Guidance on using existing contemporary repertoire as a stimulus for composing with young people.
The resources in this collection have been created and developed as part of Birmingham Contemporary Music Group's (BCMG's) Music Maze project. Music Maze workshops have been running since 2003 and take place 8 times a year at the CBSO Centre, Birmingham.
There is wide range of musical experience and attainment among the children - from children with Grade 5 on their instrument to children with profound learning difficulties. About two thirds of the children play a musical instrument. Each workshop takes a piece of repertoire from an upcoming BCMG concert as its stimulus.
From September 2012 - June 2014 the project was part of an action research project, Through the Music Maze, As part of this the project leaders, BCMG Director of Learning Nancy Evans and composer Liz Johnson worked with researchers Professor Martin Fautley and Dr Victoria Kinsella from Birmingham City University to examine their practice and to better understand children’s composing, in particular composing inspired by existing repertoire. This Guidance is a result of that project.
Activities for children based on Music Maze workshops can be found HERE and HERE.
Each resource contains a number of activities stimulated by the featured piece which cumulatively lead the children towards a final composition. Sometimes that is a whole group piece, sometimes small group, sometimes individual and sometimes a combination.
We have been reliably informed that the resources are flexible enough to work equally well an enthusiastic group of 8 - 11 year olds through to GCSE. Of course, this means a certain amount of adapting will need to be done by the person leading the lesson/workshop.
The structure of the resources is based on delivering a day workshop from 10am-2pm but could be adapted to be act as a scheme of work across a number of sessions. Most of the resources would work well across five to six lessons but many could benefit for more time to listen, evaluate, refine, rework etc. You may also choose to just focus on one or two activities from any one resource.
Each resource starts with the piece's Programme Note followed by an Introduction, the Learning Objectives and Resources Needed. The Activities follow on after this on subsequent pages.
A link to a recording of the piece on Spotify can be found on the second page. Wherever possible we have used a BCMG recording of the piece. If there is not one available we have chosen a recording by another ensemble. You will to need download and be signed into Spotify to be able to access the recording directly via the Resource otherwise you will be taken to the Spotify homepage. It is probably easiest to remain signed in to Spotify. In the downloads section at the bottom of the page there will sometimes be a recording by the young people at Music Maze of their original music inspired by the piece having followed similar activities.
In the downloads section, you will also find any Resource Sheets used, audio examples by BCMG musicians, videos connected to the piece or the composer and, useful web links such as to the composer's own website.
BCMG specialises in the performance of contemporary Western Classical music. The group performs music as early as Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Webern but the core of the group’s repertoire comes from the second half of the century through to the present day. Since BCMG was formed in 1987, it has given the world premieres over 165 new works.
Repertoire projects have been a staple of orchestral education work with the often cited aim of preparing the young participants to be an ‘audience of tomorrow’. Whilst recognizing that this can be an excellent way to prepare young listeners, we are clear that the focus of these resources is on composing and the children’s progression as composers. Similarly, the UK music curriculum has included set works which have provided the stimulus for a range of activity including composing.
These resources aim to go beyond creating a simplified replica of the chosen piece or a simple response to any extra-musical starting points. Instead, the activities offer the distinct processes, techniques and starting points of the chosen work and composer to the children in order to support their development as composers. Our ethos seeks to challenge and expand young people’s existing musical creativity and imagination through exposing them to the ideas and composing processes of professional composers. It is also very important to us that the children have ownership of the work created.
Across the life of Music Maze we have run workshops exploring close to 100 pieces of contemporary music. The pieces that feature on the Learning Resource Website were chosen for a variety of reasons:
Every time we approach a new piece of music these are the questions we ask:
Using repertoire as a stimulus for composing is only one way to approach composing with young people and needs to be balanced with other types of composing activity.
Composing can be a scary word conjuring up images of dead white men in ivory towers with reams of manuscript paper. It is often seen as an elitist activity that only ‘specially gifted’ people can do. The Music Maze Resources hold that musical creativity is something within all of us.
