Saturday, September 29, 2018

Wuytack and Melody, a Review of Musica Activa

Musica Activa - An Approach to Music Education - Volume 2, Melodic Expression, just published in March of this year (46 years after it was written),  is a definitive text in the world of Orff Schulwerk. To put this book in context, Gunild Keetman wrote Elementaria, also an essential text, in 1970 with the English translation by Margaret Murray in 1974. Musica Activa, Volume 2 was written in 1972 but translated by Judy Sills in 2018. (Musica Activa, Volume 1 - Rhythmic Expression was also written in 1972 but translated and published in 1995.)

Musica Activa - Volume 2 Musical Expression by Jos WuytackMusica Activa, Vol. 2 focuses on melody. Wuytack presented this material in level courses and master classes around the country from 1971 until 2011. His master classes were essentially focused on five main elements of music and pedagogy (melody, harmony, timbre, form, rhythm) and how they can be defined and expanded in the Orff approach. The two most important elements in Wuytack's view were melody and rhythm. The remaining elements are important yet corollary.


















Musica Activa, an important text, should be in every teacher's library. Not only does it present an expanded explanation of the pedagogy of melody, but it also includes 57 beautiful orchestrations of songs and dances for use in elementary classroom or as models for composition and improvisation. These orchestrations are organized in the order of the melodic concepts being presented with two examples of everything from bitonic through all the diatonic modes including Lydian and Mixolydian. 

Each chapter begins with an essay describing the philosophical and psychological underpinnings of the concept presented (Phenomenology of Melody, Ontogenesis of Melody, The Pentatonic System, and the Modes) followed by examples. The final chapter, however, is the gem. Titled Activation Techniques for Melody, Wuytack lays out basic techniques and strategies for teaching melodic concepts, everything from audiation to visualization, improvisation to composition. 
Melody is the most characteristic element of music. It is usually the predominant part of a composition, It catches our ear, and it is melody that we retain most easily. True melody, as a means of expression, shares emotion, sentiment, and soul. It is with melody, specifically melodic intervals, that we express our true inner beauty. 
Jos Wuytack
For more information please visit https://bppub.net/Jos_Wuytack

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Master Class returns to the Memphis Summer Orff Institute

In the summer of 2017, I had just completed my teaching for the summer and got a phone call from Heather Klossner, the Orff course director for the Memphis Summer Orff Institute. She asked me to teach a Master Class in Orff Schulwerk that reflected the heritage of the Memphis Orff course, specifically the artistic vision of Jos Wuytack. I accepted and have just finished my preparations and am absolutely looking forward to the opportunity. 
The course will be an overview and expansion of everything that was presented in Levels 1, 2 and 3 plus lots of discussion and exploration. The Levels courses segment specific tasks and concepts. In this class all of the various elements will be experienced  in a continuum. We will also have the freedom to explore areas of interest and focus on concepts and techniques of interest to the class.
 Jos's two wonderful books titled Musica Activa - Rhythm and Musica Activa - Melody deal with these two elements thoroughly. We'll review these elements in the class by using the two books as a text.  There are, of course, several elements not dealt with in those two fine volumes including Harmony and Timbre. As my preparations progressed it became clear that this is where I should spend most of my time and effort in preparations. Jos presented an expanded version of the Schulwerk that will provide us much material and grist for study, composition and improvisation. (see my previous post on functional harmony.)
For fifty years, The Memphis Summer Orff Institute has focused on the pedagogy of Carl Orff through the particular lens of Jos Wuytack, who worked alongside Orff in adapting both the original Flemish and French Musik für Kinder Volumes.  Throughout his career, Wuytack sought to update Orff’s pedagogy, extending the models available to include human and cultural diversity and adapt to the rapidly changing world in which we live.  All of Jos’s pedagogical ideas are thoroughly grounded in Carl Orff’s work and follow the outline originally put forth in the five volumes of Musik für Kinder.  
The timeless character of the Schulwerk lies in its quality of being elemental and pre-artistic. For Carl Orff the models in his five volumes make an inexhaustible arsenal of elementary musical and speech forms. An certainly, the resulting system is a well planned progression. The type and nature of the models are determined by sensing the state of the child’s awareness and the stages of his mental growth.  
But this timeless power does not exclude the possibility of a free and creative adaptation for the present day. Exactly the opposite is true. The model character of the Schulwerk demands as a principle that the examples be constantly reworked in improvisation and in re-creation! [Jos Wuytack. Updating Carl Orff’s Educational Ideas? Master Class notes, 1995]
Points of Focus
How did Jos encourage the adaptation of Orff Schulwerk to different countries and cultures around the world? Why did he view this as an important component of his work?
How did Jos expand Orff Schulwerk to become relevant to North America’s cultural diversity?
How did Jos draw connections between the world of classical music and Orff Schulwerk?

