gathering ideas for a class project next year: nature into music into nature

[Connie Weber]

I was listening to NPR this weekend and heard "Discovering Walruses" on that great show, Living On Earth.

Since I was running, I had a lot of time to think. What if...

Next year I'll be teaching my environmental-themed course of study, something like History and Ecology of Life. It's a big, broad, creative, scientific year-long unit in which we get to focus intensely--AND play around. We'll be doing a lot of Problem-Based Learning; I'm really looking forward to that. And, joy of joys, we'll be back to being a completely networked class.

So I got to thinking, what about some multi-media creations based on animal sounds? What if the students took environmental sounds as the base for their compositions, say, the beginning measures, then began weaving in layered music they compose that springs off of the environmental sounds? Gradually the piece would simplify again, back into the natural sound, all by itself. I ran this by my daughter (a music student at University of Michigan--and now a performer in Barrage) and she thinks it's entirely workable. She said it's been done a variety of ways and started naming symphonies that have nature-based themes, also a couple of popular songs like the Beatles' "Blackbird".

I'm not a music teacher, still, I'm very eager to get started with this. I could use some help! I'd like to start by gathering ideas and examples from you all. Also, technological advice. I was thinking of having the kids use Garage Band--is that a good idea?

So, these are the ideas that came to me while I was running, hearing the beat of the birds, the repetitive melodies, the calls and responses. The drumming single note of the bullfrog. That led into thinking of walruses and wolves, crickets, cicadas. Who was that guy that used wolf songs for his music? What about whales? Anyone making music that goes with whales?

I'm turning to my network, my PLC for some ideas. Music people, everyone... Any ideas, examples, or advice, please share!

(Isn't it great to let one year go and begin on the creative ideas for the next year?! It's one of my favorite phases of the year... like having a completely tilled garden, ready to plant.)

[Ian Carmichael]

You've led me to think contrariwise: to music - modelling nature "Flight of the Bumble-Bee" "The Four Seasons", Grieg and Sibelieus' works (Peer Gynt, Finlandia.) There's also the amazing 'Cat Duet" sung by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Victoria de los Angeles. On whales, back in the 70's George Crumb released a modern jazz LP "Night of the Four Whales". And then I move onto the silly - Flanders and Swann "The Gnu Song", "Mud, mud, glorious mud". And then back to the serious: Miles Davis 'Sketches of Spain' - some scorching trumpet there. Santana's Caravanserai. And, a narrative symphony, "Death of a Wombat" the story of a devastating bushfire, with the instruments taking the figures of the animals.

Not quite what you're after, but these may awaken something more in the PL (I thought is was N. not C. Am I wrong? Again? If a man stands alone in a forest, is he still...?)

[Connie Weber]

Ian, how wonderful! This is just exactly what I'm looking for: a collection of ideas... Keep the ideas coming.

What critters or nature sounds do you think would lend themselves easily into human music production? Let's see, the Tasmanian sounds: don't you have the "laughing bird," the Kukubura? What about that? Others?

I love your list of music--thank you! (Oh, hey, just thought of the "new age music" guy: Paul Winter... He'll provide some good inspiration, too.)

[Ian Carmichael]

The snarling and brawling Tasmania Devils aren't exactly melodic, but they are sure noisy, as are our black cockatoos. The sulphur-crested cockatoo is no vocal charmer either! (Similarly the kookaburra - although he's a mainland bird who's taking over down here.) The magpie has a very nice throaty warble, and the crow, as Aesop long ago pointed out has a beautiful voice. Can't quite replay any others in my mind.

One of the 1920's comic songs is 'My canaray has circles under his eyes'.
/He used to whistle a cute little song
/Now he just 'snake-hips' the whole day long
/My canary has circles under his eyes!

[Ellen Pham]

Hey Connie, that walrus is a regular beat box! I'm wondering, what types of activities do you imagine the children doing to create their compositions? Layering/ mixing the natural sounds? Adding instrumentation- found or original compositions by the students? (whew, that would intimidate me! but it might be fun to try, as long as my composition wasn't judged on quality, it really could be just for fun and to see what happens... I'd have no idea how to get kids started...)

Anyway, just wondering.

[Connie Weber]

Hi Ellen,
Somehow I missed this post earlier. Thanks for the note. I imagine the students making their own compositions, springing off from natural sounds. Just gathering suggestions for starting points and references from my PLC--and it has been VERY fruitful.
You and I need to talk more about this, by the way. You're great at gathering anthropological/science references. Maybe you can work with a few of my students in the fall? :-)
Keep the ideas coming.

[Nik Peachey]

Hi Connie

Couple of suggestions.

You could get students to write descriptions then convert their text into digital music using the P22 Music Text Composer: http://p22.com/musicfont/

Really easy to use and creates a midi file of the students text composition. I wrote about it on my blog in a posting called 'Can music aid memory of text?'

Another nice tool is SoundTransit which has sounds collected from around the world which students can weave into sound journeys around the world and then download as mp3.

