This week focussed on exploring how stimuli could be used to build a piece of music. This is something I have not had a lot of experience doing before, so I found it especially helpful to work in a group. The main inspiration was taken from the musical piece “The Carnival of the Animals”. The piece was written by a French composer, Camille Saint-Saëns, and explores how music can be manipulated to give different effects.
Ingroups, we considered further animals that could be explored. The group I was part of considered the movement and rhythm a mouse might create. Because we were not very confident composing over Zoom, we decided to produce a graphic score. Here is mine:
We also discussed the kind of noises and movements a mouse might make, thinking about the characteristic high pitched squeak and the way they can ‘scurry’ across a floor. There was also some consideration of the comical effects sound can have when paired with images. For example, the classic cartoon ‘Tom and Jerry’.
Following the lesson, I used garage band to translate the score into a short audio clip.
A similar stimulus that could be used with children is picturebooks (Murphy, 2013, p. 134). Murphy recommends using books such as ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ (Carle, 1969) and ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ (Rosen, 1989). Illustrations and dialogue can influence children and help them imagine sound effects that could build into short musical pieces as well as supporting literary development by looking deeper into the meaning of texts (Murphy, 2013, p. 134). Furthermore, using a story could link into drama by providing inspiration for freeze frames or analysing characters.
Burnard, P & Murphy, R (2013) Teaching Music Creatively London, Routledge
