PCMS Winter Choir Concert 2015

I was excited to go to the Pulaski Community Middle School winter choir concert on December 15! It's always so nice to see former students perform, and I was able to catch up with several of them after their concerts.

6th grade choir

7th grade choir

8th grade choir

7th and 8th grade combined choirs

The Pulaski High School Chamber Choir, directed by Ms. Elissa Richardson, sang some beautiful prelude music before the concert began. Here they are performing the Pentatonix arrangement of "Mary, Did You Know?"

The 6th grade choir was up after that! They opened the concert with Greg Gilpin's song "Can You Hear the Angels." This song included a few Lannoye/Hillcrest graduates as soloists!

The next piece was for the 6th grade handbell choir, which includes a few Lannoye/Hillcrest grads as well. Enjoy "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing."

This was followed by a beautiful song that gave me chills. Two Lannoye grads are featured in "There is Peace," by Jim Papoulis.

The rest of the 6th grade concert featured some more great holiday music: "Up On the Housetop" (B.R. Hanby), "Love Came Down" (a beautiful partner song with "Away in a Manger," arranged by Ruth Morris Gray), and an audience singalong with "Our Winter Wonderland" (arranged by Audrey Snyder, including "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year," "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" and "Winter Wonderland"; it also featured two Hillcrest grads).

The 7th and 8th grade concert was up next! They opened with "Deck the Hall," arranged by Mark Patterson. The next song was "A Festive Noel," which Victor C. Johnson arranged with the traditional German carol "In Dulci Jubilo."

Next, we were introduced to an amazing 7th grade beat boxer!

He was also featured on "Christmas Toys on Parade," arranged by Mark Weston.

After that, the 7th grade women sang "Ring Silver Bells," arranged by Audrey Snyder.

Then the 7th and 8th grade bell choir performed "Silent Night" in between the 7th and 8th grade portions of the concert.

The 8th graders opened their portion of the concert with "Follow That Star" by Brian Lewis.

The 8th graders also sang "Mary Did You Know" (Mark Lowry, Buddy Green) and "Sleigh Ride" (arranged by Andy Beck) before the 7th graders came back onstage. The 7th and 8th grade choirs combined to perform "Christmastime" by Michael W. Smith and Joanna Carlson.

PCMS Winter Band Concert 2015

The 6th grade band has been playing since August, and they've been working hard! They opened the concert with "A Seven Note Medley," arranged by Bill Simon, which included Yankee Doodle, Old MacDonald, Lightly Row, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Ode to Joy. Every instrument got to play the melody on at least one song.

The 6th grade band's next piece was "Holiday Sampler," arranged by John O'Reilly and Mark Williams. This minute and a half medley included snippets of O Come All Ye Faithful, Jolly Old Saint Nicholas, O Come Little Children, Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls, and Good King Wenceslas.

"Holiday Sampler," performed by the 6th grade band, conducted by Mrs. Michelle Henslin

The final 6th grade piece was "Constellation March" by Joseph Compello. This piece had some fun drum breaks and a trumpet soli at the end. Six trumpets came out front to play the memorized soli. I was proud to see that two of them were former students of mine from Lannoye and two of them were former students of mine from Hillcrest!

The 7th grade band started their portion of the concert with "Star Wars" by John Williams, arranged by Doug Adams. The 7th graders have been an extremely dedicated group, taking advantage of extra times to come in and practice. This resulted in the band being able to learn triple meter, a concept they usually don't do until the spring. Thanks for the fun 6/8 piece, John Williams!

"Star Wars," performed by the 7th grade band, conducted by Mrs. Val Spaulding

"Sing a Song of Christmas," arranged by James Curnow, was the second piece on the 7th grade's program. It was a medley of Angels We Have Heard On High, Deck the Halls, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, and Sing We Now of Christmas. The students got all sorts of articulation practice on this one!

The 7th graders closed their portion of the concert with "Terracotta" by William Owens. This piece was written to portray the building of the Terracotta Army of ancient China, which took 700,000 workers almost 40 years to complete. Listen for the harmonic tension that represents the workers' stress.

Part of "Terracotta," performed by the 7th grade band, conducted by Mrs. Val Spaulding

The 8th graders performed four pieces. Their first piece was Sandy Feldstein's "Blues March." Their second piece was a Chip Davis (founder of Mannheim Steamroller) arrangement of "O Little Town of Bethlehem," featuring solo flugelhorn. James Kinyon's "Suffolk Celebration" was next on the program. This piece got its name because it was commissioned by a middle school in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. (I thought that was neat - my mom is from Hicksville, NY, which is close to Suffolk County. My grandparents, aunt, uncle, and a few cousins live in Suffolk County, and another uncle and a few cousins live just west, in Nassau County.) The final piece on the program was the lighthearted "Sledder's Carnival" by Len Orcino.

