Music across borders, Small Composers Workshop, March 3 till 7 in Haderslev

Impressions of a participant

‘Music across borders’ was the title of the in service training I registered for.   As a teacher of music in teacher training for primary school I was very happy I could use a Comenius grant to participate in this international course that took place in Denmark, at the University College South in Haderslev.

Participants came from Belgium and the Netherlands.  Speaking of borders, you might think there were not so many borders we had to cross…  .   But besides national boundaries, we would take a lot of other ‘borders’:  one of them was of course language (we tried to speak English, French, a little Danish and a lot of Flemish/Dutch). 
Our focus however was the bounds between music teachers (in primary and secondary schools) and professional musicians.  Both have the same field of interest (and passion as well…): music, but the way they are involved in it differs.  What bridges can be built between them and in what way school children can benefit from this cooperation? was the main theme of the training.
Through this week, we could share the experiences of the project ‘Young Composers Workshop’, organised by Else Marie Okkels (music teacher at UCSouth) and Bo Gunge, professional composer.  They invited us to ‘live this project  in a small way’: namely,  we would go through the same process as the children who participated in the project but in a shorter period.

One of the aims of the ‘Young Composers Workshop’  was to investigate if and how children develop creative and innovative competences by creating music.  (For music teachers, there is of course no doubt about this thesis… .)
Within the project, the children would work with the composer and work gradually towards a composition of their own.  Later on, their piece of music would be ‘transformed’ by professional musicians into a piece for traditional instruments, in close communication and interaction between the children, the composer and the musicians. 

When developing musical skills you can either focus on composing/creating music or on listening to music.  Creating music gives participants an active role in the process (they will create themselves a peace of music that is meaningful to them), whereas listening to music is a more contemplative action (you open your heart and your head for the music in a receptive way).   But you can’t compose without listening carefully and your listening will no doubt be a lot better if you have a lot of sound experiences.
Children always react very enthusiastic when you start a music activity, certainly when they know they will be making their own music.  The challenge for the teacher is to look for a good framework or context where this composing activity helps the children to develop their musical insights ànd their musical skills.  On the other hand, you need a diversity of ‘musical material’, different sound objects or instruments that will inspire children to experiment and search for the one sound that really expresses what they want to tell.  All these things were present in the music class of UCSouth:  for us, music teachers coming from Belgium it was almost a paradise to see the collection of musical instruments available for our own experiments (a grand piano, a double base,  a lot of (really a lot of) Orff instruments, different drums and percussion instruments, guitars/ukulele, flutes and small materials). 

Let me take you to the music class of UCSouth, a comfortable open room with a lot of light. 
Imagine us sitting in a circle, with in the middle a rich variety of small objects/instruments waiting to be used in our composition.  Bo Gunge, the composer, invites us to listen to a small story ‘A clear and frosty morning’ and tells us it is an exercise in dealing with awareness of sound.  After the story we will try to improvise a small peace of music together, after having discussed what kind of sounds fit to this particular story.  What would you come up with?
‘On one of those rare winter mornings, a very special Sunday morning, with a high, clear blue sky, temperature below zero and fresh powder snow, you are alone in your garden.  It is quiet, there is no traffic, the rest of your family is still asleep and there is almost no wind.  On every branch on every tree, there is a two centimetre thick layer of snow and there is a silent, creaking sound every time you take a step.  Icicles are hanging from the roof and elsewhere, and there are ice crystals on the window glass. 
On this white, blue and crisp-clear landscape, the sunlight is thrown.  With every small movement, patterns of shiny glimpses fill your eyes.  Reflections are emitted from all surfaces, from the branches, from the icicles, from the ground, from the sky, so wherever you turn your head, the shattering light patterns dance silently on.  But since it is no longer mid-winter, the sun has some force and a bit of warmth is left on the icicles, maybe causing them to drip a single drop or two.’
After a short sharing of what we imagined auditively, we all choose an instrument and on a sign we start our first improvisation.  Light, high, soft and short sounds follow each other slowly, creating a very quiet atmosphere of nature, evolving a landscape with hardly no movements, white as a virgin.  Then suddenly, something changes:  You can hear that the shining of the sun effects the snowy landscape. There is action and reaction while using instruments like triangle, xylophone, guiro and metallophone.  Then the improvisation ends and we are all astonished and happy by the result.

Using stories, concepts (eg machine), photographs, concrete situations or objects, the composer leads us to relevant aspects in composing: sound, time and structure are musical aspects that make a music peace interesting and meaningful for an audience.  On the other hand, questions on how to develop, arrange and communicate musical ideas help us to reflect on the process that is going on while improvising and composing.  I can see clearly that the impact of the composer lies in carefully listening to what we improvise and compose, then suggesting us how structure, contrast, silence, sound clusters, loudness, rhythm, …  can be discussed with children, starting from their own composition. 

Later on that week, we cooperated with four professional musicians in order to ‘remake’ our own pieces of music, but now performed by classical instruments: percussion, double bass, clarinet and trombone.  During these intensive moments of communication with the musicians and the composer we experienced the relevance of this process in the development of musical/creative skills of children.  The musicians carefully tried to transpose our music to their instrument (don’t think that the sound of a sad shoe, drifting on the sea, is easily rearranged by a double base, but the musicians were very inventive!) and they expected us to be very explicit about our musical ideas and the emotions we wanted to evoke. 

An important aspect of this project was that the children kept full ownership of their own composition.  Many of them are not familiar with the sound quality and richness of traditional instruments.  Together with the musicians they explored the possibilities of each instrument and looked carefully for their own ‘right’ sound in every piece of their musical story.  And like they did for the children, the musicians didn’t stop until we, as composers, were satisfied with the result.

We ended our week with a real performance in UCSouth:  each piece of music (The stone, The Choice and The Shoe) was performed in the original form and in the ‘professional’ way.  A wonderful concert.

This international in service training offered me the opportunity to reflect on my subject in teacher education (music), to make music and enjoy improvising with others, to meet colleagues and share common interests, to learn about musical processes and above all to come back home with a lot of musical energy and inspiration.

Lia Frederickx
Lecurer in Teacher Training for primary Education in the Katholieke Hogeschool Mechelen.
Lia.frederickx(at)khm.be
Zandpoortvest 60 b2
2800 Mechelen – Belgium
www.khm.be