accumulation
Main content: Accumulation by multiplication of short sounds
Pedagogical objective
The student is able to follow the gestures of the conductor with precision.
Pedagogical intentions
- Familiarize the students with some of the following notions: acceleration, aleatoric rhythm, verticality/horizontality, density, spatialisation, glissandoA glissando is a musical term of Italian origin that designates the continuous sliding of a sound in an upward or downward movement. The glissando can be produced by the human voice and, among other things, by stringed instruments and the slide trombone. A glissando effect can be produced on fixed pitch instruments such as the piano and the harp....
- Help students develop an understanding of the different types of attack: firm, soft, dry, resonant.
- Improve students’ ability to follow the conductor’s gestures.
Tools
École Au-Coeur-Des-Monts, St-Pie, Québec. Enseignant. : Jean-François Senécal
Process
Activity with homogeneous sounds
(This activity can also be done using heterogeneous sounds.)
Initial gesture: sections 1 and 2 of the score
École Au-Coeur-des-Monts, St-Pie, Québec, août 2017
Each student chooses a sound of their choice from the bank [accu-point].
- The teacher/conductor triggers playback by pointing to each student, one at a time, in an unrushed manner, so that students can appreciate the silences, the random rhythms and spatial effects. For example, by triggering a sound first at the left, then at the right, then in the centre...
- Once all students have entered, the conductor signals to slowly slide down on the left-side of the selection-tool, which will gradually shorten the silence of each sound, creating a rhythmic acceleration.
- Finish here or collectively find a way of transitioning to something else, or continue on to steps 3 and 4 (see below).
- Assessment: Was the response to the conductor’s gestures accurate? Was the gradual erasing of the silence portion successful? Was the effect of acceleration evident?
Sound Bank
Pushing the envelope..
(score, sections 3 and 4)
- Assessment: Was the response to the conductor’s gestures accurate? What happens when the sounds are accelerated? Do we still hear the spatial movements? Do we still distinguish between sounds? Are we still in a verticality mode or has it changed to a horizontality (continuous line)?
Moving forward (view the video)
In addition to selecting the bamboo sound, each student selects the sounds [sustain_G_D] and [melopée].
- Once steps 3 and 4 have been achieved, the teacher introduces the sound [sustain_G_D].
- Then introduces the sound [melopée].
- The teacher/conductor can then introduce gestures that switch between the three layers of sound.
- Assessment: what differentiates the three textures? (1- granular, iterative; 2- very smooth and regular; 3- motivic and phased). What distinguishes the first texture (bamboo) from the other two? (The “bamboo” texture is iterative and dry, whereas the two others are very smooth and soft.) Which common characteristics can be associated to all three textures? (register, the harmony is consonant gravitating around a common fundamental, the softness...).
Proposal for a creative activity
Proposal 1
- Ask each student to choose two new sounds that mix well with the [bamboo] sounds, while introducing new “colours”.
- Gain consensus about the order in which the sounds will appear, as well as questions about the form in general.
- Perform the piece (or perhaps have it conducted by a student).
A performance by a group of 20 youth, at the Père-Lindsay music-camp, in the Lanaudière region of Québec, 2017.
The students decided upon creating a background texture using the sounds [melopée] and [ritornello], that would be present from beginning to end. Different sounds were then juxtaposed gradually, creating a beautiful foreground texture that dissipated slowly, revealing the background texture, accompanied by short iterations of the [bamboo] sound.
The form then, of this B-section, borrows from the compositional approach of the A-section (the accumulation of [bamboo] sounds), but this time, with less density and with heterogeneous sounds.
Proposal 2
(a one-hour session or more)
- Divide the group into two groups.
- Based on the experience of previous activities, each group is invited to create a short piece based on the idea of accumulation: determine the source-sounds, the scenario, and rehearse for performance. The teacher/conductor encourages the participants to not simply repeat the results of previous experiments, but to engage more, their imaginations and intentiveness.
- Each group then performs for the others.
- Assessment: in each piece, is the process of accumulation clear? Which elements distinguish themselves from the previous exercises? How can we describe the intentions? The form?