Part of "Suffolk Celebration," performed by the 8th grade band, conducted by Mr. Tim Kozlovsky

Congratulations to all of the middle school band students and directors on a well-performed concert! Best of luck for the rest of the year, and I look forward to hearing you play again on May 3!

Red Raider Showcase

On November 6th, the middle school and high school choirs performed for a packed house at the Red Raider Showcase. The show was phenomenal, and I highly recommend attending this annual event! I was glad to see current students in the audience and former students in the audience and onstage. It's amazing to see the growth of our kids and the immense amount of talent in Pulaski! Congratulations to the performers and their directors, Mrs. Amy Wright (PCMS) and Ms. Elissa Richardson (PHS), as well as everyone else who helped make the Red Raider Showcase a success.

The Pulaski High School Choirs started off the show with director Elissa Richardson's arranged medley of "Love Runs Out" and "Rumor Has It."

Up next was a student-composed barrel drumming feature (complete with costumes!) titled "A Work in Progress."

The third performance of the night was a self-accompanied vocal solo, "Warrior," by Demi Lovato.

The Treble Choir took the stage to perform "Wings" by Little Mix.

Composer Claude Debussy's piano solo Sunken Cathedral made an appearance.

The PHS Chamber Choir sang a beautiful a cappella Pentatonix song, "Run to You."

Two students choreographed a dance duet to "Everybody Talks" by Neon Trees.

A student sang "Endlessly" by The Cab.

Look at all of these guys! The 7th-12th grade men joined forces to sing "Stand By Me." What a great way to build connections between the middle school and high school programs!

Up next was a vocal solo/dance duet with instrumental accompaniment: "Dear Future Husband" by Meghan Trainor.

The last song before intermission was the Green Day song "21 Guns," performed by the PHS Choirs.

Act II started with an '80s throwback! The PHS Show Choir performed "Footloose."

The next piece consisted of two vocalists (one of whom arranged the medley), a guitarist, and a percussionist. Destin played the cajon for this song - it's essentially a fancy box that you sit on while you play. The group performed a medley of "Thinkin' Bout You" (Frank Ocean) and "Sunday Morning" (Maroon 5).

Next, Ellis sang some Elvis - "If I Can Dream."

The 7th-12th grade women took the stage to sing Rachel Platten's "Fight Song," arranged by PHS choir director Elissa Richardson.

After the beautiful inspiration of the last song, it was time for some humor. If you weren't there, you missed a hilarious vocal duet with self-accompanied accordion and tuba. (Welcome to Pulaski, haha!) "Shaving Cream" by Benny Bell got the audience giggling, and sometimes even guffawing.

The PHS Concert Choir sang "Falling Slowly," arranged by one of the students.

The student emcees kept the audience entertained during the swift transitions, at one point resorting to using some didgeridoos. The whole concert was a touch over two hours, counting 21 songs and a 15 minute intermission. It flew by!

A dance solo to "Fortune Teller" was next.

The last solo performance of the night was "Angels" by Birdy.

The PHS Drumline made an appearance! They played a medley of drumline cadences, arranged by instructor Adam LeGrave and the drumline. I hear they got *glowing* reviews.

Drumline video: https://goo.gl/photos/2zeUf2XZ8C4deGWy6

The 7th grade, 8th grade, and high school choirs combined for a grand finale, "It's Time," by Imagine Dragons.

Happy birthday, John Philip Sousa!

Today, we celebrate the 161st anniversary of John Philip Sousa's birth!

John Philip Sousa was a very famous American conductor and 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, wrote 136 marches and 10 operas, wrote 3 novels and an autobiography, and conducted about 14,000 (yes, that's 14 thousand) concerts throughout his life!

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

If you're interested in hearing more of John Philip Sousa's marches, do a YouTube search for him or check out the collections that The President's Own is compiling on their website. Click here to access videos, scores, and parts of 17 of his marches. Click on the one you'd like to hear, and it will bring you to a page for that piece. You can click to download the track (in mp3 format, if you want to put it on your phone/iPod/iPad/etc.), download the score and parts (see what the conductor sees or what the individual musicians see), or scroll down a little further to listen to it via embedded video. What's neat about the video is that they also have the score so you can try to follow along as the music plays! It's very small, though, even when you click the YouTube logo in the bottom right corner to be able to open it via YouTube and make it full screen. If you're struggling to read it, you can download the score separately. If you'd like me to listen to it with you so I can point out where we are in the music, I'd be more than happy to do so!