This is another one I wrote about, so read Soundscapes from Soundtransit for more information and tips.

As for Garageband, I think it's tereffic and it shouldn't be to difficult to get these files imported in and then add some loops to them.

Hope you have fun with these Connie.

Best

Nik Peachey
http://www.google.com/profiles/nik.peachey

[Jesse Morgan]

This site may be of interest:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/musicinstinct/the-music-instinct-contests/

"The Music Instinct Contest

In March PBS, Thirteen, and the producers of The Music Instinct: Sciense and Song partnered with the Web site Indaba Music, a site that is a community of real people connecting and collaborating to create music together online, to offer users a chance to interact with the music instinct by creating their own songs out of 207 samples of environmental sounds and sound effects. The results of that competition can be seen online at Indaba Music here, and the winners will be announced on June 1st, 2009 [note: due to an overwhelming number of submissions we have changed the date. We will be announcing the winners on now on Friday, July 5th.] The pieces from the winners of this contest will be posted here on PBS.org and also released at a later date on emusic.com.

We are giving our Internet users a second chance to interact with The Music Instinct and Indaba Music– we want you to mix the music instinct theme! We have received material from artists from The Music Instinct Bobby McFerrin, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Christiane Karam, and Gino Sitson, as well as additional contributors Amanda Palmer, Ari Hest and Tiempo Libre.. Submissions start on May 28, 2009 and end on June 19, 2009.

Enter the contest on Indaba Music starting May 28th."

[Connie Weber]

Thank you, Jesse and Nik--very relevant. I'm sending your references to a couple of people.

Turns out the Dean of Music at University of Michigan is interested in the project and has done some work on this before. She's designed an interdisciplinary unit on science and music, springing off from birdsong. She may be willing to extend her studies, AND lend me a graduate student for the project, or come out and help the kids get going herself.

Now, thanks to you, I have many good beginning points. Thrilled! Thanks so much.

[Connie Weber]

Jesse,
Did you see the show? "The Music Instinct: Science and Song" is fabulous. As I watched, I was designing lessons to go with it. And today I see the great resources already designed by PBS Teachers.
I ordered two copies of the DVD, one to always have on hand, one to lend out.
Thanks so very much for the lead. I'm indebted to you!
I hope others watch the show. Fantastic, totally fantastic.

[Ellen Pham]

Great web sites! Connie, have you checked out the Educator's Page at The Music Instinct? I looked at the first lesson plan (there are only three), and it was good, but I'm not sure if it would fit with your project- depends on the direction you go with it, I think. At the very least, the music widgets are fun - I was entertained : )

As I've been thinking about this project, I've realized that I've never heard a music composition that combined instrumentation with nature sounds that I actually enjoyed listening too. I thought about this some more, then realized that I wouldn't have enjoyed the instrumentation anyway (I find most new age or 'relaxation music' boring, at least the ones I've been exposed to). I always end up wishing I could just listen to the nature sounds. I have this 8 min mp3 file of a thunderstorm that I find very relaxing... maybe it's that I feel peaceful by the end of it. And I like my whale songs unadulterated- can happily listen to that for an hour or more in the background.

But, the part about not enjoying the instrumentation alone was a little revelation... I wonder what would happen if I liked the human-made sounds to begin with? And then I thought of sounds that might be enhanced with a pairing. First I thought of jazz, but that lead to simpler thoughts, like what would a wailing trumpet sound like with elephant calls... stuff like that. I bring this up as an example of someone (me) who needs to start off simply, with two sounds that seem to go together. I had other thoughts, but my husband put the new tv right above the computer, and is watching it now, and all the noise is driving sound thoughts out of my head!

How about pairing the whooshing a fetus hears with water sounds? Or what would go with the baby's heartbeat sounds we hear at those pregnancy check-ups? Such fun!

And then, there is even the sound the sun makes... this is an excerpt from a PPT I recently compiled about the sun... gotta click on the play button to hear it...


So Connie, do you think you want to start a sound bank, a wiki or some such thing to collect sounds for the students to explore? About a year ago I got into 'just sounds' for awhile, and I have a few resources.

Ok, I have to leave you with a poem by Billy Collins. Some pairings are serendipitous!

[Connie Weber]

Ellen,
Great ideas! I love the idea of a sound bank. Yes, sounds great.
Ellen, you have to watch the show "The Music Instinct: Science and Song." You'll love it! Ian, you too!
Where's Andrew? He should be in on this.

[Ian Carmichael]

Alright, I confess to being a linear thinker! I went to the Music Instinct link - and couldn't get an orientation of structure, sequence, flow. So, I dipped into a Brian Greene snippet, which didn't seem to convey much content (he spoke about simple harmonic motion as a key idea/equation behind everything - but explained nothing about it.)
Some one needs to devise a video browser, which can produce a video synopsis - so that I don't have to hop through a large number of small clips.

By which I'm saying, is there a structure to the series/show which I've missed, or is any random trajectory through the videos sufficient? (It would have been for John Cage! It won't be for me!)