THE PERFORMANCE
The Big Music Lesson will celebrate "Music in Our Schools
Month" on March 16th from 1:30 to 3 pm at Davies Symphony Hall by
offering 1,000 Bay Area middle and high school students a free, basic
introduction to music from five of the world's finest musicians first
teacher and Artistic Director of the Oakland East Bay Symphony Michael
Morgan, jazz violinist Regina Carter, tabla master Zakir Hussain, City
College resident composer Afro-Cuban musician and scholar Rebeca Mauleon-Santana,
and former Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir.
Each musician will offer a 10 - 15 minute lesson based on what we have
chosen as a "standard" song, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken."
Each of our five musicians will highlight their different interpretations
of the song. Maestro Morgan will use it as a beginning point in basic
harmony theory. We may assume that the great percussionist Zakir Hussain
will talk about rhythm. Each musician having offered their comments we
anticipate a closing "jam" that will encourage audience vocal
and rhythmic participation to bring the lesson to a rousing finale.
The aim of The Big Music Lesson is to introduce the students to
different worlds of music. We will hear the perspectives of different
musicians, including a conductor, instrumentalists (guitarist, violinist,
and percussionist), and vocalists. Each of the musicians are involved
in different styles of music, including Western classical music, jazz,
blues, rock, and popular music, and have incorporated different cultural
influences in their music, including European, African-American, Indian,
and Latin. We are excited to see how each of the musicians will bring
their cultural perspective to a single song. An important part of the
Big Music Lesson is for students to learn that there is no "one
right" interpretation of a piece of music. Rather, each musician
will present their own perspective on the song. Ultimately, we hope that
students will learn to trust their own unique interpretation of this song
in particular, and of music and art works in general. We also hope that
The Big Music Lesson, with the accompanying guide, will inspire
confidence in teachers to regularly integrate music in their curricula.
BACKGROUND OF THE COMPOSER AND SONG
The origins of the song are complex. We have a hymn dating to 1908 by
Charles Hutchinson Gabriel and Ada Ruth Habershon. A. P. Carter wrote
a bluegrass version between 1931 - 39. Carter's version became so well
known, that he was sometimes credited with composing the song. Since the
bluegrass version, the song has perhaps become best known as a gospel
song. There are currently 72 versions available of different musical styles
on BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.), including folk (Bob Dylan, Joan Baez),
blues (John Lee Hooker), soul (The Neville Brothers), and contemporary
rock (Phish).
THE BIG MUSIC LESSON ARTISTS
Regina Carter
Touted by The New York Times as a "violinist of great control,
improvisational flexibility and wide range," Regina Carter is one
of the most significant, versatile and innovative violinists to emerge
on the jazz scene in decades.
"The violinist had her instrument laughing, crying and screaming
to her furious fingers", wrote Times reporter Tiffany Danitz.
Motor City Moments (released in September 2000), Ms. Carter's exhilarating
Verve Records follow-up to Rhythms of the Heart, further affirms
her voice as a leader; a rare original with an unparalleled ability to
integrate the finer elements of jazz, funk, African, Brazilian and soul
music with an adventurous rhythmic sensibility.
Hailing from Detroit, one of jazz's foremost cultural meccas, Ms. Carter
joins a long line of famed musicians. Regina began studying the Suzuki
method of violin while in grade school. She would go on to hone her skills
as a member of the Detroit Civic Symphony Orchestra and on the bandstand
under the tutelage of trumpeter Marcus Belgrave and organist Lymon Woodard.
She also performed in various multi-ethnic formats, including the pop/funk
band Brainstorm and the celebrated all-female Detroit collaborate Straight
Ahead. A graduate of the esteemed New England Conservatory and Oakland
University, Ms. Carter relocated to New York in the early 90's and quickly
became a vital member of the music scene, collaborating with Oliver Lake,
the String Trio of New York and others. In 1995 she recorded her self-titled
CD for Atlantic Records and in 1997, Something for Grace,
named for her mother, helped to place her as #1 in the violin category
in Down Beat magazine's 46th Annual Critics Poll.
Zakir Hussain
Zakir Hussain is today appreciated both in the field of percussion and
in the music world at large as an international phenomenon. A classical
tabla virtuoso of the highest order, his consistently brilliant and exciting
performances have not only established him as a national treasure in his
own country, India, but gained him worldwide fame. The favorite accompanist
for many of India's greatest classical musicians and dancers, from Ali
Akbar Khan and Ravi Shankar to Birju Maharaj and Shivkumar Sharma, he
has not let his genius rest there. His playing is marked by uncanny intuition
and masterful improvisational dexterity, founded in formidable knowledge
and study.
