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? 3 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.