THEATRE/MUSICTHEATREMUSIC
TRADITIONAL ARTISTIC PERCEPTION (AP) ® CLASSICAL CREATIVE EXPRESSION (CE) Artsource CONTEMPORARY HISTORICAL & CULTURAL CONTEXT (H/C) The Music Center’s Study Guide to the Performing Arts EXPERIMENTAL AESTHETIC VALUING (AV) MULTI-MEDIA CONNECT, RELATE & APPLY (CRA)
ENDURING FREEDOM & THE POWER THE HUMAN TRANSFORMATION VALUES OPPRESSION OF NATURE FAMILY
Title of Work: a powerful dream to talk to the great whales. His The Boy Who Wanted to Talk to Whales encounter with a curious musician ‘playing’ a carpenter’s hand saw is the beginning of a musical journey filled with Creators: possibility and discovery. Eventually, the boy attains his Producer: The Robert Minden Ensemble Artistic Director: Robert Minden b.1941 chance to communicate with the whales in a way he Dewi Minden (trumpet) b. 1967 never imagined. The original score is performed without Andrea Minden (flute) b. 1966 Carla Hallett (French horn) b. 1965 the use of synthesizers or electronically generated sounds. Instead, an odd assortment of ordinary things are Background Information: transformed into musical instruments: empty tin cans, The Robert Minden Ensemble was born one gray winter wood, vacuum cleaner hoses and a Slinky. New music for day through a serendipitous event. Robert Minden, a conch shells and a microtonal waterphone also help cre- visiting professor of sociology at the University of ate a magical, mystical ambience surrounding Robert California, Santa Cruz, was musing over his afternoon Minden’s memorable story. lecture, when a mysterious sound, sweet as honey, came Creative Process of the Artist or Culture: drifting through his office window. He went in search of Two separate influences marked the beginning of The Boy its origin and found a street musician, Thomas Jefferson Who Wanted to Talk to Whales. Robert met Richard Scribner, playing a carpenter’s hand saw. Minden was Waters, the inventor of the waterphone, and became captivated by the saw’s hauntingly beautiful voice and interested in experimenting with the instrument’s became determined to master it. With ex-vaudevillian sound. Coupled with that was a concern for the fragile Scribner as his teacher, he began performing a musical ecology of the West Coast, garnered from their first-hand story featuring the saw, called “The Lost Sound.” experience of living by the ocean. The sound and the Robert’s life slowly underwent a transformation from the place evoked a simple folk tale about man and nature. academic to the artistic, leaving hallowed halls for music Working as a collective, the halls and theaters. At times he invited his two talented group found a structure for daughters on stage to perform. The Robert Minden their feelings through the Ensemble evolved from their improvisations and from art of creative composition. evenings of spontaneous music-making among family The story emerged, and friends. Drawing upon the tradition of chamber Photo: David Cooper expressing a heartfelt desire music, the Vancouver-based Ensemble performs on “Sound is an extension of our to connect with the conventional instruments, found objects and acoustic own rhythm and humanity.” landscape, soundscape and inventions, creating a new kind of storytelling theatre. Robert Minden species of our world. About the Artwork:
The Boy Who Wanted to Talk to Whales is a contemporary CANADA folk tale recounting the adventure of a boy compelled by Vancouver USA
Discussion Questions: Audio-Visual Materials: After listening to the audio recording: •Audio recordings of The Boy Who Wanted to Talk to Whales, • Have you ever wanted to talk to an animal like the boy availble by visiting www.lostsound.com. did in the story? Additional References: • Have you ever tried to mimic the language or song of a •Balcomb, Kenneth and Miasian, Stanley. The World’s Whales. particular animal or bird? Can you demonstrate? Smithsonian Books, New York, NY: 1984. • Have you had moments in your life when you felt truly •Nollman, Jim. Dolphin Dreamtime. Bantam Books, New connected to nature or all living things? York, NY: 1987. Describe your experiences. •Walther, Tom. Make Mine Music. Little, Brown & Co., • Is there a special sound that fascinates you? What? Boston, MA: 1981. • What are your favorite sounds? How do they make you • American Cetacean Society, P. O. Box 2639, San Pedro, CA feel? 90731. • What sounds from the performance or audio recording Sample Experiences: live in your memory? LEVEL I • Did the soundscapes evoke landscapes in your • Listen to the “sounds of silence” in your classroom and use imagination? * your impressions in a creative writing exercise. • What was the Music-Maker’s theory of creating music? • Discover a new sound from an ordinary household object • Why did he tell the boy to pour a little bit of the ocean and bring it in to share with the class. Create an environment into the instrument? of sounds with the students’ collection. • How did the whales respond to the boy’s attempt at • Learn how to “play” the spoons. communication? LEVEL II • Has this story changed your thoughts or feelings about Using the sound sources from Level I, arrange the class in whales? In what ways? • quartets and have them improvise music together. Multidisciplinary Options: •Choreograph creative movement to the Overture of • Select a species of whales to study, such as the Orca or The Boy Who Wanted to Talk to Whales. killer whale. Find a physical description detailing the * •Practice methods of nonverbal and verbal color, length, weight, fin features, etc., and draw a picture communication to send messages and express feelings. of a typical Orca. Research the killer whale’s diet and •Fill a collection of bottles with varying levels of water and feeding patterns, mating and breeding habits, and play music on your “bottle orchestra.” distribution and migration. Learn about the behavior LEVEL III and social habits of a whale pod. Find a scientific •Study the theatrical entertainment of the vaudeville period recording of sounds made and discover what elements of that era are part of by killer whales and contemporary theatre or culture. compare them to the sounds * •Embark on a sound scavenger hunt and record your created by the Robert discoveries in an auditory journal. Minden Ensemble. •Choose a favorite folk tale, legend, or piece of Illustration: Nancy Walker children’s literature and score it, creating your musical soundtrack with objects, musical instruments, or sounds made by your hands, feet, etc.