Widely considered a chief architect of the contemporary world music movement,
Zakir's contribution to world music has been unique, with many historic
collaborations, including Shakti, which he founded with John McLaughlin
and L. Shankar, the Diga Rhythm Band, Making Music, Planet
Drum with Mickey Hart, and recordings and performances with artists
as diverse as George Harrison, Joe Henderson, Van Morrison, Jack Bruce,
Tito Puente, Pharaoh Sanders, Billy Cobham, the Hong Kong Symphony and
the New Orleans Symphony.
A child prodigy, Zakir was touring by the age of twelve, the gifted son
of his great father, tabla legend Ustad Allarakha. Zakir came to the United
States in 1970, embarking on an international career which includes no
fewer than 150 concert dates a year. He has composed and recorded many
albums and soundtracks, and has received widespread recognition as a composer
for his many ensembles and historic collaborations. Most recently, he
has composed soundtracks for the films In Custody, Ismail Merchant's
directorial debut, Little Buddha by Bernardo Bertolucci, for which
Zakir composed, performed and acted as Indian music advisor, and Vanaprastham,
chosen to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival in 1999.
Rebeca Mauleon
Rebeca Mauleon has specialized in Afro-Caribbean music for over twenty
years as a pianist, composer, arranger, author and educator. Firmly rooted
in the Afro-Cuban tradition, Mauleon has recorded and performed with several
luminaries in the Latin music scene, including Tito Puente, Carlos Santana,
Israel "Cachao" Lopez, Steve Terre, Carlos "Patato"
Valdez, Francisco Aguabella, Jose Luis Quintana "Changuito",
Giovanni Hidalgo, Joe Henderson, Armando Peraza, Walfredo de los Reyes,
Orestes Vilato and Machete Ensemble (of which she was co-musical director
for nearly ten years). Her piano and vocal work are featured on several
Grammy Award winning and nominated albums, including Tito Puente's Goza
Mi Timbal (1990 Grammy Award Winner), and the 1995 Grammy Nominee
Ritmo y Candela, with Patato, Changuito and Orestes Vilato. In
1998 and 1999 she recorded and toured with ex-Grateful Dead percussionist
Mickey Hart's Planet Drum ensemble, including an appearance at
Woodstock. Also in 1998, Rebeca received a Goldie Award for Artistic Excellence
in Music by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, received a composer's fellowship
from the Sundance Institute's Film Composer's Lab, and launched her powerhouse
Round Trip group along with her debut CD, performing to sellout and capacity
crowds at the Monterey, San Francisco and San Jose Jazz Festivals, as
well as the Stern Grove Summer Arts Festival, with an estimated 10,000
plus audience. She was also invited to perform at the Kennedy Center's
"Women in Jazz Festival" in 1999, and continues to earn rave
reviews wherever she performs.
Michael Morgan
Currently in his eleventh year as Music Director of the Oakland East
Bay Symphony, Michael Morgan was born in 1957 in Washington, DC, where
he attended public schools and began conducting at the age of 12. While
a student at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, he spent a summer
at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood. There he was a student of
Gunther Schuller and Seiji Ozawa, and it was at that time that he first
worked with Leonard Bernstein.
In 1980 he won first prize in the Hans Swarowsky International Conductors
Competition in Vienna, Austria and became Assistant Conductor of the Saint
Louis Symphony Orchestra, under Leonard Slatkin. His operatic debut was
in 1982 at the Vienna State Opera in Mozart's The Abduction from the
Seraglio. In 1986, Sir Georg Solti chose him to become the Assistant
Conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a position he held for seven
years. His debut conducting a regular subscription concert of the Chicago
Symphony came in 1987, when he stepped in to replace the ailing Maestro
Solti with no rehearsal and to critical acclaim. During his tenure in
Chicago he was also conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago (training
orchestra of the Chicago Symphony) and the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra.
In 1986 he was also invited by Leonard Bernstein to make his debut with
the New York Philharmonic; he has returned to conduct that orchestra several
times since.
In addition to his duties with the Oakland East Bay Symphony, Maestro
Morgan has a busy guest conducting schedule. He has conducted the San
Francisco Symphony on many occasions, most recently during the 2000 -
20001 season, and he will also conduct the Winnipeg Symphony, San Antonio
Symphony and Boulder Philharmonic during the 2000 - 2001 season. Morgan
serves as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Oakland Youth
Orchestra, Music Director of the Sacramento Philharmonic, and Music Director
of Festival Opera in Walnut Creek. He makes over 100 appearances in the
nation's schools, particularly in the East Bay, and is widely regarded
as an expert on the importance of arts education and minority access to
the arts.
