Side note

I'd like to apologize for the incoherency of my blog posts, as earlier this week, I accidentally erased some of my original posts, and subsequently, had to string off bits of information from Google.com in order to recover my initial thoughts on the issues presented here as they relate to the course, Musical Toronto.

A Second Encounter with Community Living Toronto

Fortunately, Community Living Toronto had a modest selection of percussion instruments, which we used to our advantage by welcoming members of the audience to join in on creating music with us. They responded quite actively, and some more enthusiastically chose the djembe while others more passively accepted the other instruments that were available to them. We decided that we introduce the idea of soundscape, by encouraging the participants to use the instruments available to them such as the djembe, the tambourine, the human voice, and even body percussion to create an environment that would more or less resemble the noises one would hear in a jungle.

It was very fulfilling to be able to bring the art form of music into the lives of others, even if it was just for a short period of time. The joy that appeared on the faces of the people there was immense, and the contagious nature of the music reminiscent of the 60's only helped to being people together in cultural fervor, and rhythmic unity, as exhibited in their dance moves.

To recap, we went through a series of simple activities which constituted as our program for the hour at Community Living Toronto. As usual, we went through the same series of songs as we did last time, with an additional hit from the from the soundtrack of the "Lion King". Needless to say, the people were delighted with our selection of music which included the songs,"Hey Jude", "Yellow Submarine", and the hit single, "In the Jungle". With two additional members in our group, we were able to facilitate the session with much more ease and comfortability as previously, we had some difficulty catering to such a large group of people with an even larger range in needs.

Most of the activities were quite straight ahead, and they were more or less received with enthusiasm from participants all around. Needless to say, it was a good time, and a great way to end off this year's study of music, its inhabitants, and the influence of music on people in all walks of life.

Tovey Conducts Beethoven.

Academic Report

On March 24, 2007, music director, Bramwell Tovey, director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra came to Toronto, to conduct a program featuring Stephen Chatman's "Over Thorns to Stars", as well as favorites such a Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4, and Camille Saint-Saens "Organ Symphony".

In June 2002, Maestro Bramwel Tovey commissioned Stephen Chatman of Vancouver to compose a piece in honour of the victims of the Stptember 11 atacks. In response to this request, Stephen Chatman wrote the piece "Over Thorns to Stars" which expressed the many emotions associated with 9/11: agony, love, valor, determination, and most importantly, the resilience of the human spirit. It was a tremendously moving piece as Chatman scored it to include melodic lines that would continually rise all throughout the duration of this piece. This further depicts the perseverance of the human spirit amidst encounters with difficulty, and the amassed devastation associated with the terrorist attacks that occurred on the morning of September 11, 2001. Also, it is interesting to note that Stephen Chatman went so far as to score a "mysterious instrument" that would sound offstage yet appear towards the end of the piece with a solo. This slight diversion from normal orchestral instrumentation further accentuates the nature of the human spirit to be resilient and invisible, able to withstand attacks from aversive counterparts. Also, the slow rising lines, which gradually increase in intensity, are indicative of hopefulness and strength. As a result, the piece sounds very American, as intended by the compose through the use of harmonious lines as well as open chords.

Following the performance of Chatman's contemporary work was Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4, which featured Jane Coop on piano. The first movement of this work is quite lively and boisterous whereas the second movement is more interesting in terms of mood and dialogue. The orchestra seems to converse unpleasantly with the piano as the strings make jagged, forceful statements, to which the piano replies with quiet chords and a calm disposition. The melody featured on the piano is intimately personal, and is played by Jane Coop with a deeply melancholic tone. The discourse between the piano and the strings create a scene in which a drama unfolds. However. by the end of the piece, the orchestra has relented in their jagged harsh responses to the piano, and has adopted a more peaceful rhetoric.

