Music Notes: End of December 2013

Music Notes

December 2013

Greetings from the Lannoye music room!

I’m very proud of all of our students for the spectacular winter concert performance they gave earlier this week! They were great vocalists, instrumentalists, speakers, and audience members. Audience members were able to witness this cross-sectional view of students’ growth from kindergarten through 5^th grade. We had a great turnout and a wonderful day of performing!

As a reminder, whenever your child goes to any performance (band, choir, etc.) outside of the school day, if s/he brings back a program with a sentence written on it stating one thing s/he liked about the concert and why, s/he will receive a DRUM (Demonstrating Respect and Understanding in Music) card. I encourage everyone to explore the musical performances in the area. Speaking of which, there is a time change for tomorrow night’s Christmas Collage concert, featuring the Pulaski Area Community Band, children’s choir, and Ringers & Singers.

            Thursday, December 19          7 - 8 pm           Community Band Christmas Collage
                                                                                                PHS Ripley PAC

Attending outside performances is not required, but it is a great way to explore the musical happenings in the community (and a way for your child to earn a DRUM card). J

Glancing ahead to area performances in 2014…

If your family is interested, there is a variety of shows coming to the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center in Appleton in the next six months, including Wicked (The Wizard of Oz told from the Wicked Witch of the West’s perspective), Step Afrika! (a professional step show), Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Sister Act, The Phantom of the Opera (the longest-running show in Broadway history), and the Fox Valley Symphony’s performance of Carmina Burana. There will also be a variety of performances at the Weidner Center in Green Bay, including Man of la Mancha (the musical about the literary character Don Quixote), West African Dance of Madison, and the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Ode to Joy. The Meyer Theatre in Green Bay is also hosting numerous events, including Doctors in Recital (over 50 area physicians perform musically to raise money for local charities), Gaelic Storm, and multiple performances by both the Civic Symphony of Green Bay and the Allouez Village Band. Over break, I will assemble a blog post with all of this information in it and more, including ticket prices and links to the events.

Moving back to the present, the 2^nd graders are finishing up their unit on The Nutcracker this week. In addition to learning about (and listening to) the story, they learned about the similarities and differences between authors, composers, and choreographers. They also learned a fun fact about composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky: He was convinced that if he conducted an orchestra, his head would fall off! He combated this fear by holding his head with one hand and conducting with the other. The students also took a field trip to see the Northeastern Wisconsin Dance Organization perform highlights of Act II of The Nutcracker last Friday, and they found it enjoyable, with “relaxing music,” as one student told me afterward.

I've really enjoyed the portion of 2013 that I spent with your children, and I’m looking forward to continuing our learning and music-making journey in 2014! Happy holidays and safe travels, everyone!

As always, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Ms. Corinne Galligan
(920) 822-0433
cmgalligan@pulaskischools.org
lannoyemusic.blogspot.com 

Happy Holidays!

In the spirit of the holidays, I thought I would share some fun music-related holiday videos with you all!

Straight No Chaser: "12 Days of Christmas"
Straight No Chaser is a male a cappella group (no instruments). Here is their rendition of "The 12 Days of Christmas"...with some other songs thrown in the middle of it!

Claymation Christmas: "Carol of the Bells"
This piece probably sounds familiar, but it might look different in this video! The narrator has a "hunch" (get it - because Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, is conducting it?) that it will be a good performance. Instead of having people play the bells, the bells play themselves! One of the bells is rather naughty, though...how will they get through the piece of music?!

Claymation Christmas: "Here We Come A-Waffling"
This clip from Claymation Christmas is a parody (silly version) of the song "Here We Come A-Wassailing." This is the original version of the 3rd graders' song "Here We Come A-Caroling." However, "wassailing" kind of sounds like "waffling," so there is a bit of confusion...until some carolers turn up singing the original song and explain that wassailing is caroling!

The Piano Guys: "Angels We Have Heard on High"
This is the 32-fingers-and-8-thumbs (how many people is that?) version of "Angels We Have Heard on High."

The Piano Guys: "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"
Isn't it such a bummer when nothing you do impresses your own dog?

The Piano Guys: "We Three Kings"
I'd be a little scared to play on an ice rink...

The Piano Guys: "O Come, Emmanuel"
This has always been one of my favorite Christmas songs. It just has such a beautiful melody!

The Piano Guys: "Carol of the Bells" for 12 cellos
This video shows the awesomeness of video editing.

Pentatonix: "The Little Drummer Boy"
Pentatonix is an a cappella (without instruments) group. They do some really neat song arrangements!

Pentatonix: "Angels We Have Heard on High"'

Lindsey Stirling: Celtic Carol
Lindsey Stirling composes, arranges, and choreographs her own music and dances. She's a YouTube violin sensation with lots of videos and lots of views! (And no, she's not always dressed like an elf.)

"I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas"

"Christmas Don't Be Late" (The Chipmunks Song)

United States Air Force Band: Holiday Flash Mob 2013
Featuring both "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" and "Joy to the World"
The USAF Band (plus a few strings and singers) did a flash mob performance at the National Air and Space Museum.

Do you have any other videos you think should be in this post? Send me an email at cmgalligan@pulaskischools.org with the link, and if I agree, I'll add it!

Found Instruments: Ice, Garbage Cans, Sports Equipment, Vegetables, Cars...and more!

Not all instruments have a place in the band or orchestra. Some of them are called found instruments, which basically means that if you can pick something up and make a sound on it...congratulations, you've found an instrument!

Not all found instruments fit nicely into the woodwind/brass/string/percussion categories, but they fit into even broader instrument categories. These categories are the following:

• Idiophone (produces sound through vibration, like claves, guiro, xylophone, maracas, etc.)
• Membranophone (produces sound by vibrating a stretched membrane, like that of a drum head; examples include drums and kazoos)
• Chordophone (produces sound by vibrating one or more strings; includes piano, violin, banjo, etc.)
• Aerophone (produces sound using a vibrating column of air, like flute, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, whip, slide whistle, etc.)
• Electrophone (produces sound electronically, like the clavinova (the piano in the classroom) or theremin) 

Now for the cool part: seeing found instruments in action!

Ice of Lake Baikal in Siberia (a super-cold, very large part of Russia)

Stomp!

Basketballs and shoes

Vegetables

All sorts of things...not necessarily all "found," but quite complex (link to the creative process for the music video and all the planning that went into it - super neat!)

Household objects
Please note that this is a Swedish comedy film with trained actors. Do not treat your electrical appliances like this. Do not use other people's toothbrushes. Do not spray all of the hairspray and perfume you can get your hands on at once. Be safe. This has been a public service announcement from the music room.

Created from garbage in a landfill

This video is especially neat because not all areas of the world have the money for music education, and this is one way that a town in Paraguay has devised to combat this issue.

If you want to earn a DRUM card, watch at least 2 of these videos and tell me what you thought about them in at least 3-5 sentences using proper spelling and grammar (as well as proper punctuation and capitalization!).