* Indicates sample lessons 2
THEATRE/MUSIC SOUNDS OF SILENCE TRANSFORMATION
LEVEL I Sample Lesson
INTRODUCTION:
Listening is an important part of creating music and can help students become alert to the sounds around them and aware of their individual sound impressions. Careful listening can also make the ear attuned to hearing familiar sounds in a new way. For example, The Robert Minden Ensemble often uses ordinary household objects in their compositions, changing the focus of the objects’ sounds from that of ‘noise’ to ‘music.’
OBJECTIVES: (Student Outcomes)
Students will be able to:
• Listen to the “sounds of silence” in your classroom and write about their impressions. (Artistic Perception and Creative Expression)
• Describe, discuss, analyze and connect information and experiences based on this lesson. Refer to Assessment at the end of this lesson. (Aesthetic Valuing)
MATERIALS:
• Paper, pencils or pens.
PROGRESSION:
• Ask the class to relax and put their heads on their desks with their eyes closed. Instruct them to simply listen to the sounds of the room for five minutes. Tell them to concentrate and listen carefully. Some of the sounds they might hear could include stomachs rumbling, clocks ticking, fluorescent lights buzzing, people breathing, your own heartbeat, etc. Visualize these sounds.
• When the five minutes are up, ask them to write a description of the room’s ‘silence.’ Encourage them to use figurative language, incorporating simile and metaphor to convey the feeling or mood of the ‘silent’ environment. Poetry or free verse can also be used as a form for their creative writing.
• Take turns reading the descriptions aloud. Discuss what noises they could detect as they listened. Is their quiet classroom actually filled with sounds? Did they hear things which generally go unnoticed? How did their descriptions of the same listening experience differ and demonstrate their individual perceptions and original points of view?
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EXTENSIONS:
• Do the same listening exercise in the same setting, but at different times of the day. Observe how the sounds change according to the different time periods. • Increase the difficulty of the exercise by adding sounds to the ‘silence,’ such as keys jingling, a ruler tapping, or the pages of a book rustling. The students must listen very carefully to recognize and remember these sounds while also concentrating on the other sounds in the room. At the end of the five minutes, ask students to compile a list of all of the sounds they heard, seeing who can catalogue the greatest number of sounds.
• Choose an outdoor setting for the listening exercise such as a record store, a grocery store, a restaurant etc. How do the sounds in indoor and outdoor environments differ? How are they similar? Do sounds in nature make you feel differently from sounds which you find in commercial establishments?
• Isolate another sense, such as sight. Do an exercise where one partner is blindfolded and the other partner carefully leads them through a maze to explore space and objects without the ability to see.
VOCABULARY: figurative, simile, metaphor
ASSESSMENT: ( Aesthetic Valuing)
DESCRIBE: This is done in the ‘Progression’ under the second bullet (•).
DISCUSS: This is done in the ‘Progression’ under the third bullet (•).
ANALYZE: Discuss our sense of hearing and the role that sound plays in our everyday lives. Discuss what people might do to replace sound cues if they couldn’t hear. What challenges would you have if you did not have the sense of sound?
CONNECT: Describe and discuss sounds that give us cues to do something, such as an alarm clock that tells us to wake up. How many sounds can you identify that tell us what to do or when to do something?
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THEATRE NONVERBAL AND VERBAL COMMUNICATION THE HUMAN FAMILY
LEVEL II Sample Lesson
INTRODUCTION:
The boy in the story, The Boy Who Wanted to Talk to Whales, had a great desire to communicate. Communication involves more than just voice and diction. Meanings and messages are communicated nonverbally by touch, body language, or facial expressions. Sometimes creative solutions overcome communication or language barriers. The following exercises explore a variety of communication techniques.
