On behalf of the Forum, it is my privilege to introduce you to our educational services and programs. We seek to empower composers, teachers, and communities through the process of creating music by offering communal experiences in musical creativity, and opportunities to relate to the artistic visions and expressions of others.
Here's a brief synopsis of the innovative educational work at the Forum:
PROGRAMSBandQuest: A series of newly composed works for middle-level band, paired with interdisciplinary CD-ROM-based curricula. Click on the link to the right for a taste of this imaginative program.
Composers Suitcase: A curriculum plus "props" for classroom teachers in grades 2 through 4, designed to deepen each child's understanding of musical composition, improvisation and diverse musical cultures.
Composer-in-the-Schools: Composer residencies designed to develop the composition skills of secondary school students; completed works are performed by professional ensembles. Click on the Chapters link to learn more about CITS programs offered in your area.
SERVICES
Tips on Teaching for the Composer-Educator:This booklet is designed to prepare composers for school residencies. It includes some of the most current concepts in presentation, educational learning theories, how to create an engaging teaching environment, pedagogical approaches to teaching, and strategies for effective curriculum development, lesson planning and assessment.
Composer-Teacher Professional Development Initiative: To address the needs of teachers and teaching artists, the Forum links composers with teachers to exchange and create innovative concepts that will enhance teacher creativity and enrich students' educational experience.
Building Relationships/Developing Audiences: The Forum is an active partner with regional and national organizations committed to promoting music and arts education in school communities throughout the country. Through these partnerships, we seek to ensure the complete education of every child.
The Forum's innovative approaches to teaching music build relationships and create new markets for composers while nurturing the next generation of composers, performers, educators and audiences. We are delighted to provide you with initiatives that encourage the learning, making and enjoyment of musical creativity. Please explore this website and contact us. We welcome your questions, comments and ideas: your expertise and opinions are much appreciated!
Carey Nadeau
National Program Manager
American Composers Forum is a member of MENC: The National Association for Music Education.
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Interdisciplinary Tools and Networks:
(American Composers Forum is not responsible for availability or content of the following links)
Goetze, M. & Fern, J. Global Voices in Song: An Interactive Multicultural Music Experience. Volume I: Four Swazi Songs (1999) and Volume 2: Songs of Hungary (2002). MJ Publishing, PO BOX 504, New Palestine, IN 46163.
Each volume in the Global Voices Series includes an interactive CD ROM, audio CD of the music, videotape of performances, interviews, history, geography, and culture of Hungary or the KaNyamazane Township of South Africa, and a teachers' guide. The series provides materials needed for effective oral transmission of vocal music from cultures outside the European art music tradition. The target learners are in choral ensembles and general music classrooms. The program provides model performances, pronounced text, written text, translations, cultural information, images, and sound from the specific cultures. Visit
www.globalvoicesinsong.com for contact information of educators and artists in countries all over the world.
Marsalis, Wynton (2002). Jazz for Young People Curriculum. Published by The Lincoln Center and Scholastic, Inc.
This jazz appreciation curriculum for upper elementary/middle school students and beyond provides good resources for presenting core concepts about jazz history, key jazz figures, styles of jazz, and the historical and cultural aspects jazz. The package includes a ten CD set of musical examples recorded by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, a detailed narrative by Wynton Marsalis, a teacher?s guide, a video documenting the recording sessions, and thirty student books. The CDs are particularly useful because they isolate and number every pertinent example of the music on the CD and in the teacher?s guide. The program also supports a web site with additional curriculum materials at www.jazzatlincolncenter.org/educ/curriculum.html
http://www.worldmusicpress.com/index.htm
World Music Press, Danbury, CT, is a quality company that provides world music materials for schools and communities with the goal of promoting intercultural understanding. The company focus is on music books and collections, book/recording sets, choral music, and multi-cultural resources. Most involve the work of culture bearers. The resources are authentic and presented with integrity. Visit their website for an index of cultural resources and more information.
