Programmatic Music and. Technology

Composers in many cultures build their work around a programmatic element such as a tall tale, a historical character, and other story-like influence, including films. Australian Aboriginal musicians playing the didgeridoo will tell the tale of a kangaroo, while a Chinese composer might write a song about a beautiful evening on the prairie, with starlight shimmering down. The Romantic-era composer Richard Strauss is famous for his large orchestra tone poems such as Till Eulenspiegels merry pranks, and Howard Shore’s scores for the Lord of the rings films features diverse programmatic music from epic battle scenes to the idyllic hobbit theme music reminiscent of the hymn “This Is My Father’s World"

For young students, using a story book or picture book is a great way to start the composing process. Stories offer not only a creative inspiration but can also connect with the cultural background of students, and social justice issues. Examples of children’s stories that can connect well to composition assignments include Where the wild things are by Maurice Sendak, The tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr., and John Archambault, Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaires book of Greek myths, and Esperanza rising by Pam Munoz Ryan. Stories can be illustrated with music page-by-page or students can simply represent the spirit or mood of the overall story.

Stories about animals can be particularly fun to use for compositions because the actual sounds the animals make can be imitated as part of the music. For example, Why mosquitoes buzz in people’s ears by Verna Aardema and illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon (1975), can start with students creating buzzing sounds, and using hand claps to imitate the real-life scenario of trying to slap a mosquito. Stories can also connect with students drawing and painting as a cross discipline form of creativity. Tuesday, by David Wiesner (1991), can appeal to children’s visual imagination in a way that can be transferred to creative compositions. Students could create soundscapes that represent the eerie flotilla of frogs flying on lily pads through the air. This could be created on synthesizers, or iPad or phones with instrument apps including world music instruments like the erhu or thumb piano, but it could also be created by voices and body percussion making interesting creative sounds, not just singing sounds, or classroom instruments like Orff instruments, ukuleles, or recorders.

In a secondary level music classroom, stories dealing with culture or social justice might be considered as inspiration for new compositions. In Esperanza rising, (2002) by Pam Munoz Ryan, Esperanza and her mother flee their privileged lives in Mexico and find refuge in the migrant camps of Southern California during the Great Depression. Sounds of mariachi could be mixed with sounds of American folk music, or minor and diminished chords could be explored to represent the sadness of leaving a place one loves and arriving at a new and challenging environment one has never experienced before.

Films and video games are popular among students of all ages and can provide an exciting and motivating experiences for younger composers. They can also be very short and therefore a positive gateway to the beginning of composition in the classroom. Note that, for film music composing, teachers could start by asking students to find music samples from YouTube or other digital music sources and put their choice of music together, based on existing music, like a “temp track” that real life film makers often create. That could then lead to a short original music composition project.

The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) has shared a free exemplary curriculum model with embedded lesson plans on composing, and their “Composition/Theory Responding Unit, Advanced Level” example includes a set of six lessons using old black and white silent films that are available for free and can be downloaded from the Library of Congress (USA). While targeting advanced level student composers, the ideas could be adapted to any level, and there are also free published curriculum examples for introductory level students. One film example to check out as a starting point is Little Mischief.¹³ Lasting just 44 seconds, it was produced by Edison Manufacturing Co. in 1899.

Technology. Imagine an elementary music teacher who had explored songwriting and popular music in high school, but mainly focused on classical piano in college. Her preservice training did include a small amount of work in creative music-making, but she found composition was difficult to include in her classes as she started her career. However, she developed a strong interest in music technology and started to have students create projects in Flat, BandLab, and other online music programs. Through her commitment to teaching the national standards and her exploration of technology she found more and more ways to include composition as a core part of her classes.

Technology can be used in countless ways and continues to develop every year. Composer Alex Shapiro offers an exemplary instrumental composition curriculum on her website that focuses on creativity and has no required notational component. Her plans are available for beginners through advanced levels and start with students making up their own 10-second motive performed over a drone. In her lessons, students develop their ideas by actually playing them and recording them, so the focus is on creativity, not notation. Students then work in small groups to combine and develop their motives collaboratively. Students can use free programs like Audacity, GarageBand, Bandlab, or Soundtrap to record themselves, so there is not any cost involved with this type of project. Phones, iPads and synthesizers can be used as both composing tools and as instruments to explore new sounds, and students can have the option to mix electronic and acoustic instrument sounds.

There are countless digital programs now available for creativity, though it is important to explore how and if programs work on various devices. For younger students, Chrome Music Lab Experiments, Buttonbass, Beepbox, Groove Pizza, and AQWERTYon are just a few programs to consider. Hyperscore is a composing program that is great for elementary students, because it uses a drawing feature to compose instead of traditional notation but it is only available for PC’s (see Crawford, 2016).

For notation, the most commonly used programs include Sibelius, Finale, Logic Pro X, Noteflight, Flat, MuseScore, Notion, and Dorico, and electronic based music production programs include GarageBand, BandLab, Soundtrap, Soundation, Adobe Audition, FL Studio, Magic ACID Pro, Zulu DJ, Ableton Live, and Bitwig Studio. Interesting musical instruments continue to be created as apps available on phones and tablets, whether imitating existing acoustic instruments or creating new electronic instruments. Examples of current world music instrument apps include Djembe!, Tabla!, Doumbek!, Darbuka, Guzheng, Kalimba, and Mouth Harp. The key is for teachers to have fun with the technology and try it out themselves, and then not to be afraid to open it up to students, regardless of the teacher’s expertise or lack thereof. Generally, the students will figure it out pretty quickly, and help each other as well.