Holiday Fun

Christmas may be over, but if you're still in the mood for holiday music, this is the place to be! In the last couple weeks before the holiday musical, if students had extra time in class after practicing their songs for that, they'd get to choose from a variety of short reward videos. Lots of students really gravitated towards Pentatonix, Piano Guys, and A Claymation Christmas Celebration (yes, the one from the '80s!). Here are some of their favorites... (Oh, and if you're in the mood for last year's Frozen earworm, remember to check out the "Let It Go" blog post, which has several covers and parodies of the catchy song.)

From A Claymation Christmas Celebration

Carol of the Bells - "Dumb Bell"

"Angels We Have Heard On High"

"We Three Kings"

From The Piano Guys

"Angels We Have Heard On High"

"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"

From Straight No Chaser

"12 Days of Christmas" (I told the students this was more like Christmas carols in a blender, plus some Toto)

From Pentatonix

"Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy" (from The Nutcracker)

"The Little Drummer Boy"

And finally, a karaoke track...

"I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas"

Musical Guests during Instrument Family Unit

Last month at Lannoye, we were fortunate to have one of our very own students perform for the 4th and 5th grade classes. One of the 5th graders has been taking violin lessons for a few years now, and she volunteered to do a playing demonstration for her peers. She prepared and performed a piece, and we were all very proud of her and thankful for her musical contribution!

Our in-house visitor followed our visitor from the middle school in October. Mr. Kozlovsky, the 8th grade band director at PCMS, packed up some brass instruments and came to visit us. He and I team-taught the 4th and 5th grade lesson for the day, and he performed pieces on horn, trombone, euphonium, and tuba. He used SmartMusic, a music education software program, and explained a bit how the band team uses it at the middle school.

Happy birthday, John Philip Sousa!

Today, we celebrate the 160th anniversary of John Philip Sousa's birth!

A picture of John Philip Sousa from this Chicago Tribune article (which contains more biographical information)

John Philip Sousa was a very famous American composer who is known as the March King since he wrote so many marches. One of his marches, "Stars and Stripes Forever," was voted by the United States Congress to be the official national march of the United States of America! He also led his own band, and he conducted about 14,000 (yes, that's 14 thousand) concerts throughout his life!

His father played trombone in the United States Marine Band, so Sousa was surrounded by music as a child. He began learning several different instruments at a young age. When he was 13, he tried running away to join a circus band. After that, his dad signed him up as a band helper for the U.S. Marine Band. He stayed with the Marine Band until he was 20, then came back at the age of 25 to conduct The President's Own (the premier military band in the country, as well as the oldest continually active professional musical organization in America since they began in 1798). Throughout his 12 years with The President's Own, Sousa continued to compose, took the group on a couple tours, and recorded with the group. Phonographs were a relatively new invention, and Colombia Phonograph Company wanted to record a military band and sell the recordings. Between 1890 and 1897, The President's Own recorded more than 400 pieces of music.

Phonograph from 1899

In 1892, Sousa resigned and started his own band. They toured the world from 1900 to 1910. After World War I (1914-1918), the Sousa Band continued touring and championing the right of music education for all children (PBS). Sousa wasn't only a skilled musician, though - he kept busy in other ways as well. In addition to the 136 marches and 10 operas that he composed, he also wrote 3 novels and an autobiography.

For more information about John Philip Sousa, check out PBS's page on him. You can also check out this public radio article (with audio interview with the director of the New Sousa Band).

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this video of The President's Own performing "Stars and Stripes Forever."

DRUM CARD OPPORTUNITY: Using your own words, email me the most interesting thing you learned from this blog post or the links within it. (Don't just copy and paste.)

Happy birthday, Adolphe Sax!

Today, we celebrate the 200th anniversary of Adolphe Sax's birth!

Adolphe Sax, picture from http://www.famousbelgians.net/sax.htm (which has more biographical information)

Adolphe Sax was the inventor of the saxophone. He was born in Belgium on November 6, 1814. His father was an instrument maker, so Adolphe grew up helping his dad. Adolphe helped make improvements to the bass clarinet before inventing his own family of instruments called the saxhorns (pictured below - spoiler alert: they don't look anything like saxophones). After that, he invented the saxophone.