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/
The ArtsEdge website is a rich resource for educators working with the arts. The site was established as a partnership between the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. In addition to a broad array of resources within the site, ArtsEdge also provides numerous links to other arts education sites. The Teaching Materials page focuses on the national art education standards and provides K-12 teachers with curriculum units, lesson plans, activities and other ideas for integrating the arts into classroom teaching. Included in this section is a series of mini-sites that are multidisciplinary, self-contained explorations of arts-related themes or subjects with multimedia, primary sources, contextual information, and instructional activities. Two units in the index are ?Duke Ellington? and the ?Harlem Renaissance.? They are appropriate for teacher planning as well as student inquiry projects.
http://www.pcae.k12.mn.us/pdi/pdi_prog.html
PCAE (Perpich Center for Arts Education) is a Minnesota state agency that includes an Arts High School, and a Professional Development and Research (PDR) group. Though students focus on one of six arts areas, the program is built on a strong interdisciplinary philosophy. PDR sponsors many programs for students and professional development programs for teachers, grades K-12 that provide opportunities to work in and through the arts. Information about such interdisciplinary programs as the Arts Infused Institute, Multi-Cultural Voices in the Arts, the Artist Educator Institute, and the Arts and Schools as Partners (ASAP) is on the website.
http://www.newhorizons.org
New Horizons for Learning is an educational network that includes an online journal with perspectives on educational change, bibliographies, links to other pertinent sites, and trends in learning and reform. The site serves all educators and includes articles and books by well respected researchers. Areas useful for arts educators include resources on arts and brain research and interdisciplinary teaching with the arts. The resources compilations are available through a key word search.
http://webserver2.ascd.org/tutorials/
This website is maintained by the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development. The site presents current articles, books, and other materials focused on current trends in education. A particularly useful feature is the tutorials section, short multimedia lessons on topics of interest to teachers. Each lesson includes a definition, short articles on the topic, video and audio files of experts and practitioners, and a listing of resources that can be used for professional development. Twenty-three topics are included in the tutorials section including one on Curriculum Integration.
http://www.musiclives.org
The Music Lives Foundation is a 501 (c) (3) public charity. The Music Lives Foundation seeks to enhance the lives of children and foster their development through a variety of music education efforts for students and teachers. The Foundation will seek the help of existing charities, direct support of school music programs, scholarships for needy students, recognition for educators and mentors, and grants to U.S. and British arts organizations that support careers in music and the performing arts.
Models and Strategies to Compose with Students
Lindeman, C. (Ed). (2003) Benchmarks in Action: A Guide to Standards-Based Assessment in Music. MENC - The National Association for Music Education.
This resource provides a step-by-step process for developing and implementing assessments that are based on standards. It includes print and audio responses, reflecting benchmark student work at basic, proficient, and advanced levels of achievement, including examples of student-created musical compositions.
Rinehart, C. (Ed). (2002). Benchmark Student Performances in Music: Composing and Arranging; Standard 4 Benchmarks. MENC - The National Association for Music Education.
This resource includes thirty-two student compositions, reflecting benchmark student work at basic, proficient, and advanced levels of achievement. It also describes how some compositions meet standards or what musical characteristics make them good examples for particular achievement levels.
Notes from composer Michael Colgrass
Read about the residency and commission of Michael Colgrass' Old Churches for BandQuest in a journal written by the composer. Through his work with students at Winona Drive Middle School in Toronto, Colgrass formed a composition team with students in addition to writing his band piece.
Journal Home--Getting to know the students' abilities and limitations and encouraging them to compose their own pieces.
Journal Page 2--The formation of the Composition Team.
Journal Conclusion--Colgrass' thoughts on the BandQuest project and writing for middle-level band.
