17th
Highlighting Classroom Compositions for parents
On June 5th, Saint Albans City School presented a program of Choral Music and Original Student Compositions. The 7 and 8 Grade Chorus opened the program. After 4 selections, the audience was treated to the playing of the student compositions from their music classes. Since this is a large part of the Middle School music program, I felt it was very important for the public to know about what’s happening. I played the compositions on the computer with a screen set up for the audience to be able to follow along. The last two pieces were played from the vtmidi website from the live recording of Opus 16. This way the audience could hear the differences between a computer sound card and live instrumentation. The program concluded with 4 more selections from the chorus, one of which featured an Orff ensemble.
Audience reaction to the whole program was over-whelming. Most parents knew that their students had done some composing, but being able to hear and see what their child had created surprised many of them. Our accompanist was also amazed at the caliber of the compositions. She said, “I loved Joann’s piece. It was so thoughtfully constructed and the melody was beautiful. I loved the ending. The piece for trumpet had a chord structure that reminded me of Brahms”. Another musician in the city, whom I’ve known for many years and is a former school board member said, “You have an amazing program here now.” A former student (who is now in college) said “Saint Albans City has the best arts program of any school”. Another parent was curious as to how the whole project is funded. ☺ As for the students themselves, they were all feigning great embarrassment at having their pieces played – but then displayed great pride when they stood up to take their bows. All in all, a very successful evening.
I would recommend that other teachers in the Vermont MIDI Project find a way to publicly “display” their student work. We all know that having live instruments is the best, but when that is just not possible, playing them from the computer is still very effective.
Arlene Jarvis
Music educator