The saxhorn family. There's a band in Michigan (that a few of my friends have played in) that dresses up in old-time clothes and plays saxhorns. http://www.dodworth.org

If you would like to listen to examples of different saxhorns and saxophones, click on this link to listen to a short NPR interview about Adolphe Sax's birthday!

DRUM CARD OPPORTUNITY: Using your own words, email me the most interesting thing you learned from this blog post or the links within it. (Don't just copy and paste.)

Music Notes: End of September 2014

Music Notes

End of September 2014

Hello, everyone!

Welcome to the music room! I invite you to check out our music classroom blog at:

http://lannoyemusic.blogspot.com

So far this year, we’ve played name games, learned music room rule songs, had a birthday learning celebration of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and reviewed different music concepts. If you haven’t been serenaded with any of the rules songs (or the original tunes they were taken from), ask your child(ren) about the music rules! You can find more about the rules on the music blog.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” celebrated its 200^th birthday on September 14, so we celebrated by learning the history behind it (grades 3-5), reviewing the official etiquette during its performance (K-5), and practicing that etiquette while singing the song (K-5). You can learn more about what we learned in class by checking out the music blog.

Students also learned about ways to earn DRUM (Demonstrating Respect and Understanding in Music) cards for individual recognition of above-and-beyond behaviors. When students earn three DRUM cards, they may redeem them for a reward (like eating lunch with me or sitting in my chair during one class). Students can choose to earn DRUM cards by being leaders within the music classroom, answering questions very well, posing thought-provoking questions, completing DRUM card opportunities posted on the music blog (and sent to their school email addresses), or attending/performing in music performances of any kind outside of the school day. If you’re interested in attending performances, here are a couple of (free! optional!) upcoming ones in the community:

            Wednesday, October 22      7 pm               Pulaski Area Community Band Concert

                                                                                      PHS Ripley PAC

            Saturday, November 1         7 pm               Red Raider Showcase Concert

                                                                                      PHS Ripley PAC

If they are able to attend a performance, in order for me to verify their attendance, I ask that children bring in a program with their name on it and tell me (or write on the program) something about it: something new they learned, their favorite part of it, etc.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me. I look forward to meeting you throughout the school year!

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

Happy 200th Birthday, Star-Spangled Banner!

Greetings, everyone, and welcome to the new school year!

One of the first things the entire school learned about in music class this year (after the "gotta-dos" - rules and procedures, the like) was the fact that today (September 14, 2014) is the 200 year anniversary of "The Star-Spangled Banner" being written!

For more facts about the National Anthem, check out the SSB blog post from last year.

The older students watched the video from the Fort McHenry visitor center to gain a greater understanding of the events that inspired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner."

They also learned about the exact flag it was written about. With 15 stars and 15 stripes, it looks quite different than the flag we're used to seeing today! The remains of the flag from Fort McHenry have lost a bit over the years...originally measuring 30 feet by 42 feet, it is currently only 34 feet long. Between the wind and giving snippets away as gifts over the years, Mary Pickersgill's masterpiece lost 8 feet from its original length.

DRUM CARD OPPORTUNITY: How wide were the stars in this particular flag? Email me the answer. (Hint: Answer can be found using the link in the paragraph above.)

All grades discussed proper National Anthem etiquette (remove hat, stand facing flag, right hand over heart), then practiced singing along to this video.

Drum Corps International: What does it look like?

In drum corps (pronounced "core"), not only are the participants playing at a high degree of ability, but they're also marching at a high degree of ability. Check out some of the following clips and links, and appreciate the amount of work they put into these performances!

Unfortunately, due to copyright laws, only snippets of shows are typically available on YouTube.

Phantom Regiment - "Spartacus" (2008 - World Champions)
Simulated violence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0cNHm2gCgk

Cavaliers - "Secret Society" (2013)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrwlQpUHMs0

Madison Scouts - "Corps of Brothers - 75 Years of Survival" (2013)
This is a rehearsal run in 2 parts, with lots of drum cam angles since it's a Vic Firth sponsored video. (Vic Firth is a percussion company.)
Part 1:

Part 2 includes simulated warfare:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKJJgOQzu9Q

Bluecoats - "Brave New World" (2011)

Santa Clara Vanguard - "Les Miserables" (2013)

Full show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SDROg9jXR4

Star of Indiana - "Roman Images" (1991)

Drum Corps International: What is it?