Composing has been part of the UK National Curriculum since 1987. However, there have been notable initiatives/projects before this exploring composing with children in the UK since the 1940s starting with Carl Orff's Schulwerk and including: Peter Maxwell Davies's innovations at Cirencester Grammar School in the late 50s early 60s; the John Paynter led Schools Council Project Music in the Secondary School Curriculum; Jeanne Bamberger’s research into children’s invented notations in the 70s; and, the work of the Canadian composer and educator Murray Schafer. Other important figures include Ian Lawrence, Brian Denis, David Bedford, Bernard Rands, George Self and Gillian Moore in her role as Education Officer of the London Sinfonietta, the first such post in the UK.
The following book list about composing with children at the end of this guidance. We would strongly recommend reading some of these books.
The diagram on the following page is a simplified representation of the composing process. It suggests that the composing process is a linear one but the reality is much more complex and messy. Encourage children to think of composing more as a process of a collage that is being assembled rather than one where they start at the beginning and work through until the end. Frequently, children, and the adults that work with them, get stuck on the generating stage of the process. It is important to support the children to be confident with the music material they have and close down generating new stuff. Support them to find many potential ways of developing individual ideas – more than they might need in their piece. Show them how much musical possibility there is in a simple idea and how that can create coherence in a piece of music rather than sequencing lots of different unrelated ideas – unless, of course, that is exactly what their intention is. Important too is giving time to think about structuring ideas. Again children are very good at generating ideas but find it harder and/or are given less opportunity to organise their musical material into larger musical structures.
It is helpful to model this process for the children and make your choices and thinking clear. Try out different ways of organising the same musical material as suggested by the children. Give the children time for listening to and refining their music . Don’t always accept the children's first offering. Challenge them to make it better.
As with professional composers, some children respond better to being given tight parameters for composing where as others thrive by being given a very open brief. It is important to offer both these possibilities to the groups you work with. Each Resource tries to offer both of these. It is easy to think in binaries of tight parameters being restrictive and open ones creative. This is not necessarily the case. With very open briefs the possibilities are endless and children can get lost. Tight parameters can offer the opportunity to be very creative within a small space. Tight parameters can also be a good way of teaching a particular composing skill or introducing a particular composing device.
It is easy to think of composing of a series of techniques to be mastered - the ‘doing’ of composing. The Music Maze Resources explore techniques and processes but also explore what it is to think like a composer and even to encourage children to identify themselves as composers just as they might think of themselves as trumpeters or violinists. During the research project, we thought about what might be some of the characteristics of composers and came up with this growing list:
Thinking like a composer:
Doing like a composer:
Identifying as a composer:
These ideas are designed to support the adults leading the activities to reflect on the young people’s composing and their progress as composers.
Much of the activity in these resources requires the children to work in groups. Careful thought has been given to the group sizes and their make up throughout the resources but this will vary from context to context and by how well you know the children you are working with.
Choices about group size are influenced by:
The make up of groups is influenced by:
Listening:
It is important to realise that just listening and giving your full attention to music young people create can be powerful.
Giving feedback:
Modeling:
Don’t forget you are a composer too. Model composing to the children making clear your thought processes and the thinking behind your choices.
Differentiation:
Within any group of young people there will be a wide range of abilities and experience. Simplifying and extending activities needs to be part of planning. Simplifying might be done by giving the child fewer pitches to work with; learning part of a rhythm rather than all of it; creating a shorter melody/rhythm. With a child that needs stretching you might: ask for more variations of an idea; ask them to notate the idea; or, ask them to create a contrasting section.
Thinking time:
Give the children thinking time without instruments at the start of composing and during the process.
An important part of the pedagogy of composing is asking questions. Simple guidelines would be to:
Below is a set of useful question stems adapted and edited from Fautley, M and Savage, J. (2014), Lesson Planning for Effective Learning (Abingdon: Open University Press) that can be used to support children's composing.
Knowledge/remembering:
Comprehension/understanding:
Application/applying:
Synthesis:
Evaluation/evaluating:
Creating: