Full Score. for the international grammar school, sydney. Symphony of the Child. sample. James Humberstone 2009

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1 Full Score for the international grammar school, sydney Syhony of the Child James Humberstone 2009

2 Syhony of the Child was commissioned by International Grammar School, Sydney in 2008 and remiered at the City Recital Hall, Angel Place in May The original idea for the work was a short all-school iece to celebrate the school s 25 th anniversary, but after director of music Alison Housley and her staff attended the remiere of my children s oera Kiravanu, they asked for something on a bigger scale. Staff and students submitted oetry and rose to me for consideration as text for the choir, and the school song coosed by ast arent of the school Ross Edwards was also to be incororated (you ll find it in the final movement). Each age grou was to be given their chance to shine, so I chose words from the early years, the middle and senior school students and teachers to set in the first three movements. In addition, rofessional musicians who were arents of children at the school volunteered to take art in the erformance, so the challenge became to write a iece which rovided interesting, challenging music for layers and singers from the age of 3 uward. The oening solo, for exale, over a bed of sile ostinati for re-schoolers, was erformed by the Sydney Syhony s Paul Goodchild. The fourth movement winds threads of the revious three movements together, and incororates the school song. Lesson lans were rovided to the school, along with my sketches and notes from the coositional rocess, to hel integrate the reertoire into the classroom. James Humberstone 2009

3 Syhony for the Emerging Child Associated learning and concets I Early Years All children learn to sing a short four-bar hrase with Hello in 7 languages. Youngest children learn a drone on G: Older children learn the same words and rhythm but with melody: The two lines can be sung in harmony (and are, in the final work). All children should also learn the following ostinati for melodic Orff ercussion. As many as ossible will erform these ostinati in the iece: then: and later: These ostinati require no shars or flats on the instruments. Those only laying the first ostinato in class or in the erformance can remove all bars aart from the four needed. In class, introduce the idea of laying in free time. Most children will automatically lay together after a few reetitions. Encourage them to be indeendent and discuss concets of laying longer and shorter notes than those they can hear around them. Older children may like to irovise a melody with the first ostinato. They should try beginning and ending on G. II Middle School The Middle School movement is all about fun and games because life and learning is all about fun and games, but esecially at this age. Not only does the music have irregular, surrising twists and turns, but the middle school students are given their own sections to exlore. On the next ages follow their Game.

4 Game James Humberstone In this game six two-bar chord atterns are rovided, each with a different metre. The order the atterns aear in and the number of times they aear will be chosed by the students using chance rocedures. First, however, the students should get used to each metre and rhythm within it. Reeat each rhythm until the students begin to become familiar. Ask them to move in time with the rhythm - it's not necessary that they count beats or move exactly in time, but that they gras the feel of the metre, esecially where the beat is uneven. Recordings of each attern reeated for 3 minutes are rovided. The six atterns are: Presto eg e = 292 I II V VI Once each attern is known, break students u into 6 grous. It may take several weeks to reach this oint, so be reared to aroach the atterns in different ways each time. Each grou will work with a different attern, and will devise movement to fit that attern. If time, each grou will also devise accoaniment with untuned or body ercussion: obviously the movement and ercussion can be one. The whole exercise can also be taught as a ercussion and rhythmic exercise alone, with students learning to lay along with their attern or lay the beats in the bar which can enforce the syncoation. Getting back together, use the recording of each attern in order (I, II,,, V and VI): each attern is resented eight times. The grous should get used to transitioning from one attern to the next. Now it's time for the students to choose the order of the atterns. They will need two dice: a common 6-sided dice to choose the order of the atterns and a equilateral triangle dice to choose u to four reetitions for each attern (a secialist dice like this can be bought from a games sho). Students roll the 6-sided dice to choose a attern, then the 4-sided dice to choose how many times that attern should reeat. They should continue to add atterns until a set time or number of bars is reached, or at least until all atterns have been layed. Chance can also decide when the reetitions end: for exale, when the same combination as the initial result is thrown again. To make it easy to create a new score and recordings to erform their new version with, use the sulied Sibelius score to coy and aste the iece together. There are also MIDI files for doing this in a sequencer if that is referred. Students now erform their new version of the iece, which can be inserted as marked in the score of the second movement of Syhony for the Emerging Child. An exale score follows, with chance rocedures undertaken by the cooser. The dice thrown are shown in the table to the left. An extension to these activities, if the students have learned atterns well and can transition seemlessly, is to write the numbers 1 to 6 on large sheets of aer, and have one student 'conduct' the order that the grous enter, live during erformance. They could 'coose' the order or roll a dice there on the sot. Coyright 2009

