Young Composers Playground came to Doull Elementary School in 2016 and 2017, culminating in a performance in February 2017. As part of the program, fifth grade students wrote a story and composed music to accompany their story. In preparation for this performance, students self-selected roles that they would like to play, including narration, illustrations, slideshow, costumes, props, programs, actors, and director. In this performance, students are implementing the roles they have chosen, accompanied by a story and music that they wrote.
ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE
We are proud of this Young Composers Playground project because we were able to incorporate students’ stage performance of acting and artwork along with the music. Choosing a role and working to implement it was a big highlight and motivator for them. We were able to manage this by limiting our instrumentation to two musicians (thus freeing up the classroom teacher to manage the stage performance), including the art teacher in developing illustrations, utilizing the district’s costume shop, and allocating jobs to independent students.
It’s pretty normal in a Young Composers Playground project to get a combination of sound effects and musical moments in any given performance. This work is written for violin and percussion. Notice a contrast of intense sounds (such as when the friends are trapped) with the sad melody of being trapped. There are number of instances of traveling music. Some of the students’ favorite moments are when Tio Luis, the Donkey, is sung by the violinist and the percussionist; when the percussionist sounds like a monkey; and when the donkey screams theatrically while accompanied by the violin.
THE VIDEO shows the performance of Espinoza Paz to the Rescue at Doull Elementary School.
