A look into “Developing language, creating with language” by Virginia Longo
https://www.orff-schulwerk-forum-salzburg.org/_files/ugd/8289b4_f2e9a581e0854cf4a0e0a66a314585cd.pdf
After returning from Christmas break in January 2022, I was told by the school director to avoid all singing activities during music lessons. In Italy, covid cases were quickly rising and this recommendation went along with sanitizing each instrument after use, keeping social distance, and avoiding physical contact among students. I am sure that these words are familiar to most of you. At a global level, life is hard for a music teacher during a pandemic!
Nowadays, singing remains a ‘mission impossible’ in many countries. For example in Italy, teachers and students older than 6 years of age must wear a facial mask in class and outdoors. Open-air music sessions do not even support the art of singing! Considering the many restrictions placed on music education it begs the question: What can I do to let my students experience meaningful active music-making activities and support them in developing their musicality and creative thinking when we cannot sing?
I have found issue 98 of the Orff-Schulwerk Heute published by the IOSFS in Summer 2018 and titled Developing language, creating with language to be both useful and inspiring. Moving from one article to the next, the authors clearly convey the fundamental creative role of the word, in the artistic work of Carl Orff. They highlight the potential of speech in pedagogical settings with different age groups. Michael Kugler, in his article Speech and speaking in Orff-Schulwerk, reminds us about mimic expression, gesture and expressive language which characterize Carl Orff’s art (page 21).
From the pedagogical point of view, already sited in the "Rhythmic-melodic Exercise" of the 1930s,
“Orff had emphasized the importance of original forms of language with reference to the ‘unity of word, gesture and sound’ (Orff 1933, 52). He therefore uses as a basis the so-called ‘simple forms’ (Thomas 1977, 135–173): riddles, sayings, proverbs about weather, magic spells, counting rhymes and fairy-tale sayings, which are traditionally spoken rhythmically and dynamically with a gesture in a manner different from everyday language.”
As music teachers, we should not be worried if our students are not involved in usual singing activities because, as Orff said, Singing has to evolve naturally from speaking, from the word. [ORFF/KEETMAN 1954, vol. IV, 153].
Therefore, more than ever music educators are needing to use speech as a fundamental tool for the music classroom. The IOSFS Social Media Committee would like to hear from you!
What inspiring texts do you use as a basis for improvisation, composition and dramatization?
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