HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CARL ORFF!!

DAY FOUR

Today, July 10th, is Carl Orff's birthday.  He was born July 10, 1895, so today would have been his 119th birthday! To begin sessions this morning, everyone congregated in the main entrance foyer and we all learned this canon:

Werner Beidinger led us in four parts, and the hallway was filled with resonant voices!  One comment is that we have not done enough singing this week, but I don't agree.  This has been a well-rounded experience, emphasizing speech/voice, body percussion, instrumentation, and movement.  Singing has also been part of everything.  But what really stands out to me is IMPROVISATION!!!

Session One -- Andrea Ostertag "Movement and Sounds"

We extended a game learned the other day "Ha Hey Ho" and added a devilish element.  This is an elimination game, but that is the point -- it's ok to be out.  In fact, eventually everyone will be out.  

We did a rhythm game, but if I include it here, you will think I am using fowl language!  Im Gegenteil!! (On the contrary...) We used consonant sounds to explore rhythm and movement.  We also added pitch (hi and low) to establish the sounds and movement.

One activity we did will work well as a precursor to "Incredibox".  Each person creates a sound and then one person conducts them from behind with a tap on the head.  Ostinatos can be established!

Session Two -- Andrea Sangiorgio "Voice as Rhythm: vocal percussion layered ostinato"

[He will provide his website and email address in the next class]  The structure here was to layer in, then add a middle part, back to layers, and then the middle part leads to an ending.  Group work.  Not only did we need to create layered parts, but we could also add movement, and even create a story.  It is always interesting to see what evolves within a group, and then to watch the other groups, too.

LUNCH BREAK!  It is really nice to have a two-hour lunch!  We should incorporate that into public schools, don't you agree?!!  Actually, not if it means I have to do lunch duty!!  

During lunch break, a new acquaintance, Heidi (from Auburn, Maine) accompanied me and we took the bus into town to obtain theater tickets for the Marionette Puppet Play of "The Sound Of Music." It will be on Friday evening. It's not that I'm a big fan of The Sound of Music, but I understand the puppets are amazing!  Now one last stop was to get a coffee for the bus ride back to the Institut, and wouldn't you know it -- we ended up getting back about 10 minutes late!  So I missed a little bit with Session Three -- Sorry, Isabel!! 

Session Three -- Isabel Rosner

I walked into small groups with rhythmic play, and since I missed the intro, I really had a hard time catching on.  After the session, my new Australian friend, Daniel, wanted to snoop a little and check out how the storage space was organized.  So I joined him in taking some pictures.  I already mentioned I have storage-lust, so here is a little peak:

 

Session Four -- Christoph Maubach "Vocal and Instrumental: Making and Creating Music"

Christoph really likes the outdoors.  He likes to find sounds from nature and create music based on these sounds. He first shared a piece of slate stone that he brought from New Zealand!  It really had a unique, actually two-toned sound.  Everyone got a chance to handle it and discover ways of playing it. At first I thought this was going to take a really long time, but people were very creative with how they produced sounds.  Then Christoph put out a bag of stones and we each needed to pick two.  We teased him, "Did you really carry all those stones in your luggage from New Zealand?"  "Ha!" he said.  No, he collected them near a river in Salzburg.