School may be out, but that means that a whole new season is upon us: marching band season! Most people are familiar with high school and college marching bands (I'll post more about those in the future as we approach their season), but fewer people are familiar with Drum Corps International, or DCI.

What is DCI?
DCI is a nonprofit organization composed of many different drum and bugle corps (pronounced "core"), or competitive groups. (Don't call them marching bands - the participants will not be happy.) These groups are broken into two different categories, world class (higher level of competition, larger groups) and open class (lower level of competition, smaller groups).

Who participates?
Participants come from all over the world, including at least 15 countries. The average age of DCI participants is 19.4 years old, but there are some mid-teens and young adults as well. People 22 years and older cannot participate in DCI, but can participate in DCA, an all-age organization. As far as gender goes, all but two corps are co-ed, which means that boys and girls can participate. The Madison Scouts and the Cavaliers are males only.

DCI participants pay thousands of dollars to participate in this athletic arts activity. This money goes towards their equipment and/or instruments (provided by the corps so they're all the same brand and therefore most similar in sound quality across the group), uniforms, food, fuel for the buses they'll be living on during the two months of tour, and other fees required to run a drum corps.

People who participate are often in excellent physical shape, because drum corps is hard! Check out this short video on DCI athletes, in which scientists hook a percussionist from the Cavaliers up to a whole bunch of different machines to measure how hard his body works during the show. It's pretty mind-boggling. The subject's oxygen consumption (how much oxygen his body uses) was about as much as a well-trained marathon runner's...in the middle of a marathon. However, his heart rate looks more like someone who's running a far shorter distance (400 m or 800 m) at top speed.

What do they play?
Instrument-wise, there are only brass instruments (trumpet, baritone, euphonium, contrabass bugle - like a front-facing, shoulder-mounted tuba; in early 2014 it was ruled that trombones will also be allowed), percussion (including keyboard percussion, timpani, and auxiliary percussion in the front, what's called the pit), and color guard (who can use rifles, sabers, flags, and other equipment).

Music-wise, each corps pays composers and/or arrangers (as well as paying all copyright permissions fees) to create 11 1/2 minutes of music that fits their show's theme. Participants begin learning the music during weekend camps in the winter, after auditions. Corps also pay drill writers to create the forms on the field that the participants will practice during spring training (which begins in May). Drill continues to be tweaked all summer long, depending on judges' comments and show development.

There is a huge range of music performed in drum corps! I guarantee that if you attend a DCI show, you'll recognize at least one piece of music. It's not all band and orchestral arrangements, either - there's a lot of popular music as well. Corpsreps.com has a search function at the top of the page. See if any music you like has been used in drum corps!

Where can I see them around here?
Every summer, the season kicks off with the opening competition being displayed two days later in movie theaters around the country. This tour premiere will be shown on Monday, June 23, at 6:30 pm. It's a little over 2 hours long. Bay Park Cinema in Green Bay is our local movie theater that shows it. Tickets cost $15, which is a little bit cheaper than going to a live show.

The top 15 corps' performances in the preliminary round of World Championships will be broadcast live on Thursday, August 7.

There are a few shows in Wisconsin every summer. This year, those dates and locations are: Middleton (near Madison) on June 28, Cedarburg (near Milwaukee) on July 3, Whitewater on July 5, and La Crosse (hosting DCI regionals, which is a bigger deal than a "normal" show) on July 12. If you get the chance, it's a super-awesome face-melting event that's not to be missed!

Spring Concert 2014: We All Have a Rhythm

The spring concert this year was an informance, in which the students informed the audience of things they learned through their performance. We started things out with our 4th and 5th grade bucket ensemble. These students worked very hard and gave up 8 lunch recesses to learn "Bucket Rock 101" by Mark Shelton (from his book Give Me a Bucket, Heritage Music Press, a division of The Lorenz Corporation; used with permission). They worked together to come up with a name, and they decided to call themselves The Big Bang.

The Big Bang

"Bucket Rock 101" by Mark Shelton (publisher information above)

K-5

"Fanga Alafia" (traditional Yoruba welcome song, from Nigeria)

Some of the 5th graders from The Big Bang volunteered to play buckets for our full school songs. They decided to call themselves The Bucket Rebels.