Featured last on the program, was Saint-Saens "Organ Symphony". This piece was featured extensively at Roy Thomson Hall ten years ago with music director, Saraste in commission. However, it has declined in popularity since Peter Oundjian has superseded him. The organ symphony is held in contrast to the piano concerto that was featured before, as instead of having two distinct groups such as piano solo and orchestra, we have the organ acting as a member of the orchestra. Such a change in orchestral dynamics is indeed a refreshing one, as Patricia Krueger's performance is interwoven and spun into the orchestral texture to bring depth and grandeur to the music as a whole. This particular piece garnered Saint-Saens acclaim since he completed five symphonies, the "Organ" being the last without the present of a thriving French symphonic tradition.

The Daily Chronicle, April 18, 2007

Fresh New Music Featured at the TSO's New Creations Festival
By Jen Li

Peter Oundjian and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra opened up their third annual celebration of contemporary music at Roy Thomson Hall on February 28, 2007. The program featured pieces by Canadian renowned composers such as James MacMillan, whose Scotch Bestiary for Organ and Orchestra was featured. This piece was inspired by his Scottish heritage, his Roman Catholic faith,social conscience, and personal connection with Celtic folk music, as well as influences from Far Eastern, Scandinavian, and Eastern European music.

Contemporary music was redefined on the night of March 8, 2007 as James Macmillan's Scotch Bestiary for Organ and Orchestra was premiered in Canada for the very first time in history. How does one go about reinventing something as indistinctive as contemporary music? Up until recently, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra has stuck to standard traditional Western repertoire of the Classical, and late Romantic periods. It seems as if we are ready to move on to something new, and be challenged by the by the unconventional sounds of contemporary music. Abandon the tonal harmonies. Disregard the traditional rules of theory and voice leading.Embrace the unfamiliar and learn to take risks. Fortunately, Peter Oundjian understands that we conservative supporters of the TSO have an indelible appetite for the novelties of contemporary music. Thus, we cannot swallow all these new ideas all at once as a snake would gulp a mouse down, without even taking the time to chew through these new ideas, and impressions. No, we need time to digest this new approach to music and think through the ideas that are being presented to us, before we can make them our own. Of course, we as the listeners are given guidelines as to how to interpret the composition based on the orchestration, and the brief description of the work as outlined in the program but ultimately, we have to come up with our own interpretation and understanding of the work in question. The identity of contemporary music is elusive, as it is descriptive of the present time period in which composers are churning out musical thoughts with connections to present day society and their responses to them as they exist. There are no definitive answers, just as there are no distinct questions. There are only issues as they relate to society; some exist in the consciousness, while others are suppressed in the unconscious mind.

James MacMillan's piece, entitled, A Scotch Bestiary for Organ and Orchestra is similar to the tradition of musical portraiture as set in Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. The duration of this orchestral work is approximately 34 minutes, and the instrumentation is somewhat bizarre as it includes an eccentric combination of instruments within a single ensemble. Nevertheless, James MacMillan's work is an absolute delight to listen to, as it portrays human archetypes as inhibited, senseless savage-like animals devoid of any intellectual wisdom as they struggle for control, and power all throughout this piece.

This piece is embedded with musical jokes, and witty humor. Although it is strictly an orchestral work, with no spoken communication, it conveys with tremendous wit and conviction the nature of human beings to be selfish, stupid,annoying. Take the cuckoo motive for example.It is introduced appropriately towards the end of the first movement but it returns disruptively to disturb the serenity and sacred nature of the church hymn which ends off the first movement. All throughout this piece distinctive animals are introduced as presented in the laughing trumpets, and the howling clarinets, as well as the large ponderous melodies of the organ pedals, tubas and double basses which are representative of the reptiles and fish in a small pond. Instead of giving primary attention to solo passages as they emerge one by one, James MacMillan has scored this orchestral work so that the instrumentalists are constantly bantering back and forth, arguing in a disconcerting manner about trivial matters. As James MacMillan describes, by the second movement, "all the animals are now unleashed and rampage in chaotic, violent abandon. "New animals appear-elephants, horses, cows, dogs, lions and more birds, with some added grunting and and rooting. The materials are all predominantly fast and frenetic, rushing to a virtuosic finale for soloist and orchestra. Indeed, it is quite a night of festivities at the orchestra, as the nature of the human spirit is unleashed full force upon unsuspecting concert goers.