Bob Weir
From his days as a young San Francisco folk artist to his current standing
as a well-established and innovative musician, Bob Weir has not only greatly
influenced the music world and music lovers everywhere, but he has also
contributed greatly to the environment and social awareness of many people.
In his mid-teens, Folk guitarist Bob Weir joined banjo player Jerry Garcia
and harmonica player Ron McKernan, also known as "Pigpen", to
form Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions, a band that played country
blues from the twenties. As the Jug Champions added a few members and
changed its name to The Warlocks, the band also changed its direction,
becoming increasingly bluesy and electric. Little did anyone know that
The Jug Champions would become the core of one of the most enduring bands
of all time, The Grateful Dead. Neither did anyone suspect that these
musicians would, through a relaxed, improvisational style of performance,
become master musicians in their own right.
Bob Weir has had a varied and successful solo career in music as well.
Ace, his first solo album released in 1972, began his work as a
song writer. The next album, Heaven Help the Fool, was a
critical and personal success. Soon after, he assembled Bobby and the
Midnites, a band comprised of some of the most prominent jazz-fusion musicians
of the day: Billy Cobham, Alfonso Johnson, the late Brent Mydland, Bobby
Cochran, Dave Garland, and Kenny Gradney.
This was followed by a partnership with bassist extraordinaire, Rob Wasserman,
known as Weir/Wasserman. His latest musical project is RatDog. The group
is formed of himself, bassist Rob Wasserman, drummer Jay Lane, saxophone
player Kenny Brooks, keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and guitarist Mark Karan.
RatDog's music is a complex combination of blues, rock (taken from Weir's
considerable repertoire) and jazz. They perform songs from various periods
of American music. Their act is an unusual combination of streamlined
classiness and a highly improvisational, we're-here-to-have-fun style.
LESSON 1: DRAWING YOUR OWN CIRCLE
Goal: Students will use circles to conceptualize and map the multilayered
people and values in their lives.
You will need:
- A large piece of blank paper for each student
- Crayons, pencils, stickers, paint or magic markers
Activities: Draw your own circle
- Students draw a circle in the middle of the page. They then draw circles
that emanate from the center circle to represent the most important
elements in their world. They can begin with important people in their
lives, including family, friends, classmates, and then draw circles
to represent other social circles (religious, national), activities
(sports, music), and life values.
- Have students think about some of the following questions:
- What are the boundaries like around each circle (porous, rigid, funny)?
- How might they use some ideas about circles to express personal convictions?
- Have students consider these more general questions about circles
in their lives:
- what are other ways to think about circles?
- how do they use circles in daily life?
- do they know other songs about circles?
- do they have any favorite stories about circles?
- Have students consider circles in other cultures:
- In how many different languages can they say "circle"?
- What might be the meaning of "circle" in different cultures?
Extension Ideas:
Mapping a group circle : You will need paper or fabric, paint or magic
markers.
- Have all the students make a banner that represents all the unique
and overlapping circles of their different lives.
LESSON 2: TEACHING "WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN"
Goal: Students will learn "Will the Circle Be Unbroken"before
attending The Big Music Lesson.
Students will learn the song in its simple form.
You will need: Tape/CD player and a recording of the song (you can the
download Scorch reader from our Web site).
Activities:
- Play a recording of the song.
- Begin by teaching the words of the chorus. You can have students pick
out the words aurally while they listen, or else give them a handout
with the lyrics.
- Now teach them to tune of the chorus by playing the song for them.
- You can test how well they know the chorus by playing the song and
turning down the volume of the recording when the chorus is sung --
this way they get to sing the chorus by themselves.
- For teaching the lyrics to the whole song, give them handouts with
the lyrics.
- To reinforce the rhythm of the words, have students clap the rhythm
of the lyrics without singing the words.
LESSON 3: COMPOSING AN ORIGINAL VERSION OF "WILL
THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN"
Goal: Students will compose and perform their own original version of
the chorus of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken".
You will need:
- Tape/CD player and the song recording (with Scorch software, you can
download from our Web site)
- Song lyrics
- Ideas work sheet
- Large piece of paper
- Pencils and crayons
Activities:
- Teach the chorus of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" as suggested
in Lesson 2.
