They’ve got the music in them
Published in the February 21, 2018 edition
By JILLIAN STRING
LYNNFIELD — Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, the planets of our solar system, and creative muses for music students in grades 4-12.
Drawing inspiration from “The Planets,” an orchestral suite by English composer Gustav Holst, students have been hard at work creating original compositions.
Music Department faculty members Tom Westmoreland, Douglas Hodgkins, Stephen Bloom, Kerrie Fraser and Harry Wagg began working on this composition initiative during professional development activities for the 2016–17 school year.
MIDDLE SCHOOL BAND MEMBERS, from left, Trevor O’Neal, John-Anthony Tavano and Ethan Downey use their saxophones to explore Venus as part of a project on the solar system. (Jillian String Photo)
“Music education is evolving toward 21st century skills,” Westmoreland said. “We felt we were doing a good job with most of the new standards, but we wanted to do more with (the standard of) creating.”
Wagg, the music teacher at Summer Street School, has used “The Planets” in past years to teach emotional elements of different musical scales. The Music Department worked together to expand this lesson into a composition project across the schools.
According to Westmoreland, the seven high school classes divided the planets among themselves, the middle school divided the planets by giving four to the band and four to the chorus, and the elementa ry schools assigned one planet to each of the grade 4 classes, with the Summer Street School exploring the four inner planets and the Huckleberry Hill School taking the four outer planets.
Each group has approached the project with a different perspective. Students at the high school level came up with different themes, focusing primarily on the mythology associated with each planet. They used their knowledge of music theory and improvisational techniques to create instrumental and choral pieces. One group created an original poem, which served as their inspiration.
Middle school students, under the direction of Bloom, listened to “The Planets” first. They explored both scientific and mythological themes and submitted scores, which were then arranged by Bloom.
“I played around with some chords, found one I liked, and built up from there,” seventh grader Ethan Downey said of the band’s piece about Venus.
The elementary school students also listened to “The Planets” before beginning their compositions. Wagg asked his students to make a list of different emotions based upon how the music made them feel. Each class then created a Wordle, which is a piece of text arranged in an image that shows how frequently different words are used in the text, to determine which emotions were most popular, and drew inspiration from musical scales that exhibited the same emotions.
“(The project) is really cool because every time someone listens to (the music), they know what we are trying to say,” fourth grader Madeline Migliero shared.
Fraser, the music teacher at the Huckleberry Hill School, had her students list adjectives while listening to the Holst piece. They combined these adjectives with additional scientific research learned about each planet.
“We took the science they had learned and put it to music,” Fraser noted.
On Feb. 6, the music faculty traveled from school to school in order to listen to the progress each group had made with their compositions.
“I felt like I was doing something really special,” Fraser said. She noted that it was exciting to discuss more advanced music theory with the older students, and appreciated the feedback given to the elementary students by her colleagues.
“The other teachers gave us good advice, but I was nervous because I wanted to do well,” said fourth grader Gabriel Fredette. “If we just focus on the music and work together, then we won’t have to be nervous.”
Both the Music Department staff and students are excited to share these one-of-a-kind compositions with the community during a concert held at the Lynnfield High School auditorium on Wednesday, March 7 at 6 p.m.
