between sounds; after we've listened to a piece of music or sound and we are digesting it, and before we listen to the next piece of music or sound and are anticipating it. I will explore music which explores this concept with the groups in the last session.
Workshop 5 - Sampling
In the second block of music listening workshops that I'm doing in schools I started working with a new Edinburgh primary - Dalry. This school has replaced Pirniehall. Preston Street will continue as the school on Wednesdays. The idea behind this structure is for me to guage the level of perception and understanding of the partcipants at Preston Street (who have already had 4 weeks of workshops) against the thoughts of the children at Dalry (who are just starting).
The first workshop back was all about sampling. We listened to music which sampled other pieces of music or sounds to create something new. I knew this would be an interesting way to start off some conversations with the groups as sampling calls into question the issue of identity and authorship in music. I was looking forward to asking questions about originality and what consitutes as a musical sound.
The first piece that we listened to was New Process by the Canadian dj Akufen. This is a short track that is comprised almost entirely out of very short snippets of samples from other pieces of music and sounds. The tiny fragments of found sound are spliced together to form a jumpy, edgy soundworld that is at once very danceable and also slightly unnerving due to the tiny pieces of familiarity. I asked the participants to listen out for how many samples they thought were used in the piece. In truth, I didn't know the answer to this but the children all agreeed that were lots! Overall the piece was very popular and one boy at Preston Street even asked me to write down the name of the artist so he could go and listen to more of his music. A great result!
We then listened to excerpts form two differnet tracks back to back. The first was Jimmy by the British female rapper M.I.A. The second was a Bollywood track called Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy by Parvati Khan. The M.I.A. track samples the whole of the Parvati Khan track whilst adding new vocals and lyrics, and altering the beats. The result is two tracks which sound very similar but are, in my mind at least, entirely different. The kids were all dancing about to the M.I.A. track but when the Parvati Khan track came on there were lots of quizzical looks and mutterings of, "this is the same piece of music". Afterwards I explianed the differences in composition and we discussed what effect this has on the piece. I also explained that the M.I.A. track uses an Indian piece of music to colour lyrics about civil war in Rwanda and that, by so doing, the artist makes a political comment about the world being smaller than we think. This was quite a serious discussion and the children at Preston Street were more equipped to involve themselves in it than the kids at Dalry.
A drawing task was next up and this week I asked them to draw whilst listening to a nine minuite piece of sound art called 57A by Bernhard Gal. This piece is comprised entirely from samples taken from the tram of the title. Slowly patterns begin to emerge out of the field recordings as the artist creates rhythms through layering and juxtaposition. He also uses filters to process some of the sounds and this gave rise to some very interesting results in the children's drawings. The processing turns the voice of the tram's tannoy system into something very robotic or alien. At both schools this resulted in drawings which fused the literal (most children drew trains) with the fantastical (some children added talking robots, UFOs and aliens).
The final piece we listened to this week was the first movement of Cantus Arcticus by Einojuhani Rautavaarra. This orchestral piece is often referred to as the Concerto for Birds and indeed is comprised of beautiful, soporific orchestral writing and samples of various birds calling and in flight. It is a mesmerising, haunting piece. The children at Dalry struggled with it. I think by this point they were quite tired and the piece was too tranquil; they wanted to continue to dance to music similar to the first pieces. The children at Preston Street however all really enjoyed it.
The first workshop back was all about sampling. We listened to music which sampled other pieces of music or sounds to create something new. I knew this would be an interesting way to start off some conversations with the groups as sampling calls into question the issue of identity and authorship in music. I was looking forward to asking questions about originality and what consitutes as a musical sound.
The first piece that we listened to was New Process by the Canadian dj Akufen. This is a short track that is comprised almost entirely out of very short snippets of samples from other pieces of music and sounds. The tiny fragments of found sound are spliced together to form a jumpy, edgy soundworld that is at once very danceable and also slightly unnerving due to the tiny pieces of familiarity. I asked the participants to listen out for how many samples they thought were used in the piece. In truth, I didn't know the answer to this but the children all agreeed that were lots! Overall the piece was very popular and one boy at Preston Street even asked me to write down the name of the artist so he could go and listen to more of his music. A great result!
We then listened to excerpts form two differnet tracks back to back. The first was Jimmy by the British female rapper M.I.A. The second was a Bollywood track called Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy by Parvati Khan. The M.I.A. track samples the whole of the Parvati Khan track whilst adding new vocals and lyrics, and altering the beats. The result is two tracks which sound very similar but are, in my mind at least, entirely different. The kids were all dancing about to the M.I.A. track but when the Parvati Khan track came on there were lots of quizzical looks and mutterings of, "this is the same piece of music". Afterwards I explianed the differences in composition and we discussed what effect this has on the piece. I also explained that the M.I.A. track uses an Indian piece of music to colour lyrics about civil war in Rwanda and that, by so doing, the artist makes a political comment about the world being smaller than we think. This was quite a serious discussion and the children at Preston Street were more equipped to involve themselves in it than the kids at Dalry.
A drawing task was next up and this week I asked them to draw whilst listening to a nine minuite piece of sound art called 57A by Bernhard Gal. This piece is comprised entirely from samples taken from the tram of the title. Slowly patterns begin to emerge out of the field recordings as the artist creates rhythms through layering and juxtaposition. He also uses filters to process some of the sounds and this gave rise to some very interesting results in the children's drawings. The processing turns the voice of the tram's tannoy system into something very robotic or alien. At both schools this resulted in drawings which fused the literal (most children drew trains) with the fantastical (some children added talking robots, UFOs and aliens).
The final piece we listened to this week was the first movement of Cantus Arcticus by Einojuhani Rautavaarra. This orchestral piece is often referred to as the Concerto for Birds and indeed is comprised of beautiful, soporific orchestral writing and samples of various birds calling and in flight. It is a mesmerising, haunting piece. The children at Dalry struggled with it. I think by this point they were quite tired and the piece was too tranquil; they wanted to continue to dance to music similar to the first pieces. The children at Preston Street however all really enjoyed it.
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