by 'making music' I mainly refer to it in a didactic-educational sense... although, as it seems,
(see attached video) someone has even thought 'beyond the garden fence' !!! ;-D
i teach music at middle schools... and when conditions allow me to,
i like to convey the pleasure of making music together to my students, using common objects and various scraps. the idea of these kids really stimulates my imagination.... not to mention the timbre of blown bottles which, in my opinion, has nothing to envy ordinary wind instruments!
and since techno-melodic-commercial music often has a good hold on kids
(from which follows their likely greater motivation in studying), I am asking you for a little help.
could you suggest some tracks of this genre, perhaps the most catchy ones, those most
played by discos and radios, to be clear?.... because I am not really that well-versed in the subject. thanks!
"Largo alla fantasia"....no statement was more accurate than this, in my opinion!
the world of sound objects, correct me if I'm wrong, is a world far too little explored
to simply dismiss it as something fun.
i see much, much more in it. perhaps a parallel musical universe... or perhaps the complement to the current universe.
and i am not just talking about the educational field (where I can confirm that in 90% of cases, even with problematic users,
the results and positive outcomes are more than striking) but also in the artistic field.
a practically infinite and inexhaustible color palette.
every time it is possible for me, i always try to light a fuse on the subject.
but after 3-4 interventions, the discussion dies out.
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Xenakis
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Reply 6 by Xenakis
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ScalaQuaranta wrote:
every time it is possible for me, I always try to light a fuse on the subject.
but after 3-4 interventions, the discussion dies out.
In my opinion, the issue is simple: it's about inventing timbres... there isn't an "orchestration" manual that explains how to do what or endless examples of repertoire... it is a becoming of flashes of fantasy like the example posted by Ludovica.
The only way is to try; in my opinion, doing it in a credible way still requires investment of money and musicians... it's not as if anyone can just step in now and perform Mozart, aside from arranging everything... it's obvious that those are all musicians...
Probably no one paid them, they must have had fun too, but it's not just one person... it takes more than "half" ... what would be needed?
the one regarding sound objects, correct me if I'm wrong, is a world that has been far too little explored
to simply dismiss it as something fun.
i see much, much more in it. (even in an artistic context.
a color palette that is practically infinite and inexhaustible.
So, off the cuff, your argument is fascinating ScalaQuaranta.
But musical instruments are also sound objects, aren't they?... it's true that the sound of blown bottles is beautiful. But to "have fun" in an increasingly "extreme" way (trying to exert less effort), after a while someone might think of taking one and making holes in it to cover with their fingers, or taking many (but many, many!) and connecting them to a keyboard that controls the incoming air.
Regarding the discussion about an infinite color palette, I am even more skeptical: if it's for fun and experimentation, okay. But an infinite palette (in every field) is terrifying.
A painter expresses themselves with a limited number of pigments to which they become... attached?
Every culture has developed musical systems made up of a limited number of sounds, excluding many others.
Even various Languages - for expressive purposes - have avoided using all the sounds and noises that we can produce with our mouths... but to have fun, we use them all
these are some of the instruments I teach my students to build
(shortly I will also publish a polyphonic piece with tuned instruments)
it is more than obvious... it is not music, objectively it is pure teaching, but I feel that this background can be the beginning of something more purely artistic.
Congratulations, Scala, for your initiatives. If I manage to film it, I will bring you images from the Frankfurt Musikmesse of the Hall dedicated to schools with instruments made specifically from scrap materials (I hope there is one this year). I find it a great musical and... creative initiative. The fact that you teach your students how to "build" is moving. As a Musician and at the same time a researcher of piano technology, and therefore also a tuning technician, I struggle with this double identity which seems to diminish both roles. Clementi built pianos and knew well what happened inside the instrument. I think that stimulating the creation of a musical instrument is an extremely important path that educates in organology and makes us feel a sense of belonging to our own instrument. Congratulations
The positive implications and the premises for thinking big that stem from it are more than tangible. And I'm not just saying this "for the sake of talking." It is a fact that I have learned directly on the battlefield and with a certain type of user base. The only problem is the time available. The mere 2 hours per week make certain educational results difficult (but not impossible), but when associated with workshop activities, one can already manage to do a little something... even if not completely what I would have in mind to do. Anyway, I'm still working on it.
it is more than obvious... it is not music, objectively it is pure pedagogy, but I feel that this background can
be the incipit of something more purely artistic.
hello ScalaQuaranta...
I took, as you suggested, a look at your activities.
I am more optimistic than you: I would remove that "can be" referring to this type of background. I say that it will certainly be the incipit of something more purely artistic.
I am writing this because for several years now I have realized that projects and methods to which one dedicates oneself with conviction, giving one's all personally, bear or will bear fruit, and not THE right-thing or the right-system (which do not exist).
Unfortunately, I also suffer from the only two hours of music in middle school (I am not a teacher) but with a daughter in second year of middle school... I had many illusions about her musical Education ... and instead ... besides not having wide-ranging projects like yours, there isn't even the idea of music as a 'seductive object'... to be listened to! (which would be the type of background proposed to me thirty years ago: listen, listen, listen to musical works appropriate for the age).
Anyway, just seeing what you do... it is nice to see that the educational landscape is more interesting than the little garden I see (although, to be honest, I have tried to compare my current experience with the accounts of other parents with children in other schools and in other places).
In Regnum Animale Mauro Lanza and Andrea Valle "orchestrate" a string trio and a series of everyday objects (turntables, electric knives, alarm clocks) ... These are not waste materials, certainly, but it may give the impression of a line of compositional research that has gained some following in recent times.