Honestly, who could have ever predicted that contemporary music could be so maliciously entertaining?

A Summary of the Service Learning Project

Since the outset of this course, Musical Toronto, my group members and I have done plenty of planning and preparation for the service learning project. Although, I have already written a person reflection on this topic of interest, I will once again delve into my experiences and analytically describe the preparation, and the process we went through as a group to achieve the goals we wanted to accomplish.

The service learning project was a great opportunity for us music students to use the synergic nature of music to bring people together in song and dance. It was a fantastic experience, and one that I enjoyed quite immensely, as in the past, I have had limited opportunities to work with people with disabilities in a musical setting. As a group, we really meshed well together in terms of our unique abilities, and personalities. As expected, we did two service learning sessions, within two weeks of the first session. The first session was remarkably well-received, although we had not planned very extensively. For the first session, we decided that we would teach the participants bits and pieces of famous songs, such as Yellow Submarine and Hey Jude, amongst others. To begin, we would pass out the song sheets to everyone, regardless of whether certain individuals could or could not read. The next step, was to ask people, whether they had heard of a band such as the Beatles. Did they like the Beatles? Were they fond of them? What songs did they know by the Beatles? As much as possible, we tried to engage them in discussion, and to this, they reciprocated quite gladly. After this small exercise, we would proceed to listen to the song on the CD. We would listen to it once and then, we would write the chorus out on the huge sheet paper, and invite people to follow along. At first we would invite them to sing along, and then after a few tries, we would invite them to move and dance as they felt was appropriate to the music. This was quite the task, as inviting others to dance, only meant that we ourselves had to dance, in order to set the ambiance for them to follow suit. However, whatever initial anxieties we as a group may have been plagued with before coming into the service learning session quickly subsided because the people there were so welcoming, and responded better than anyone had ever planned, or even imagined.

As a whole, I would account the most important factor in achieving success in this particular setting and approach to learning, was not in the fanciful songs we sang, or the instruments that were available to the participants.Rather, I think that people were deeply fascinated with our session because of the way in which we engaged them, and included them in a meaningful way. I really liked the way that we would ask engaging questions all throughout the session in a widely participatory way. Although sometimes, we would get irrelevant comments in response to our questions, as leaders we would respond to them in a mutually respectful way, and try to redirect the discussion to more productive terms. I felt that the program was well-received by all participants of the service learning session because we tried as best as we could to treat them as people first and foremost, before we recognized the fact that they had disabilities.

The second session of the service learning project was done within two weeks of the first session, and although we had a small group dynamic last time which involved only four people, this time, our group expanded to include two new members. I felt that the second session was planned with more detail, and precision than the first. We tried to coordinate a variety of activities in the second session to include a soundscape production and analysis in which we would introduce the idea of soundscape in respect to the song In the Jungle, and pass out percussion to the people in the room to encourage them to participate in creating a jungle soundscape. I felt that this exercise was the most stimulating, as we were able to get pretty much everyone in the room to participate in a contributive way regardless of whether they had an instrument in hand. We would encourage those without instruments to use body percussion to create the sounds, associated with the idea of the jungle. In order to create music in a timely fashion, we had Will use hand movements to dictate which side of the was playing at which time. He would hold out his hand parallel to the floor, and start from one side of the room,and sweep across to the other, indicating that one side of the room should start first, and the other should join in at a much later time.

In addition to simple exercises such as the soundscape production, we brought in our own instruments, such as the djembe, and the guitar, and discarded the use of the CD, for more favourable resources. I felt that the addition of the two new members was quite to contributive in group dynamics, as we had more people to coordinate planning with, and also, we were much more capable of meeting the needs of the large group, with more group members. As such was the case, we were able to disperse ourselves into different roles, and accommodate the group as we saw fit. Some would lead and direct the group through the activities, while others would demonstrate, and model for others to to follow. Overall, it was a great experience, and one that I would look forward to facilitating in my own community, should the need and opportunity arise.