Read Colgrass' article on American Music Center's "New Music Box" website
Selected Strategies for Teaching Musical Composition
1.Musical composition may be integrated into individual or small group applied instrumental instruction. As students practice exercises that introduce new concepts, they may be asked to write and perform exercises of their own creation that incorporate a new concept. For instance, when studying the dotted eighth/sixteenth rhythm, students may write their own original melodies that also feature dotted eighth/sixteenth note rhythms. In addition to performing examples from a method book, students perform their own original exercises as well. Students demonstrate a higher level of understanding of concepts when they can move beyond identifying and interpreting concepts to conceptualizing concepts in original creative work.
2.Ask students to compose variations of either a simple tune contained in one of the pieces being rehearsed in class or another familiar tune, such as a folk tune or nursery rhyme. Prior to writing their own variations, audio and written examples should be provided that demonstrate devices such as rhythmic variations or melodic embellishments.
3.Rhythm loops can be created without using traditional musical notation. Eliminating the notation allows students to focus exclusively on combining rhythmic sounds without a limited understanding of notation being an obstacle. A grid dividing beats into four subdivisions is used. Students assign non-pitched percussion instruments and then fill in each box where a sound is desired for each part of a beat. Silences are indicated by boxes being left blank. The following example demonstrates a two-beat pattern that can be repeated as many times as desired. The musical notation illustrates how the pattern should sound when performed correctly.
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A grid can also be designed for subdivisions of three per beat:
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Composition Links:
http://www.midwestclinic.org/commissions.asp
In 1996, as part of it its fiftieth-anniversary celebration, the Midwest Clinic commissioned two new works for band and orchestra. In 1998, the Board of Directors decided to make commissioning a regular feature of the Midwest Clinic. That year, the Commission Committee was formed to commission outstanding literature that is accessible to high school and middle school performers in band, jazz band, orchestra, and a variety of chamber ensembles.
http://www.musicmavericks.org/
American Mavericks is a groundbreaking new radio and Internet series produced by Minnesota Public Radio in association with the San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas, Music Director, with support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and distributed by Public Radio International. The radio program was released in April 2003. Inspired by the adventurous programming of the San Francisco Symphony and its concert festival of the same name, American Mavericks features the iconoclastic, tradition-breaking composers who shaped the development of American music-from Charles Ives, Henry Brant, Harry Partch, Laurie Anderson, Steve Reich and more.
http://www.pbs.org/harmony/soundlounge/
Continental Harmony connects composers and communities in the creation of brand new works of music that celebrates history, culture and the future. As part of this project, the SoundLounge was created as a way for people to try their hand at composing online.
http://artforbrains.com/Arts_in_Ed/Programs/
Composer Glenn McClure not only writes music, but he shares his musical knowledge with students through artist residencies and workshops. His company, McClure Productions, offers professional development programs to fill the need for arts integration and collaboration between artists and teachers.
http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/index.asp
Download Finale Notepad? 2003, the free software from Make Music and Coda Music Technologies. Finale Notepad is similar to the music engraving software Finale, and can be used in the classroom to get students started on composing and engraving their own music.
http://musictheory.net/index.html
Create customized, printable staff paper for your students to use on their own compositions. Also includes a matrix generator for twelve tone compositions and a chord calculator.
http://www.newmusicbox.org/toolbox1/index.nmbx
The Morton Subotnik Toolbox1 enables students to create a melody akin to fingerpainting, and then analyzes the melody and suggests various choices to enhance the melody. A creative way to encourage students to compose.
Print Resources
Authentic connections: Interdisciplinary work in the arts. (2002).
A brochure by the Consortium of National Arts Education Associations AATE, MENC, NAEA, NDEO, 2002 [Data file]. Available from the National Art Association Web site: http://www.naea-reston.org/INTERart.pdf
Developed by teams of arts educators representing national associations in the areas of music, dance, theater, and visual arts, this brochure was designed to make clear the applications of authentic approaches to teaching the interdisciplinary content standards. As a practical guide, it offers details on specific criteria, models and examples for instruction and infusion, and essential elements for interdisciplinary learning with the arts.
Barrett, J., McCoy, C., & Kari, V. (1997). Sound ways of knowing: Music in the interdisciplinary classroom. New York: Schirmer Thompson Learning, Inc. Written by scholars and professors of music education, Sound ways of knowing offers a design for teaching and learning with music integrated throughout the curriculum. Music being elaborately link to our traditions, history and expressive nature, this book demonstrates in detail how teachers can develop teaching materials, collaborate with music and arts specialists and classroom teachers to develop an multifaceted enriched learning experiences for students. Case studies of applied concepts, guided exercises to develop interdisciplinary materials, sample listening and lesson plans are provided.
Colgrass, M. (2000). My lessons with Kumi: How I learned to perform with confidence in life and work. Moab, UT: Real People Press. Pulitzer prize winning composer, clinician, writer and percussionist Michael Colgrass shares his approach to making the most and enjoying the process of demanding creative professions. Set in the context of an individual?s personal account through story-telling, Colgrass reveals the process of incorporating creativity, mime, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), hypnosis, psychology and Grotowski physical training to promote confidence, a deep sense of purpose and pleasure in work and life. Following the teaching tale, the book presents step-by-step lesson plans with illustrations and exercises, instructing readers on how to engage their senses?cognitively and physically?towards increased fulfillment and success.
Erickson, H. L. (1995). Stirring the head, heart, and soul: Redefining curriculum and instruction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.
With a concern for our antiquated school systems, educator Lynn Erickson has created a resource to address our rapidly changing communities. This book examines current trends in K-12 curriculum and instruction with practical tips and examples through s format that integrates all significant aspects of the curriculum into a new conceptual framework.
Jacobs, H.H. (Ed.). (1989). Interdisciplinary curriculum: Design and implementation. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Making curriculum integration simple, Heidi Hayes Jacobs, professor of curriculum and teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University, provides multiple options for curriculum integration to be administered between two-week units to year-long courses. Jacobs offers suggestions for choosing proper criteria, dealing with the attitudes of key individuals and groups, and establishing validity. Jacobs presents a step-by-step approach to integration, proceeding from selection of an organizing center to a scope and sequence of guiding questions to a matrix of activities for developing integrated units of study. Observing the tradeoffs in curriculum integration, the book also illuminates the value of higher-order thinking and learning skills and provides a vehicle for their integration into curriculum .
Jacobs, H. H. (1997). Mapping the big picture: Integrating curriculum & assessment K-12. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Heidi Hayes Jacobs provides us with a resource on methods to map actual curriculum work?the topics, concepts, processes, skills, and assessment?to give an immediate look at the details of what is being taught as well as the ?big picture.? Mapping is not only beneficial in for curriculum integration, but can serve as a viable alternative to district curriculum committees. The workbook offers a step-by-step process for developing maps, a bibliography and Appendix with sample curriculum maps.
Liebermann, J.L. (2003). The Creative Band and Orchestra. Huiksi Music and Hal Leonard. This resource is intended to give teachers tools to develop creative activities in instrumental ensembles. It also includes activities centered around jazz improvisation as well as musics around the world.
Shelemay, K. K. (2001). Soundscapes: exploring music in a changing world. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Harvard University professor and ethnomusicologist Kay Shelemay created this resource to represent the multitude of cultures inhabiting North America. As music is a fundamental part of our cognitive, traditional and human experiences, Shelemay demonstrates how musical genres, repertoire and styles are transmitted and have evolved across landscapes and throughout time. Accompanied by live and studio recordings, the three-CD set contains over seventy performances outlined in the book?s listening guides. The author also suggests ways instructors and students can incorporate their own resources to deepen understandings and bring learning experiences to life.
BandQuest presentation materials (2001). Clinicians Janet Barrett, Frank Battisti, and Thomas C. Duffy present the inner-workings of the BandQuest music and curriculum, December 2001 [Data file]. Available from the Midwest Clinic Web site:
http://www.midwestclinic.org/clinicianmaterials/2001/barrett.PDF
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