Exploring Choral Creativity and Meaning in Performance Arts
Uncover the essence of choral activity, literacy, and meaning creation through words, songs, and performances. Delve into Australian bush songs, Shakespearean poetry, and the concept of constructivism in choral teaching.
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PASSING NOTES: C HO R A L- TI VI TY , L I TER A C Y & M EA NI NG C R EA TI ON I N WO R D, SO NG, A ND PER F O R M A NC E
DAWN Iain Grandage Silence greets the glowing orb at dawn, Lighting bush with misty innocence Dry, Harsh, Hard, Dark, Sparse This land that is lit by whispering rays Fire and gold They dissolve the morning dew Waking the birds, shaking the shadows from their wings, The day comes alive with calls and cries from bleary throats bringing life and harmony unto this land. This dry, harsh, hard, dark, land. This land that is lit by whispering rays of dawn.
DAWN What is the text talking about? What words give you the best idea of what it s about? Who is speaking? Who is the intended audience? What should the audience gather from the text? What words are most important? How should we let the audience know that they are important? What is most important to you? Three Australian Bush Songs - Ole Miss Concert Singers
LOVERS LOVE THE SPRING Shakespeare s As You Like It It was a lover and his lass, With a hey, and a ho, and hey nonino, That o er the green cornfield did pass In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding: Sweet lovers love the spring. This carol they began that hour, How that a life was but a flow r When birds do sing, hey a ding a ding, ding: Sweet lovers love the sping. And therefore take the present time For love is crowned with the prime When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding: Sweet lovers love the spring.
LOVERS LOVE THE SPRING What is this text about? Who is speaking? Who is the intended audience? What is most important to the meaning? What can we do to bring that meaning out? What is your interpretation of the text? Swingle Singer's Lover's Love the Spring
CONSTRUCTIVISM What are our goals as choral teachers? Music literacy Musical Interpretation In The Language arts Interact, Hansen, J (1991) states that knowledge cannot be transmitted, it is constructed and must be constructed by each individual. Constructivism is an idea that knowledge is constructed and learning occurs when students are involved in the process of making meaning. Language Arts research pushes this ideal stating that knowledge is constructed by students both as a group and as an individual. It is the role of the teacher to assist them in this endeavor. Our goal is to create opportunities for construction.
LITERACY Literacy Ability to read and write words Ability to analyze and use information to make choices A way to construct knowledge Understanding of culture and world Music literacy Ability to read and write musical notation Ability to analyze information to make musical choices Understanding of cultural context and stylistic propriety
LITERACY Literacy of promise by Spears-Bunton and Powell (2009) states that literacy should be purposeful and used to reflect, express, ideas, entertain and persuade. Literacy is the ability to communicate and understand symbols within the confines of a specific cultural group. It is transferable; the skills used can be reshaped to work in other areas. Pearman and Friedman (2009) state that structuring curriculum and instruction in a way that links the processes of learning music with similar processes in other domains can help to develop a student s ability to move between domains and generalize knowledge. Students can use vocal music to explore relations between words and music and bring the meanings and messages imbedded in the text back to the music.
LITERACY Reading and writing strategies can help content area instruction more comprehensible for students and allows for students to create their own connections between their lives and the texts they read. Music offers a vehicle for imaginative discourse that can allow students to continue to build their literacy skills Choral music has the added benefit of utilizing text.
MINI PILOT STUDY Select students from a high school in a large urban area. Part of an auditioned group of 54 students including sophomores, juniors, and seniors from a diverse background. School had a total of 2020 students enrolled in 2013- 14. First students learned the notes and rhythms, using solfege. Once the notes and rhythms were learned, the text was pulled off the page and placed on the smart board.
OMNIA SOL Somewhere far from nowhere, I grew both strong and tall, Longing to become, but knowing not the path at all. But the footprints of the winter melted to fields of spring; one last embrace before I cross the threshold: To life we sing! Oh stay your soul and leave my heart it s song, Oh stay your hand, the journey may be long. And when we part and sorrow can t be sway d, Remember when and let your heart be staid. Omnia sol temperat, absens in remota. The sun warms everything, even when I am far away. Ama me fideliter, fidem meam noto. Love me faithfully, and know that I am faithful.
OMNIA SOL (CONT) Weave the dance and raise the chorus, grieve no more. Through the strength of Orion find refuge from the shore. Let courage be your oar, let passion be your sail. Wisdom and truth will guide your deep heart s yearning, through all travail. Oh stay your soul and leave my heart its song, Oh stay your hand, the journey may be long. And when we part and sorrow can t be sway d Remember when and let your heart be staid.
OMNIA SOL Questions: What is a threshold? What would be a personal threshold? What does the song mean to you? Who are you talking to? What are you trying to accomplish? Who are you faithful to and why? Omnia Sol (Stroope) // 2008 OHSCC (Owatonna Concert Choir)
MINI PILOT STUDY (CONT) Group text analysis took roughly 60 minutes Students were asked to copy the text, underline words that spoke to them on their paper, then raise their hands and share with the class what they chose to underline and why. Students had to explain their reasoning, and then the class voted on the words that were most important to the group. Discussion included some definitions as some words were not as common to the students. Following the discussion, students were asked to take the words home and write out their own individual interpretation of the song and turned it in for a grade.
MINI PILOT STUDY (CONT) Student s loved Omnia Sol from the moment they first began to work on it. Musically it is lush and rich with beautiful harmonies that as they put it makes them feel something. Reading of the text is something they had not done. Post the text analysis, the students had a new appreciation for the layers of meaning in the song. They were asked to sing it face to face to build comaraderie, and to feel as if they were singing it to someone- purpose of text is for someone to interpret it. This became the class song, and the seniors requested it be their graduation song.
RESULTS Intended Unintended Students had attached a meaning to the song. Students understood that language conveys propositional thought and music enhances affect Jackendoff (2009). Students performed and explored how the music and words worked together to create feelings, imagery, and meaning as well as messages. MPA had students listening to other groups using the same song. Students felt that the interpretations were not as powerful as their own. That the song should be slower, different words should be emphasized. They cried on stage as they sang, thinking about their meanings of the music.
CONCLUSION This study was not formal. Students were varied, although initially resistant to the the writing activity, they later realized how important and powerful the work was. The students decided The songs was about a journey and the people they meet on the journey. It is a song about remembering all the people on their own journeys and understanding the impressions these people have left on their hearts. The song s remembrance was important because your memories, bad or good, led you to who you are today.
CONCLUSION (CONT) Combining music instruction with language arts reinforces integration of curriculum areas by enhancing its connection to the teaching and learning of literacy. Students were able to create a connection to this piece on an auditory level as well as an intellectual and emotional level. Jackendoff (2009) states that music and language are distinct from other human activities in that they are two expressions of the same competence for human communication.
CONCLUSION (CONT) Using techniques often reserved for the English classroom helped the students see another use for these skills. While the opportunities for this work may require creative planning, it offers a tool for both the Language arts teacher as well as the music teacher. Music can be used to develop analysis, artistic influence, context, images, irony, and metaphor. These two subjects in congruence serve to help students become more literate in both.