DRUM CARD OPPORTUNITY: Email me and tell me your favorite Sousa march other than "Stars and Stripes Forever." I don't expect you to listen to all 135 other ones, but you can tell me about one or two that you listened to. :)

Happy birthday, Adolphe Sax!

Today marks the 201st anniversary of the birth of Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone. In honor of his birthday, here are some fun facts about him.

1. Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone when he was 32 years old.
2. He invented more than just the saxophone, but that was the instrument that caught on the best.
3. He was from Belgium.
4. He was an expert at the flute and clarinet, studying performance on those two instruments (as well as voice) at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. (If you join band on one of these woodwind instruments, you'll notice that the fingering system for flute, clarinet, oboe, and saxophone are very similar. They're also similar to recorder!)
5. He survived many near-death experiences in childhood.
6. He improved someone else's design of the bass clarinet.
7. In 1857, he got a teaching job at the Paris Conservatoire.

If you haven't been to Google today, check out their Adolphe Sax doodle!

For more cool things in the saxophone family, check out the following video:

DRUM CARD OPPORTUNITY: Email me the coolest thing you saw in the saxophone video above.

4th grade: Civic Symphony field trip 2015

Tomorrow, the 4th graders will be attending the Civic Symphony of Green Bay's school concert. The program will include some shorter versions of full pieces, so I wanted to share some videos for each entire piece in case you are interested in hearing them again (perhaps at the night concert!). I've also included some brief background info about the pieces they'll be playing tomorrow morning.

And God Created Great Whales

This piece by American composer Alan Hovhaness uses pre-recorded sounds of whales in addition to the voices from the orchestra. The video is over 12 minutes in length; we'll do the entire piece at the evening concert, but it will be a shorter excerpt for the morning concert. This piece uses a technique where the players in the orchestra each get a short series of notes to play, but the composer asks them to play that series many times, and in overlapping rhythms.

"CATcerto"

In classical music a concerto is a piece that features a soloist, either an instrumentalist or singer, and they usually stand in front of the orchestra. In this piece, the CATcerto, our soloist is Nora the Piano Cat. The composer had a video of Nora playing, and has written the orchestral accompaniment to match the music that Nora created. Our conductor will be watching the video to match up the live music from the orchestra to the recorded piano music from the video. It is similar to how orchestras used to provide music for silent movies 100 years ago.

Die Fledermaus

Die Fledermaus is an overture by the composer Johann Strauss. This video is 9 minutes long - we will play the entire piece at the evening, but at the morning concert we'll do just a short bit of the introduction. It is approx. the first 30 seconds of this video.  "Fledermaus" translates to "The Bat". The piece is about a man who dresses up in a bat costume for costume party, he is mentioned through the operetta as "Dr. Bat" by his friends, who are making fun of him.

Peter and the Wolf

Peter is the star of our concert, and you will hear his adventures told through the sounds of the orchestra. Our narrator is Stuart Smith, who will tell the tale of Peter as he leaves his yard, goes into the more dangerous meadow and encounters a mean wolf. With the help of some animal friends (a bird, a duck and a cat) and some nearby hunters, Peter comes up with a clever solution to his problem where nobody gets hurt. The music is by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev.

During the evening concert, the Civic Symphony will also be performing movements from Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens. 

Breaking Orchestral Ground in Australia

I saw this news yesterday and had to share it! When lots of people think about conductors (especially orchestra conductors), they picture men. Worldwide, fewer than a dozen women lead major orchestras. That's why I make it a point in class to share videos of multiple conductors like Gustavo Dudamel and Marin Alsop. 

Here's some news from the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Australia: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/mexican-conductor-alondra-de-la-parra-makes-history-n454731. The news article has information plus a very short video. 

Here's my summary: Alondra de la Parra is a 34-year-old conductor who was born in New York and has lived in Mexico since she was two. She's traveled the world for music, conducting in places like Italy, Brazil, Sweden, Japan, Germany, France, and the United States. She just won the job of chief conductor and music director for the Queensland Symphony Orchestra in Australia! She's the first woman to hold that position in that ensemble, which is one of the three largest orchestras in Australia.

Here's a video of her rehearsing Arturo Marquez's Danzon No. 2 with the Orchestre de Paris last year. She was the first woman and the first Mexican to get that opportunity, which is neat. She's got some great facial expressions and some energetic left hand gestures! It looks like she would be a fun conductor to work with, especially with such a fun piece to play. I performed the band transcription of that my senior year of college, and it was a blast - we couldn't sit still while playing it! (In the video of de la Parra rehearsing it, you get a great view of the violas.) 