5 I VI Brushes, quietly II II II II VI

6 VI I II

7 II II I

8 VI V

9 V V VI VI

10 V

11

12 Obviously the Game relates to aleatoric music, exelified by the exerimental movement from the 1950s and lead by John Cage. Learning about this music can be a little cerebral, but introduction to works such as La Monte Young s 1960 ieces or Cage s Water Music (try searching for the live erformance on YouTube) can be fun and engaging at any age. The second erformance activity for Middle School is a short iece integrated into this movement called SixEightThreeFour. The changing meters in this movement settle into alternating 6/8 and 3/4 time signatures reminiscent of Sanish dance music like the Flamenco. Teach the rhythm first by claing with accents all together: Then break the class into two grous and cla in two arts: Next learn SixEightThreeFour art by art (see next age), over several weeks. You may need to send more than one week on the melody, deending on the age and skill level of the class. Try to achieve the melody and bordun if not the inner arts. Extend the erformance into coosition by taking it in turns to irovise a solo over the to of the accoaniment. Consider recording the student s erformances. You can also extend the coositional element into music technology by iorting the rovided MIDI file of the iece into any sequencing rogram, and asking students to irovise a solo on a MIDI keyboard and otionally add more non-melodic ercussion arts too. Extend the erformance into listening by watching the erformance of America from Bernstein s West Side Story. Note esecially the men claing around 3 30 it s the claing exercise we did above. Extend the erformance into theory at a level aroriate to each class by discussing the different subdivisions of 6/8 and 3/4, and ossibly the concets of sile and coound time if you feel aroriate. The score for SixEightThreeFour aears on the next age. Chorales all erformers Otional Chorales create breaks between sections. Because the music of Syhony for the Emerging Child reflects the energy and vigour of youth it can be somewhat unrelenting, and the Chorales allow moments for reflection. In addition, they allow staging changes to occur, and rovide warm-u material for rehearsals. The music in the Chorales is the same for each section wind then brass then strings but is voiced differently to create different effects and to be aroriate for each section. The chorales can therefore be used as warm-us for each individual section or together as an orchestra, even though they aear at different oints in the whole work. The Chorales also make an interesting study in instrumentation for senior students doing coosition. They can look at why chords are voiced in different ways for differing instrumentation, and analyse why certain voicings work well in certain instrumental contexts. The music in this section is insired by Howard Sketon s Lento. Similar chord rogressions and a chorale-style settings are used. Listen to Lento (available on NMC recordings and via the itunes store). Examine the influence Sketon s work has had on Humberstone (who studied with him in 1996).

13 FN CL P ST SixEightThreeFour James Humberstone Presto Transfer to claves Transfer to shakers Transfer to toms Transfer to bass drum

14 Senior School The insiration for this movement is elements of Jaanese Music. The movement oens and closes with a large drum ensemble (who also feature at the ending of the final movement). These arts can be erformed by senior elective students, or by ercussion students, or by a combination of the two. Parts should be erformed from memory. Drummers should watch a erformance of Taiko drumming (there s an excellent Taikoz DVD) and consider what erformance elements might not be in the score the use of gestures to unctuate hrases, etc. The second musical influence from Jaan is the sound and harmony of the Sho. Play students excerts of music including the sho and introduce the harmony layed by the Sho and its context as an instrument of the Gagaku. In this movement, the sound of the Sho is imitated by the woodwinds, who in their initial harmony also lay chords ossible on a Sho. These chords are then develoed to become the harmony of the movement. Students can analyse the music here, working out which traditional chords have been used in this movement and can use this as a model for their own coosition, adating the sound of another world music instrument into a western context. Another Australian cooser who draws insiration from the music of Jaan is Anne Boyd. Boyd has written at length on the influence of Gagaku and Jaanese writers. Study As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams and some more recent works such as A Quiet Place. The Emerging Child This movement combines the joy of the three rior movements with the model of the music of Ross Edwards, the IGS school song and coositional techniques associated with minimalism. The school song is written into this final movement, and can be erformed by all uils who attend the school, even if they are not on stage. A lovely effect, if ossible, would be that children not on stage enter the erformance area from all entrances, so that the school song (and final reetition of the words I am the Emerging Child) are sung from all around the audience. Children watching in the audience and arents who know the school song should be encouraged to join in. The musical content of this movement is very sile. Ostinati a written for all arts to accoany the school song, including Orff instruments which may be layed by any suitable age grou: Before the first half of the school song, ostinati are layered in. This is a technique often used in Orff arrangements but also in minimalist music. Older students may extend listening to minimalist music: one articularly suitable work is John Adams Harmonium, because the first movement Negative Love was the insiration for the oening of this movement too (in Negative Love the word No is reeated before being allowed to develo into a full sentence). Study of the music of Ross Edwards is, of course, also entirely relevant. Aart from the school song itself, the I Am the Emerging Child theme uses similar kinds of syncoated, dancelike rhythms that we associate with Edwards, and naturally one can also reflect on the changing meters in the second movement which are so tyical of Edwards work and the modal switches of the 1 st, 2 nd and final movements following some of his harmonic models.

