Planning

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. 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 long workshop from 10am-2pm but can be adapted to be a scheme of work consisting of 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.

Navigating

Each resource starts with the piece's Programme Note followed by an Introduction, the Learning Objectives and Resources Needed. The Activities follow 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 sometimes known as Western Art 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 200 new works.

Projects focusing on existing repertoire are a staple of orchestral education work. Using repertoire as can be an excellent way to prepare young listeners for concerts but these resources focus on children's composing and their progression as composers. Similarly, the UK music curriculum has included set works which provide 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 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. We seek to challenge and expand young people’s existing musical creativity and imagination through exposing them to the ideas and composing processes of professional composers whilst ensuring children have ownership of the work created.

To date, in Music Maze,  we have explored close to 150 pieces of contemporary music. The pieces that feature in this collection were chosen for a variety of reasons:

• Contrasting composers
• Diversity of composing processes and starting points both within the collection of resources but also within any given piece
• Easy availability of a recording of the featured piece
• Pieces we felt were particularly successful when used in a workshop

Every time we approach a new piece of music these are the questions we ask:

• What in the piece might capture the imagination of the young people?
• What processes, techniques and starting points does the piece offer the young people?
• What is distinct about this composer and this piece?
• Does the piece offer something different from what we have explored before?
• What is the composer interested in exploring in this piece?

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.  At BCMG, we believe musical creativity is something we all have within us.

Composing has been part of the UK National Curriculum since 1987. However, there were notable initiatives and projects before this exploring composing with children in the UK since the 1940s. This started with Carl Orff's Schulwerk and also included 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.

If you would like to delve further in to the world of children composing, this book list is a good start. 

1. Pam Burnard & Regina Murphy. Teaching Music Creatively. Routledge (2013) 
2. Maud Hickey (Ed.) Why and How to Teach Music Composition: A New Horizon for Music Education. R&L Education (2003)
3. Joanna Glover. Children Composing 4-14. Routledge (2000) 
4. John Paynter and Peter Aston. Sound and Silence: Classroom Projects in Creative Music. CUP (1970) 
5. Kashub and Smith. Composing our Future: Preparing Music Educators to Teach Composition. OUP USA (Jan 2013)
6. Kaschub and Smith. Minds on Music: Composition for Creative and Critical Thinking. Rowman & Littlefield Education (Jun 2009)
7. Brian Dennis. Experimental Music in Schools: Towards a New World of Sound. OUP (1 Feb 1970)
8. Murray Schafer. Creative Music Education: A Handbook for the Modern Music Teacher. Macmilllan Publising Co (April 1976)
9. George Self. The Sounding Symbol - Music Education in Action. Nelson Thornes (Sept 1995)
10. Fautley, M and Savage, J. (2014), Lesson Planning for Effective Learning (Abingdon: Open University Press).

It is easy to think of composing of a series of techniques to be mastered - the ‘doing’ of composing. These 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. As a result of the action research project, we came up with a list of characteristics that children might develop as they become a composers:

Thinking like a composer:

• Choosing sounds/musical ideas with intention using listening and aural imagination
• Understanding the effect of changing music elements within a composition
• Understanding the effect on the listener of their music
• Having a clear musical intention for the piece or developing one
• Knowing and understanding sound resource(s) available - instrument(s), voices, other sound makers - and using them effectively 
• Understanding how to build and release tension through musical elements and pace of change

Doing like a composer:

• Being playful with and having many strategies for developing a musical idea e.g. back to front, upside-down, inside out, stretching, shrinking, extending, reducing
• Understanding how, and having a repertoire of ways to, structure small ideas into larger musical shapes
• Thinking about, imagining and planning the overall structure of a piece rather than putting one thing after another - vertically and horizontally

Identifying as a composer:

• Articulating ideas and describing music in detail
• Critically reflecting on one’s own music and the process of creating it 
• Using oral, aural, verbal and graphic (pictorial) ways to communicate ideas to others
• Thinking about and imagining music outside of ‘music time’
• Wanting to compose outside of sessions

These ideas can be used by educators to reflect on children's composing and their progress as composers.