OBJECTIVES: (Student Outcomes)
Students will be able to:
• Demonstrate sensitivity to nonverbal and verbal communication as ways to send messages and express feelings. (Creative Expression)
• Describe, discuss, analyze and connect information and experiences based on this lesson. Refer to Assessment at the end of this lesson. (Aesthetic Valuing)
MATERIALS:
• Paper, pencils or pens.
PROGRESSION:
• The following activities will progress from nonverbal to verbal exercises. Begin by discussing what ‘non- verbal’ means and brainstorm a list of ways we communicate without words. Then begin the series of five activities.
1. Select a partner. Sit face to face and let your eyes speak to each other with no verbalization for one minute. When the time is up, write what messages were given and received.
2. Select another partner and sit across a table from each other. Close your eyes and find each other’s hands. Explore each other’s hands by movement, touch, resistance, etc. for two minutes. What kinds of messages were you able to transmit and receive by this means. What clues about each other were you able to perceive through your hands?
3. Compile a list of emotions and using body posture, gesture, and facial expressions, have students take turns projecting the emotions to the class. Suggestions:
fear sorrow anger impatience love happiness hate security 5
4. Using the simple word Oh, have students convey different meanings by using vocal inflection and nonverbal communication.
Examples: Oh. (How sad.) Oh. (How nice.) Oh? (Really?) Oh! (You startled me!) Oh! (I have an idea!) Oh-- (That hurts–) Oh! (That’s disgusting!) Oh-- (Lookout–)
5. Introduce the term ‘gibberish’ to the class. Communicate a simple message using gibberish nonsense syllables and ask them to decode its meaning. Then ask everyone to choose a partner and hold a conversation using gibberish for two minutes. Were they able to communicate in this new ‘language’? Did they find themselves reading nonverbal cues in order to understand what their partner was saying?
EXTENSIONS:
• Turn down the volume on a newscast, a drama, or a commercial and without sound, try to understand what is being communicated. What nonverbal cues were the most useful in helping you get the ideas?
• Select a simple activity and explain how to do it using gibberish. Actual objects may be used or they may be pantomimed for the demonstration.
VOCABULARY: nonverbal communication, verbal communication, gibberish
ASSESSMENT: (Aesthetic Valuing)
DESCRIBE: Select one emotion from the above list and describe the facial expressions and body posture and energy that corresponded to the emotion.
DISCUSS: Discuss the different ways that people send information to each other without the use of words. Discuss the significance or meaning of non-verbal communication. How can people get better at “reading” or perceiving these forms of communication?
ANALYZE: Discuss the exercise of working with the word Oh and reveal what you did to get different meanings across. What could you have done differently?
CONNECT: Discuss the importance of clear communication skills. What things can each of us practice in order to more clearly communicate our feelings and ideas?
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THEATRE SOUND SCAVENGER HUNT ENDURING VALUES
LEVEL III Sample Lesson
INTRODUCTION:
Some people collect stamps or coins; others collect sounds. This exercise will help students listen for and think about sounds which have certain qualities.
OBJECTIVES: (Student Outcomes)
Students will be able to:
• Collect sound impressions and record them in an auditory journal. (Artistic Perception)
• Describe, discuss, analyze and connect information and experiences based on this lesson. Refer to Assessment at the end of this lesson. (Aesthetic Valuing)
MATERIALS:
• Notebooks or journals, pens or pencils.
PROGRESSION:
• Begin by discussing what a traditional scavenger hunt might consist of and ask students to give exam- ples of hunts in which they have participated. Then tell the students that this will be an unusual scavenger hunt because the things they will be asked to find will be sounds. The qualities of the sounds they will be asked to gather may be interpreted differently by each person. Ask them to collect sounds from both an indoor and an outdoor environment and record their ideas in a journal or notebook. Give each student the following list of sounds to use for the hunt.
Scavenger List: Indoor Environment
1. a funny sound 2. a scary sound 3. a metallic sound 4. a sound that suddenly stops 5. a sound that you’ve never noticed before 6. a sound that drives you crazy 7. a sound that reminds you of your favorite color 8. a sound you love 9. a sound that reminds you of yourself 10. a sound that is beautiful
7 Scavenger List: Outdoor Environment
1. a soft sound you can hear on a noisy street 2. a loud sound you can hear on a quiet street 3. a sound you can hear over your head 4. a sound you can hear below your knees 5. a sound you can hear in the sky 6. a scratchy sound 7. a magical sound 8. a sound you love 9. a sound that reminds you of yourself 10. a sound that is beautiful
• Allow students several days or one week to complete their “sound scavenger hunts,” A great deal of creative listening may be necessary to find the appropriate sound choice for each description.
• Share the completed journals with the class. Discuss which sounds on the lists led to the most unusual choices. What were some of the answers to #10, “a sound that is beautiful”? How was beauty interpreted by different students? Which sounds were the most fun to collect? Which ones were the most difficult? Which sounds helped you discover something about yourself?
EXTENSIONS:
• Create a cover for your journal and let the artwork express a collage of sounds from your list. Use a variety of materials, fabric, paint, leaves, yarn, etc., to visually represent your ideas.
• Record your twenty sounds on a cassette and play them for the class.
• Use the sounds in a storytelling exercise to score a tale about the experience of gathering the sounds on the scavenger hunt.
VOCABULARY: scavenger hunt, auditory journal
ASSESSMENT: (Aesthetic Valuing)
DESCRIBE: Find words to describe your favorite indoor and out- door sounds.
DISCUSS: Discuss whether or not your ability to hear different sounds increased during this experience and why this might have occurred.
ANALYZE: Identify the types of sounds you found most pleasing and the ones which you didn’t like. Analyze the elements of these sounds which contributed toward their impact on your sense of sound (e.g. volume, rhythm, texture, pitch, duration, etc.) Illustration: Nancy Walker
8 Featured Instruments
Musical Saw Illustration: Nancy Walker The saw comes from a rich tradition of improvised instruments which include: spoons, jugs, bones, wash boards, combs, jaw harp, wash tub bass and many more. People who had no money to spend on instruments and who felt a great need to make music, learned to play on ordinary items. The saw is played by holding it between the knees and bending the blade, which is either struck by a mallet or bowed with a fiddle bow to produce the sound. The saw reached its peak of popularity at the turn of the century and became a standard dance band, circus band, and vaudeville instrument. It almost disappeared as an instrument when it began to be replaced by the Hawaiian steel guitar and, subsequently, by electronically produced sounds. Waterphone Invented in the 1970s by California artist, Richard Waters, the Waterphone is made with stainless steel bowls and bronze rods which are either lightly struck with a soft mallet or bowed. Water, poured inside, allows the player to bend tones and create acoustic echoes. The instrument has been used successfully to communicate with whales. Conch Shell The conch shell is the shell of the biggest living marine snail. By cutting off the smallest spirals at the tip, it can be used as a horn. The conch shell has a long musical history and can be traced back to ancient times when music and magic were closely intertwined. Bottles As a musical instrument, tuned bottles trace their origin back to the Jug Bands of the 1920s and 1930s in the United States. Musicians in these bands used instruments like the harmonica, kazoo, washtub bass, fiddle and one or two jugs tuned with water to a specific pitch and blown across the top to provide a bass note. The music originated from the African American communities of the southern states and the style was blues and folk. Today the tuned bottles and jugs have become an independent instrument, consisting of several jugs to provide a bass line and twice as many smaller bottles to provide the soprano or melody line. Each player is in charge of several notes of the melody. A performance demands precise timing and coordination, as the players must combine their notes collaboratively to produce a single, flowing melody. 9
rtsource ® A The Music Center’s Study Guide to the Performing Arts
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Introduction
ARTSOURCE®: THE MUSIC CENTER’S STUDY GUIDE TO THE PERFORMING ARTS
Artsource® highlights works of art and artists of stature from diverse cultures. It represents early to contemporary art forms in the disciplines of dance, music and theatre and complements the programs and performances of the Music Center’s resident companies and artist roster.
The arts are ancient, enduring and universal forms of communication. Artists present their perceptions, reflections, and points of view which influence, and are influenced by, the culture and period of time in which they exist. Artsource ® Contributors
Project Director Melinda Williams
Project Coordinator Susan Cambigue-Tracey
Writers: Dance Susan Cambigue-Tracey Diana Cummins, Carole Valleskey, Madeleine Dahm, Deborah Greenfield, Barbara Leonard, Melinda Williams
Music Rosemarie Cook-Glover Ed Barguiarena, Susan Cambigue-Tracey, Barbara Leonard, Connie Hood, Annette Simons, Marilyn Wulliger, Diana Zaslove, John Zeretzke
Theatre Barbara Leonard Kathryn Johnson
Technical Production donated by Paul Tracey
Layout and Logo* Design Maureen Erbe Design *Received the LULU AWARD for excellence in graphic design and advertising, sponsored by the Los Angeles Advertising Women (LAAW) Additional Artwork & Artsource® Logo Graphic H. P. Law & Partners
The Music Center of Los Angeles County wishes to thank the artists featured in this publication for their outstanding artistry and their generosity in allowing us to share their creative spirit in the classroom. Sincere appreciation is also extended to the members of the Center’s Board of Directors and Education Council for their guidance in developing these resource materials, Music Center volunteers for their help in organizing, proofing and editing Artsource® units; the professionals who provided field review; and the dedicated teachers who tested the Artsource® units in their classrooms.
Mark Slavkin Vice President for Education Melinda Williams Director of Education