In building on the original five volumes of Musik fur Kinder, what did Jos add to the Orff canon concerning Melody, Rhythm, Form, Harmony, and Timbre?

If you've ever studied Orff Schulwerk with Jos Wuytack, Konnie Saliba, Shirley McRae, or Nancy Ferguson, this Master Class would be very interesting for you. Come join us in Memphis during the week of July 9 - 13.

Friday, May 4, 2018

What is Elemental Harmony?

The idea of Elemental Harmony has been a source of discussion among practitioners of Orff Schulwerk since its inception. Various pedagogues, teachers, Orff geeks, and authors have attempted to define and codify this elusive concept since the beginnings of Orff Schulwerk in the 1920's. In the course of my preparations for an Orff masterclass at the University of Memphis this summer, I've had cause to think about this and how it might be presented in this context. Here follows an essay on Elemental Harmony that is the prelude to the chapter on Harmony in Orff Schulwerk. Feel free to comment and discuss!

When considering the idea of accompaniment, we are touching on one of the original intents of Orff Schulwerk. At the very beginning, there was a desire in the Guntherschule for students to be trained in playing technique and improvisation on instruments. Because the school was for dance and music, the idea of students creating and playing music in the elemental style as accompaniment for dance was essential.

The Orff instrumentarium was developed specifically because the instruments chosen were playable by students as they accompanined their own dances and songs. Later the instrumental activies included conducting as well. The instruments also lent themselves easily to  the style of music invented by Carl Orff around 1924 for the piano. He called this Elemental Music. It is in this style that the Orff Schulwerk developed and evolved, culminating in the five volumes of Music for Children by Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman, adapted by Margaret Murray published between 1950 and 1954.

In volume one of Music for Children, the drone and ostinato combine to create a unique accompaniment style that evolved into the modern bordun. Keetman described these accomaniments in Elementaria, published in 1974.

“It is best at first to use neutral accompaniments (main notes: tonic or key note, fifth or octave above, with even, continuous rhythms) that can be varied later through the inclusion of other notes.”  [Elementaria, page 63]

Carl Orff described the drone accompaniments in The Schulwerk.

“The drone is the most important and most widely found form of part singing and playing.  While one voice provides the melody the other sustains one note, the key note or fundamental note, either above or below the melody.  This is the prototype of our pedal note.  This drone develops itself in two directions,  first by sustaining a chord consisting of fundamental, fifth and octave, like bagpipes or hurdy-gurdy, and second in that the drone moves between a limited number of notes like an ostinato, the so-called  ‘wandering drone’ [after Curt Sachs]”  [The Schulwerk page 28].

These original writings, including Music for Children, left out any further detailed explanations of elemental harmony. In Elementaria, Keetman provides many examples of this style of accompaniment and lots of detail about instrument technique and performance, but very little detail is given about Elemental Harmony.

In 1991, Jos wrote an essay titled, “Updating Carl Orff’s Educational Ideas.” He outlined the importance of the Schulwerk as  containing a “timeless power.”

“The timeless character of the Schulwerk lies in its qualityof being elemental and pre-artistic. For Carl Orff the models in his five volumes make an inexhaustible arsenal of elementary musical and speech forms."

But this timeless power does not exclude the possibility of a free and creative adaptation for the present day. Exactly the opposite is true. The model character of the Schulwerk demands as a principle that the examples be constantly reworked in improvisation and in re-creation. [Updating Carl Orff's Educational Ideas, 1991]

Later in the same essay, Jos makes the point that not every teacher can understand elemental harmony just by score analysis and playing through the published models with their students. Jos thought it important to try and expand and codify exactly what was happening in the five volumes, breaking out the components and providing much more detailed explanations of each aspect of elemental harmony. Jos felt that a strong connection should be kept between his work and the original work of Carl Orff, but in order to be a growing and viable educational practice, Jos expanded Orff’s principles to include extensions to jazz, rock, pop, serial music, electronic and aleatoric music, creating new models for teaching and learning. When Jos expanded the basic tenents of Elemental Music to include models in the cultural styles of music making throughout the world, He was following Orff’s strong advice.

Every phase of Schulwerk will always provide stimulation for new independent growth; therefore it is never conclusive and settled, but always developing, always growing, always flowing. [Carl Orff quoted in Updating Carl Orff's Educational Ideas, 1991]

Monday, February 19, 2018

Art, Music, and Children's Lit. A Winning Combination!