- Divide the class into small groups of three or four people each.
- Have each group devise their own version of the chorus using the worksheet
below as a guide to possible ideas.
- Have students perform their version to others in the class.
- Be sure to leave time to ask questions and reflect on their responses
to the different versions.
WORKSHEET FOR STUDENTS
Try some of the following ideas to compose your own version of the chorus
of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken".
- Are you going to base your interpretation on a particular style (rap,
blues, rock, folk, jazz, hip-hop, Western classical, country, etc.)?
- What speed are you going to sing it (slow, fast, medium)? Will there
be parts where you sing slower or faster? Do you want to convey any
special meaning with the speed that you choose?
- Will you sing all the words, or are any words going to be spoken?
- Where will you go louder or quieter? How will you achieve this?
- Will you have a climax? How will you achieve this? What effect are
you trying to achieve?
- Are you going to use instruments or body sounds?
- Why don't you try one part singing a bass line and another part singing
the melody?"
- Can you add another part?
- Have you thought of singing a harmony? One person could sing the melody,
and another person could sing it a third higher or lower.
- Can you add an introduction?
- Try experimenting with the quality of your voice. For example, you
could try singing as if you were a different character (a young child,
an old man).
- Try conveying different emotions. Sing in a way that might communicate
sadness, longing, relief, etc.
- Will you have any places where only one person sings (a solo) or two
(a duet), or everyone all together?
- Try and write your own lyrics.
- Would you like to add a surprise silence?
- Try to draw a picture that maps out your interpretation of the song.
See if another group can sing your version from your diagram.
Lesson 4: Musical Circle Games
Game #1: A Bubble of Sound
Have students imagine a circle around themselves. Play them a sound and
ask them to let the sound fill their circle. Now have them listen to sounds
around them. Have them think which sounds they want to let in, and which
they want to keep out. Now break the groups into pairs with partner A
and partner B. Let each pair decide on a unique sound they are going to
make. This becomes the pair's identifying sound.
Let everyone scatter in the class and close their eyes. The goal is for
the pairs to find each other by means of their identifying sound. Partner
A makes the identifying sound and Partner B has to try and locate Partner
A by focusing only on this identifying sound. Partners can only open their
eyes when they have found each other through their identifying sound.
Game #2: A Circle of Stereo Sound
Break everyone into groups of three people, Partners A, B, and C. A sits
in the middle, with B and C on either side. Have B and C whisper sounds
into A's ear. They have to whisper so quietly that B and C cannot hear
each other. A is able to experience the stereo effect of sound that only
A is able to hear. Now alternate partners so that each person has the
chance to hear the stereo effect.
APPENDIX 1: DEFINITIONS OF BASIC ELEMENTS OF MUSIC
Melody:
The melody is the "tune" of a song as it goes up and down.
Melodies have an overall "shape" as the notes ascend, descend,
undulate and arch, moving by steps and other times by leaps. Melodies
often have repeating motives that create a sequence. Just as birds have
their own special songs, so too do we have our own songs. We also have
melodies we sing on special occasions, such as at birthdays and weddings.
Can you count how many melodies you know? Which is your favorite melody?
Rhythm:
Rhythm starts with your heartbeat. Feel your pulse -- this is your first
rhythm, your own intimate experience with rhythm. Rhythm refers to the
pattern of movement through time, be it the movement of pitches, chords,
drum strokes. Can you tap the rhythms of sounds that you hear around you
-- the rain falling on the roof, a car starting, a train moving along
the tracks? Can you clap the rhythm of your name?
Harmony:
If melody is a single color, then harmony is many colors. Harmony refers
to the relationship of tones as they sound simultaneously, and the way
they are organized in time. Can you sing the bass line to keep track of
the chord changes of a song? Can you learn the 12 bar blues chord changes
(I -I - I - I - IV - IV - I - I - V - IV - I - I )?
Timbre: (pronounced tam-bruh)
You can always recognize people by the sound of their voice. The difference
between people's voices is what we call timbre. Each person has it, and
each instrument has it. We use a range of adjectives to describe timbre,
such as sweet, rough, gruff, bright, dark. Think of how we use adjectives
to distinguish between food, clothing, colors and the weather. Can you
describe the quality of sounds in the natural environment around you?
How many adjectives can you find to describe the different qualities of
water, such as rain, pouring a glass or water, a fountain? Can you experiment
with a single sound, making it sparkly, or edgy?