This is Gustav Mahler's 2nd symphony, which Ms. de la Parra will be leading the QSO in next year. In this video, she's conducting a Brazilian orchestra playing the same piece. The video is just a small section of the entire work, which is about an hour and a half long. Mahler (the composer) was known for writing very brass-heavy, long symphonies. Ms. de la Parra is excited to be performing it at the same age that Mahler was when he wrote it. 

DRUM CARD OPPORTUNITY: What is one thing that stands out to you about Alondra de la Parra's conducting style? (You can reply with your response. Be specific, and don't plagiarize from my descriptions.)

Music Notes: End of October 2015

The kindergarteners have sung several echo songs and continue to practice showing the steady beat with their bodies. (Ask your kindergartener to sing the welcome song and show the steady beat!) They have also been hearing and showing the differences between fast/ slow and loud/soft (forte/piano). They’ve gotten involved by playing instruments, making vocal sound effects, and adding fingerplays for such books as Puff-Puff, Chugga-Chugga, The Napping House, and Five Little Pumpkins. They’ve also enjoyed seasonal songs such as “Three Little Witches,” and “Skin and Bones.” We’ve discussed different ways to use our imaginations and have practiced using them with our songs and our stories.

The 1^st graders have also been singing seasonal songs and echo songs, but their main focus this month has been rhythm. (Ask your 1^st grader what rhythm is, and see if s/he remembers how to spell it! We’ve been practicing…) They’ve practiced human rhythms, in which we line up four chairs to represent four steady beats and then seat students in the chairs to represent sounds or rhythms. After that, they moved on to food rhythms, in which they lay out four paper plate “steady beats” and use one- or two-syllable plastic foods to create four-beat rhythm patterns. They learned the sounds we say for the two rhythms we’ve been working on (ta and ti-ti), and practiced “writing” them with popsicle sticks. This week, they put this rhythmic knowledge into place with different Halloween-associated words. They’ve also added instrumental sound effects to the book Skeleton for Dinner.

The 2^nd graders have also been singing seasonal songs. They also learned two new rhythms, half note and half rest, and have been practicing reading, writing, clapping, and speaking these rhythms. (Want to learn something fun at home? Ask your 2^nd grader to teach you the song and clapping game for the song “Pumpkin, Pumpkin.”)

The 3^rd graders played melodic ostinatos on xylophones to go along with the song “Chattanooga Choo-Choo,” which they learned in the process of learning their new rhythm of four 16^th notes (tiri-tiri). (Ask your 3^rd grader what a melody is, what an ostinato is, and what that means when you put the words together. Hint: It’s a ____ that ____.) They’ve also been practicing a round or a canon (ask your 3^rd grader what that is), and have been taking turns leading class-wide rounds with body percussion. Last week, we learned a Halloween song called “Mwa Ha Ha” that the students get to self-accompany with Boomwhackers (color-coded pitched plastic tubes).

The 4^th and 5^th graders are almost done with their instrument unit. (Ask your 4^th or 5^th grader about the instruments s/he has seen in class!) For more of an idea of the instruments they’ve been learning about, search the class blog for “percussion,” “woodwind,” “brass,” and “strings” to find each of those posts. The 4^th graders will culminate this unit with a field trip to see the Civic Symphony of Green Bay next Friday, and the 5^th graders will take a short break from the unit until 2016, when they will take a field trip to see the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in early February. 

Earning DRUM cards outside of class: If students are able to attend any performances outside of the school day, I ask that they 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 your family is interested in attending performances in the Pulaski area, here are some upcoming ones:

            Friday, November 6             7 pm               Red Raider Showcase Concert

                                                                                    PHS Ripley PAC

                                                                                    $5 per ticket

Friday, November 6            7 pm                Civic Symphony of GB Family Concert

Meyer Theatre, downtown Green Bay

                                                                        Student tickets $7, senior tickets $12, adult tickets $17, family package $40

November 27, 28, 29           Varies             Green Bay Nutcracker Ballet

Meyer Theatre, downtown Green Bay

                                                                        Tickets $17.50, $26.50, $40 and can be purchased at meyertheatre.org

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me. I look forward to seeing you at parent/teacher conferences! I will be at Lannoye on Tuesday, November 10, for conferences.

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

Music Notes: End of September 2015

So far this year, we’ve played name games, learned music room rule songs, and reviewed and introduced 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! I’ve heard from other teachers that “Make Good Choices” has made its rounds in their classrooms as well.