Painted Music 

Integrated Art, Music, and Children's Literature Activities
BPP-APM - Book with Online materials - $29.95
Look at a Preview
When Aimee Curtis Pfitzner first approached me regarding her third publication, she impressed me with her total commitment and enthusiasm for a new project integrating art, music, and children's literature. Her idea was to incorporate works from artists like Piet Mondrian, Romare Bearden, Wasily Kandinsky, Dale Chihuly and more to illustrate and illuminate favorite children's books like Coppernickel Goes Mondrian, and The Noisy Paint Box. She also uses music from Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, Thelonious Monk, Claude Debussy, Frank Sinatra and others as the basis for full length Orff process lesson plans for songs, activities and more children's lit like Du Iz Tak? and original activities like Channeling Chihuly.


The result, Painted Music, is a fantastic new resource for elementary music teachers using art and music to activate children's literature. Aimee has chosen several of her favorite children's books and has added art activities, songs, and Orff instrument arrangements. Each activity has a complete Orff process lesson plan along with material lists, recommended art works for viewing and listening selections. 
Making connections to music and art through children’s literature is a natural connection; books can be found on a plethora of subjects, in a dizzying array of genres and are rich in artistry; full of amazing illustrations, paintings, computer art, and 3-dimensional artwork. This collection is a short brush stroke on the canvas of arts and literature integration. The hope is that teachers will be able to  make new connections using the books on these pages and seek out other books to create new art, music, and literature activities for students to visually, aurally, and orally play with.
Online materials are included with each book, including manipulatives, visuals, and vocal scores. Playlists for musical resources are available in iTunes and Spotify

Saturday, February 17, 2018

Make a Marimba for your Music Classes!


I've been making marimbas with school kids since 1997 when I saw Jon Madin at the Seattle AOSA conference. He showed us some marimbas he had made with a local school and gave a short demonstration of how they were built. We played a couple of tunes and I was hooked!

My music supervisor back home in Augusta County asked me what I'd like to do the following summer at the music camp we held each summer. Without hesitation, I said, "Let's make some marimbas!" We made 6 marimbas that summer based on Jon Madin's design and I went on to make 3 more for my own music room. 

Since 1998, I've gone on to make many more marimbas with students up and down the East Coast. Just this morning, I've finished up the preparations for two more marimbas (numbers 42 and 43), a Bass and a 3 ½ octave Aussie that are bound for St. Stephen's School in Bradenton, FL. I've got 3 more workshops coming up this spring, one in Indiana, one in Georgia, and one back home in Virginia. 

I can testify to the fun and joyful learning that takes place at these workshops. Kids can get their hands on materials and tools and help make a beautiful new instrument for themselves! We discus how the sounds are made, why tuning is so important, and how resonators amplify the sound of the tonebars without any electronic amplification. 

Try it sometime!


Saturday, February 3, 2018

Let's Play and Sing some SOL'S!!

School Songs by Brent Holl and Phyllis Gaskins
School Songs BookCD available too!
About five years ago, my good friend and Galax dulcimer player, Phyllis Gaskins ask me to help her
record some songs she had written for her second graders. I happily complied and recorded this remarkable set of children's songs about learning objectives in elementary school.

Phyllis was an elementary classroom teacher, now retired. Her love of music and singing meant that her class sessions were always filled with music and learning. Alas, at a beginning of the year faculty meeting, she and the rest of the staff were handed learning objectives for the entire year.  Phyllis described it as "no frills learning." This was her response.
So, being feisty, I set up an appointment with the principal. I had a plan.
Principal: You cannot justify singing in the classroom because the children have music once a week with a “trained” music teacher. 
Me: What?!?! Why???
Principal: You have to follow the curricula. The objectives for reading, math, social studies, and science are to be the focus of every lesson. 
Me: Ok. What if I find or create songs that teach those objectives? Can we sing more often?
Principal: Let me see what you can develop. 
So…
I created a document with all of the core objectives labeled and numbered. I searched for songs to teach these, and when I could not find one, I wrote one. Each month I gave the principal an update on my progress and invited him into the classroom to observe the lesson. Mission accomplished. My song writing journey began.
And just like that School Songs was born. This brand new release is all about songs for Social Studies, Science and Reading in the elementary classroom. The songbook contains full scores for every song on the CD. Some of the songs have lead sheets with guitar or ukulele chords and some are full scores for including parts for Orff instruments and/or home made marimbas.

Teach geography with Trip to Egypt or Fly to China. Energize your social studies lessons with In the Good Old USA and The Three Resources. Study condensation, precipitation, and water vapor by singing The Water Cycle!

The songs on the CD (available separately) are performed and recorded by Brent Holl, folk singer and former teacher as well. He uses acoustic guitar, melodica, all manner of special percussion instruments, and a home made marimba. Teachers who have marimbas or Orff instruments in their classrooms will be able to re-create the Orff arrangements written in this book with their students. All of these arrangements are playable on guitar, keyboard or ukulele! Have a listen, courtesy of CD Baby!  Find out more at http://bppub.net/Buy_School_Songs