Kindergarten

"I Met a Bear" 
“The Other Day I Met a Bear” (Sing along version)
Recording © 2005 by GIA Publications, Inc.
www.giamusic.com
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
"Charlie Over the Ocean"

1st Grade

"Doggie, Doggie"

"We Are Playing in the Forest"

2nd Grade

"The Water is Wide"

2nd and 3rd Grade

"Land of the Silver Birch" and "My Paddle's Keen and Bright"

3rd Grade

"Kookaburra"

4th Grade

"Li'l Liza Jane"

"Lady My"

5th Grade

"Goin' to Boston"

"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"

K-5

"We All Have a Song"

By Heather Pierson, used with permission

Grandparents Day 2014

This year we celebrated Grandparents Day on March 21, right before spring break. This wasn't a music concert, but I was asked to teach the school two songs (an opener and a closer) for the program. Here are the songs the students sang for their special guests:

"Let's Go See Our Grandparents" (arranger unknown)

“A Song For Grandparents Day” (by John Riggio (ASCAP) © 2012 Plank Road Publishing, Inc. • All Rights Reserved • Used by permission)

Music Notes: End of May 2014

Music Notes

May 2014

Greetings from the Lannoye music room!

I can’t believe the end of the year is here already! I’d like to thank everybody who was able to attend our spring informance. The students enjoyed sharing their learning with you, and The Big Bang was a big hit!

As far as new blog posts go, the International Jazz Day post has a bunch of jazz classics (including a few of the videos we watched in class to explore the genre) and the Jazz in Disney post has a variety of jazzy tunes from Disney movies (including The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, and Toy Story). A new post on contemporary composer Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choirs contains information about how the Virtual Choir idea began, the first four Virtual Choir videos (check them out if you’re not familiar with them!), and information on how to participate in Whitacre’s new Virtual Youth Choir. It’s not auditioned, it’s free, it’s for people 18 and under, and video submissions are due by June 8. Please share this information with any interested kids in your life! J

If you’re interested in checking out summer performances in the area, please refer to the list of events below. All events are free unless otherwise noted. As always, these will also be posted on the blog (you can click on the “Music Notes” label on the right side of the screen to find it if it gets buried behind subsequent posts) with live links for more information.

      Sunday, June 22                7 pm                Pulaski Area Community Band Concert in the Park

                                                                        Shippy Park (Pulaski)

           

      Thursday, June 26             7 pm                PHS Concert on the Concourse

                                                                        PHS Concourse

      Sunday, June 29                7 pm                Red Raider Jazz Concert in the Park

                                                                        Shippy Park (Pulaski)

      July 17 - 20                       Varies              Pulaski Polka Days

                                                                        Fee varies: Thurs. $2, Fri. and Sat. $10, Sun. free

Sunday, July 20                11 am              Pulaski Polka Days Parade

                                                                        PCMS to polka grounds

           

      Sunday, July 27                7 pm                Pulaski Area Community Band Concert in the Park

                                                                        Shippy Park (Pulaski)

Saturday, August 9           11 am              Badger Band, Pulaski Band, and Seymour Band

                                                                  World’s Largest Hamburger Parade

                                                                  (Part of Seymour’s Hamburger Festival)

                                                                  Bands will also play after parade until 3 pm

                                                                  On Main Street in Seymour

Sunday, August 17           7 pm                Pulaski Area Community Band Concert in the Park

                                                                        Shippy Park (Pulaski)

As for what we’ve been doing in the Lannoye music room, here’s your monthly glance by grade:

The kindergarteners are impressive in their Rhythm Band chart playing! We’ve moved to the point where I just stand back and watch them instead of helping them track on the SMART Board. They’re going to finish out the year with Camille Saint-Saёns’ Carnival of the Animals and a Music Share Day (Monday, June 2 for Mrs. Babiarz’s class, and Wednesday, June 4 for Mrs. Hoverson’s class).

The 1^st graders are playing singing games and practicing playing keyboard percussion instruments (with so, mi, and la) while reading music to finish out the year. Their Music Share Days will be on Monday, June 2 (last name A-G), and Wednesday, June 4 (last name H-W).

