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, 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

Chris Judah-Lauder and Classroom Drumming, a Perfect Match

How much fun was it to work with Chris on this new book? Amazing! Since she retired last year, her promise to me was to get started on some of the wonderful materials she'd been working on with her students in the final years of her career. Her new book, Drum With a Passion came together very efficiently and was released on May 1, 2017. 

This book carries forward Chris's great classroom style of teaching classfirst seen in her, now classic books, Canya Conga?, to drum, and Hand Drums on the Move. The activities foster creativity and group involvement. Chris does a lot of teaching, but always allows for  and even demands student input in each activity. 

"How can we organize this in a form?" 

"Can you find a great groove for the B Section?" 

"You guys go off and create a way to move around and through the instruments for the B and C sections? Come back and show us all!" 

As always the new book includes teaching suggestions.  Chris's  30-plus years of experience and skill as a classroom music teacher make these suggestions the most valuable part of the book. In this new book the teaching suggestions include full color visuals that Chris used to teach these activities. Making them available online is a new innovation in this release. Purchasers will be able to download all the visuals directly to their own software. 

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