Ontario Science Centre:Where Science Meets Art

Last week, I was fortunate to be able to scrounge up an hour of time from my busy schedule to visit a place of discovery and learning reminiscent of my early days as an elementary school student! As I anticipated, the Ontario Science Center was a place embedded with new insights and hidden revelations about the simple nature of science being infused with art. The Ontario Science Center boasted a handful of culturally relevant art installations and educationally riveting sound sculptures. It was an afternoon of delightful discovery, enriched with learning and poignant ideas. As someone who is quite curious, and anxious to learn, I planned my short trip with detailed precision as I wanted to see as much as I could within the hour of time that I had to scavenge the science center for art installations and sound sculptures.

Lately, art has been the center of attention at the Science Center, as one of the main initiatives of the Science Center is to incorporate large scale art pieces to challenge the way people think about art in terms of science. "Agents of Change is a Science Center initiative which seeks
to invest $40 million in funding to transform the science center into an environment where visitors can explore and interact with their surroundings", says Lesley Lewis, who is the CEO of the Science Center. As such is the case, the science center is currently teeming with new ideas of inspirational innovation.

One of the highlights of my trip to science center was in visiting George Rhodas' sound sculpture. You might be surprised to learn that this particular sound sculpture was quite amusing, and provided endless hours of entertainment for young children older than the age of four. Somehow, it reminded me of my very young childhood, when I would wait in the waiting room of my cranky dentist's office, and be entertained by the simple toys such as the wooden roller coaster circuit which consisted of dizzying spirals and tight corners upon which my little marble
would travel. George Rhodas' sound sculpture was exactly like this simple childhood toy, if you can imagine, but it was ten times larger than the original! Imagine how much more fun that would be, given the endless delight a regular sized marble circuit delivers to a young child! This
sound sculpture is not just any ordinary marble circuit though; it is unique in the way that simple percussion instruments are embedded into the structure so that when a marble is traveling through the circuit, it will be a given a chance to cascade down a music xylophone, bounce off a small trampoline, and sequentially strike various other percussive instruments to create music!It also differs from the standard marble circuit, as much of the "music" that happens here depends primarily on chance. For example, once a marble is set in motion, more than one option of destination is available depending on time and chance. Ideally, every marble set in motion will encounter some kind of percussive instrument throughout the circuit, but sometimes, the unlucky marbles travel through the circuit only to return to the place of origin, without having played any significant role in adding to the tonal environment.Sometimes, more than one marble is set in motion at one time, creating a cascading effect of call and response, between the various number of marbles traveling through the circuit at the same time. The effect of a number of marbles striking the percussive instruments while traveling throughout the circuit gradually builds to a forte crescendo, as the marbles ricochet and rebound from one side of the sculpture to another, producing a vibrantly musical environment.

Why Good morning, Community Living Toronto.

I suppose since this is my first post regarding the service learning project, I would have to thank my group members Erin, Scott, and Brian for the excellent morning of music and interaction I had with the people at Community Living Toronto! At first we were quite apprehensive about the entire project, since we didn't know how many people we would be working with, and although we had been told that we would be working with people with disabilities, we didn't know how to cater to their needs in respect to their cognitive impairments. The most challenging part was in trying to come up with a plan that would help establish a fun and enjoyable atmosphere for everyone. However, our initial anxieties quickly subsided because as we entered the facility, Community Living Toronto, we were warmly greeted by a student volunteer who showed us the available supplies which we could use for our music workshop as well as the parameters of the facility we would be using. For the workshop, we did karaoke which was really simple in format, and involved everyone. We ran through songs including Beatles hits such as "Hey Jude" and "Yellow Submarine." Overall, the experience was really quite enjoyable,and as we progressed to more challenging pursuits such as singing the words instead of just listening to the song, the crowd grew increasingly energetic and enthusiastic about the whole approach to music. Some got up and danced freely on their feet, and couples even waltzed in duple time to our song selection. Somehow, we had transformed the once barren room save for a few chairs lying around to a place bustling with activity, reminiscent of the street parties that are infamous for loud music and uninhibited people, freely expressing themselves in a manner appropriate to the occasion. I hope I speak for the members of my group and for the participants of the workshop when I say that it was a memorable experience, and one that I will look forward to participating again in the near future.