The 2^nd graders learned and reviewed AB and ABA form, and they also tied in their prior knowledge of verse/refrain from earlier this year. Their Music Share Day will be on Wednesday, June 4.

The 3^rd graders are composing and reviewing their note reading skills to close out their year. Their Music Share Day will be on Monday, June 2.

The 4^th graders are composing rhythm patterns and will be watching Mr. Bach Comes to Call to build their knowledge of composer Johann Sebastian Bach. Their music share day will be on Thursday, June 5.

The 5^th graders are leaving us! I’m excited for all of them and their future in music, whether they’re going to be in band, choir, or general music next year. A really neat opportunity came about for me this month, since I’m also certified to teach instrumental music and I’m teaching part time this year. I was able to help with 5^th grade instrument fittings at PCMS in mid-May on one of my non-Lannoye days. I thought it was really awesome to be able to see some of my students in a different musical light! I’m very excited for all of their futures, and I’m looking forward to attending their performances next year. As for the present, the 5^th graders are composing rhythm patterns and will be watching Beethoven Lives Upstairs to build their knowledge of composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Their Music Share Day will be on Thursday, June 5.

Information will be coming home later this week about each grade’s Music Share Day.

At this point in time, I’m planning on updating the blog a bit this summer. Feel free to explore the current posts and I’ll try to surprise you with a few more!

If your child is looking for songs to sing, rhythms to explore, or music activities to do online, please feel free to email me for suggestions!

Finally, I’d like to thank you all for welcoming me into the Lannoye family. It’s been a great first year, and I’m looking forward to the future. J

Happy summer!

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

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choirs

DRUM Card Opportunity: Using complete sentences and proper grammar, share your reaction to Eric Whitacre's use of technology. 

Ideas: Is this a game-changer for contemporary (modern) composers? What do you think past composers could have done if they'd had this technology at their fingertips? What do you think the future holds for classical composers and technology? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Eric Whitacre, composer, 1970 - present

Technology is an amazing thing. When composer Eric Whitacre saw a YouTube video that one of his fans uploaded of herself singing one of his songs, he was inspired to create a "virtual choir." (In this context, "virtual" means existing on computers or the internet. The choir didn't actually get together - individuals sang along to a karaoke-like video and submitted videos of themselves doing so. Then the videos were edited together and the audio was combined to create a "virtual" choir.) 185 singers from 12 countries submitted videos of themselves singing "Lux Aurumque," and a whole bunch of video editing later, this was the result:

Virtual Choir was such a raging success that Whitacre decided to do it again. This time, 2,052 people from 58 countries sang "Sleep."

What came next? Well, VC 3, of course! 3,746 videos from 73 countries were submitted, and "Water Night" was the next virtual choir hit.

Last year, Virtual Choir 4 performed "Fly to Paradise." This video contains 8,409 videos of 5,905 singers in 101 countries. (Imagine how much more editing that video took compared to VC 1!)

Now it's time for something new. Eric Whitacre is doing a Virtual Youth Choir for anyone in the world who is 18 or younger. CLICK HERE if you're interested in becoming a part of it! Videos must be submitted by Sunday, June 8, 2014. 

Whitacre is partnering with UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund), which provides long-term assistance to mothers and children in developing countries. They are joining together to create a special Virtual Youth Choir film that will be premiered at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games (and be broadcast to a global audience at the same time).

Here's Eric Whitacre's introduction to this project:

Jazz and Disney

Here's some scatting for you, brought to you by Baloo and Cousin Louie from The Jungle Book.

Now check out the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy version of "I Wanna Be Like You."

And how about the cool cats (including Scat Cat) from The Aristocats?

Of course, since The Princess and the Frog takes place in New Orleans, which is the birthplace of jazz, its soundtrack is full of jazz music!

Remember Toy Story?

Can't forget The Muppet Show!

More scatting! "Mahna Mahna"

What about 101 Dalmatians?

You may or may not be familiar with The Nightmare before Christmas.

Have you seen Oliver and Company?

I'm sure you've seen Aladdin.

Let's see how many people I can stump with this song from Winnie the Pooh.

Mary Poppins is another classic.

Pinocchio is a real boy!

Time for some Monsters Inc.