Creative music production inspired by ensemble work of a classical string quartet
National partners
- University: Szegedi Tudományegyetem JGYPK Ének-zene Tanszék (University of Szeged „Juhász Gyula” Faculty of Education Music Department)
- School: Budapest III. Kerületi Krúdy Gyula Angol-Magyar Két Tanítási Nyelvű Általános Iskola (Krúdy Gyula Elementary School, Budapest III.)
- Ensemble: Pulzus Quartet
Potentials
Music activity, especially chamber music, always provides more joy than simply listening to music. This is the reason why concert pedagogy is a part of school music teaching. This part of the program aims to develop students’ creativity and entrepreneurship through the work of a string quartet.
Structure
Working together with students, it begins with getting to know the quartet form and getting familiar with the instruments in order to develop a personal connection, mainly for the ones who have never met this music activity so far.
Working together with a quartet, students have the opportunity to conduct a small “orchestra”, a string quartet. They can experience different forms of non-verbal communication like mimic, sight, movement, body positioning. They learn how the signs of their body, their movement coordination can influence music process, how they can make musicians to play faster, slower, louder or softer. A composition completes its mission if the audience takes part in certain ways of performing. Music can be performed and received by several ways. Students have to make the string quartet to play a certain part of the composition after each other in one of three different ways. They can choose non-verbal communication tools to execute this activity.
Teamwork means cooperation, especially playing in chamber music formations like string quartet. To give priority to important sections while assigning secondary position to others is the goal of chamber music approach. Students have to identify the melody from other accompanying sections.
The string quartet performs compositions in this program, which according to their title, represent a program or characterise a natural phenomenon or creatures like in the Haydn Quartets – La Chasse, The Frog, The Lark, Sunrise etc. Students have to decode the messages of these pieces and, identifying the musical process, help to find connections with the title.
Materials
Students take pictures of the string quartet, and the audience as well, during playing from different directions, to record the reactions to the live music and the composition. They collect these photos in a computer montage, according to a chosen theme and subject. Because of dealing with limited time (a 45 minutes lesson), teamwork and cooperation are the main keys to complete this task. Students have to organise the process of work and to appoint a decision maker.
Download
You can download the concepts in English, German and every partner’s national language: Download (PDF)