Tempo:
Everything moves at its own rate -- people, buses, bugs. Tempo refers
to the SPEED at which a piece is performed, fast or slow. Tempos is important
in our everyday experience. Think how we do different activities at different
speeds, such as getting out of bed, walking to school, walking home, eating
when we are hungry, eating when we do not like the taste of the food.
What's the slowest thing you can think of? What's the fastest? Can you
take your favorite song and sing at half the speed, and now at double
the speed?
Dynamics:
Sometimes we talk, other times we shout, and sometimes we whisper. Dynamics
refers to the volume of the song, that is how loud or soft it is. Think
of sounds from your everyday world and rank them in order of loud to soft.
What makes the loudest sound in the world? And the softest? What is the
loudest sound you can make? And the softest?
APPENDIX 2: WAYS TO INTEGRATE THE BIG MUSIC LESSON
CONCEPTS INTO OTHER SUBJECT AREAS
Social Studies:
Where did the composers live? Where do the performing artists live? How
has it influenced their music? In modern society, people travel incredible
distances in short times (Zakir Hussain will sometimes go to India for
one performance, fly back to California, and go back to India the next
week). How does this change influence our understanding of geography?
How does this change influence our understanding of geography and of musical
interaction between different cultures?
Science:
Cycles are circles in time. Here are some to get you started:
Seed->Tree->Seed, Egg->Chicken->Egg, Life ->Death, Rain->Rivers->Lakes->Evaporation->Rain,
Currents, Tides, Phases of the moon, Time cycles: year, century, minute.
Goal: to understand that appreciating and making music is part of our
basic self. Questions: What is the rhythm we hear before we are born?
(our mother's heartbeat, which is very loud) How does this idea extend
to your circulatory system? Your cellular structure? How porous are our
biological boundaries? Find some circles on your body (eyes, nostrils,
ears, cheeks, vertebrae, skull). Life cycles.
The science of sound: how is sound made? How do circles function in water
flow? In other natural systems?
Reading Literacy:
Our goal is to develop an understanding of an evolving narrative by analyzing
how a story unfolds.
Questions:
Who is telling the story? Who is the narrator? Who is the intended audience?
Is there any climax in the story? Are there any moments of anticipation
and/or resolution?
Activities:
Can you take the chorus and write different lyrics that tell a very different
story (e.g., one of hope, one of despair, one of confusion, etc.) . Does
the music match the narration? Does it reinforce the story in the lyrics,
or does it give a different feeling? Where do the melody and the lyrics
support each other? Listen to the melody and write your own lyrics.
Math:
In geometry, a circle is the locus of all points equidistant from a central
point.
APPENDIX 3: How this Guide keys into California State
Visual and Performing Arts Framework Objectives:
Artistic Perception
All human beings develop culture and all cultures make music. Music and
the arts are one of the basic ways of transmitting meaning. Music helps
us to understand our world and to relate to it through experiencing the
art of others and through self-expression. In the Big Music Lesson, we
show how a single song can be approached in infinite ways. We bring our
life experiences and our training to the work, and the work stimulates
our creativity.
All music shares basic elements. The underlying principals are universal.
Different cultures express their cultural uniqueness through their music.
Music also changes through time. Artists working in different genres produce
very different works. A piece of music or art can be approached in infinite
ways. We bring our life experience and our training to the work, and the
work stimulates our creativity. We can build our own, unique music working
with the basic concepts of the song.
CREATIVE EXPRESSION
Composing and performing music is central in all cultures. In some societies,
everyone is considered a musician. In others, only people considered to
have talent become musicians, while in others, only people in a certain
social class become musicians. In The Big Music Lesson, we hope to inspire
all students to become composers and musicians, creating their own circles
as well as their own version of the song.
AESTHETIC VALUING
We can understand cultural values through understanding music. Each culture
has its own unique criteria for what it considers to be "beautiful",
"good", or "bad" music and musical performances. By
listening with "open ears" we can understand how each artist
brings a different cultural perspective to the song. In The Big Music
Lesson, we share how there is not one right way of hearing a piece of
music. Rather, we need to develop trust in our own response to any work
of art.
APPENDIX 4: STUDENT EVALUATION OF THE
BIG MUSIC LESSON
Here are some questions for reflective thought (pick ones which appeal
to you or make up your own)
When do you hear music at home? Do you listen to radio, CD, tape? Who
chooses the music? Are there times when there are differences in opinion?
If you were to present your own interpretation of the song, what else
would you like to focus on?
If you composed an interpretation of the song, what other elements did
you learn about that you would like to incorporate?