15 I - Early Years Piccolo A Senza misura - at least 15 seconds James Humberstone Flutes 1,2 1 Oboe Clarinets in Bb 1,2 Bassoon Alto Saxohone Tenor Saxohone Truet 1 in Bb Truet 2 in Bb Trombone 1 Trombone 2 Tuba Tiani Bass Drum Susended Cymbal or Tam-tam Xylohone Marimba Vibrahone Orff Glockensiels Orff Sorano Metallohones Orff Alto Metallohones Orff Bass Metallohones Orff Sorano Xylohones These four notes reeated in this order in own time. Orff Alto Xylohones Orff Bass Xylohones Choir Violin I A Senza misura - at least 15 seconds Violin II 1 Viola Violoncello Double Bass Double Bass

16 2 Tt. 1 Ti. Xyl. Mar. Vib. Glock. So. Met. Alto Met. Bass Met. So. Xyl. Alto Xyl. Bass Xyl. Tt. 1 Ti. Xyl. Mar. Vib. Glock. So. Met. Alto Met. Bass Met. So. Xyl. Alto Xyl. Bass Xyl. Tt. 1 Ti. Xyl. Mar. Vib. Glock. 2 Moderato B Offstage, but not behind a closed door. At the back of the audience would be best So. Met. Alto Met. Bass Met. So. Xyl. Alto Xyl. Bass Xyl.

17 3 Picc. Fl.s 1,2 Alto Sax. 26 C f f Ten, Bari Sax. Tt. 1 Tts. 2,3 a2 Tbn. 1 Tbns. 2,3 Tba. Ti. Xyl. Mar. Vib. Glock. So. Met. Alto Met. Bass Met. So. Xyl. Alto Xyl. Bass Xyl. Vln. I C Vln. II Vla. Vc. Db. Db.II

18 4 Picc. 35 Fl.s 1,2 Alto Sax. Ten, Bari Sax. Tts. 2,3 Tbn. 1 f Tbns. 2,3 Tba. Xyl. Mar. Vib. Glock. So. Met. Alto Met. Bass Met. So. Xyl. Alto Xyl. f f Bass Xyl. Vln. I Vln. II Vla. Vc. Db. Db.II

19 5 Tbn D Tbns. 2,3 Tba. Xyl. Mar. Vib. Glock. So. Met. Alto Met. Bass Met. So. Xyl. Alto Xyl. Bass Xyl. Choir f Early years children, can be backed u by choir Hel - lo Ni hao Kon - ni- chi wa Bon -jour Ho - la Gu-ten Tag Ciao! Hel - lo Ni hao Kon Vln. I D Vln. II Vla. Vc. Db. Db.II

20 6 Picc. Fl.s 1,2 Tbn. 1 Tbns. 2,3 Tba. Xyl. Mar. 55 Vib. Glock. So. Met. Alto Met. Bass Met. So. Xyl. Alto Xyl. Bass Xyl. Choir Vln. I Vln. II Vla. Vc. Db. Db.II Children who have been laying Orff instruments should now join in singing ni- chi wa Bon -jour Ho - la Gu-ten Tag Ciao! Hel - lo Ni hao Kon - ni- chi wa Bon -jour Ho - la Gu-ten Tag Ciao! Hel - lo Ni hao Kon - ni- chi wa Bon -jour Ho - la Gu-ten Tag Ciao! Picc. Fl.s 1,2 Choir Vln. I 66 E Older children a2 All children, two arts if ossible Hel - lo Ni hao Kon - ni- chi wa Bon -jour Ho - la Gu-ten Tag Ciao! Hel - lo Ni hao Kon - ni- chi wa Bon -jour Ho - la Gu-ten Tag Ciao! Hel - lo Ni hao Kon - ni - chi wa Bon -jour Ho - la Vln. II Vla. Vc. Db. Db.II

21 7 Picc. Fl.s 1,2 Ob. Cl.s 1,2 Bsn. Choir Vln. I 77 F Choir only Gu-ten Tag Ciao! Hel - lo Ni hao Kon - ni- chi wa Bon - jour Ho - la Gu-ten Tag Ciao! Chas-ing laugh-ing fall - ing breath-less ex-ci-ted Try-ing ex-lor-ing dis - cov-er-ing sur-rised Hel - lo Ni hao Kon F With children again Vln. II Vla. Vc. Db. Db.II Ob. Cl.s 1,2 Bsn. Choir Vln. I 87 Choir only ni- chi wa Bon - jour Ho - la Gu-ten Tag Ciao! Cre - at-ive Cor-a-geous Fear-less and brave Lang-uage and cul-ture I think I can learn Hel - lo Ni hao Kon - ni- chi wa Bon - jour Ho - la With children again Vln. II Vla. Vc. Db. Db.II