This year, K-2 started something new for the beginning of each class: John Feierabend’s Move It! classical music movement explorations. So far we’ve moved to “Aquarium” and “Swans” from Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saëns. At the end of the month, students got to engage in free movement while I played different saxophones. We also end most classes with a songtale.

The kindergarteners have been practicing their voice types, particularly their singing voices, and have just begun working on determining fast/slow. We also practice demonstrating steady beat in a variety of ways.

The 1^st graders have been reviewing musical concepts from last year, and are about to begin preparing to learn their first written rhythms.

The 2^nd graders have been reviewing the rhythms and solfege that they learned last year, and they’re preparing to jump into 2^nd grade rhythms and solfege!

“The Star-Spangled Banner” celebrated its 201^st birthday on September 14, so the 3^rd graders kicked off their patriotic music unit with it. We continued with “America the Beautiful,” and will be learning “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” next. Students have also been reviewing the solfege and rhythms that they’ve learned for the last two years. They also just learned a new rhythm, four 16^th notes.

The 4^th and 5^th graders are nearly halfway through their instrument unit! They’ve learned about the percussion family and will be finishing up the woodwind family this week. We’ll learn about the brass family, string family, and the role of the conductor in the coming month. I’m thankful for numerous friends and colleagues from multiple districts who are willing and able to lend me instruments to bring in to demonstrate for the students!

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 – older students), 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 upcoming ones in the community:

            Wednesday, October 21      7 pm               Pulaski Area Community Band Concert,
                                                                                    with community choir and
                                                                                    high school choir (free!)

                                                                                    New Life Community Church

            Friday, November 6             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.

While we’re talking about calendar dates, I’d like to let you know that the concert this year will be on Tuesday, May 24.

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

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

Buckets and Muffins and Thank Yous, Oh My!

To wrap up our year at Lannoye, we had an assembly last week.

Most of the spring 2015 bucket drummers

The original purpose of the assembly was to give our 4th and 5th grade bucket drummers a chance to perform the piece they've been working on, "Blue Muffin Tuesday" by Mark Shelton. Thanks to a generous bucket donation from Home Depot, we were able to do this in a simple and uniform fashion. (Thanks, Home Depot!) We were also able to share our performance video with the composer, who complimented us on having an army of buckets to bring his piece to life!

To achieve the different sounds, we played on the head of the bucket (the bottom of it), the rim of the bucket (the slightly raised edge of the bottom), the floor (or metal chairs, if you were in the back row), and the sticks themselves (clicking them together). Also, during the middle section where it goes into a half-time feel (the tempo doesn't change, but the emphasis does), you'll notice some group improvisation, trading twos between 4th graders and 5th graders.

Since we didn't want the assembly (which later added the PBIS Leadership student of the month awards) to be a two-minute hurrah, I found a cute song for Teacher Appreciation Month in Music K8. The entire school (K-5) learned it in secret to make it a surprise for the rest of the staff. During a couple of classes, all the kids took some time to write thank you notes to the people who have taught them things at Lannoye (including all staff positions, not just their classroom teachers). The kids had lots of kind, insightful, unprompted things to say! I assembled these notes into little party bags for the teachers and attached a cute "thanks for caring" poem. The bucket drummers hid them under their buckets until after the whole school surprised the adults with the song, then they dashed out and delivered the bags. Nearly 200 kids in the school, and they kept the secret for almost a month!! Surprise: Success.

This assembly was a great way to end our school year, and I can't wait to see what next year will bring!

As a way to show my appreciation for the work that the bucket drummers put into their performance, I spent a large portion of my Monday baking muffins...including blue muffins...for Tuesday. (Get it? "Blue Muffin Tuesday" was the name of their piece.) 11 dozen mini muffins later and a few hours of sleep later...the kids (and some teachers) demolished all of them!

Some of the kids asked for the recipes, so here they are:

For the blue blueberry muffins, I used THIS RECIPE and doubled it. I added a bunch of blue food coloring and used mini muffins (adjusting bake time to 15 minutes), and the doubled recipe made about 5 dozen of them.

For the (uncolored) banana muffins, I used THIS RECIPE (single batch). Since I made mini muffins out of them, I adjusted the bake time to 15 minutes. This resulted in about 6 dozen muffins.

I left an open invitation for the bucket players to eat lunch in my room or to just swing through for muffins before recess. I didn't get a picture with the whole gang, but here's the view from my desk partway through:

I'm very proud of what these kids have accomplished, and I'm glad that I could share my time and other interests with them the way that they've shared their time and growing talents with me.