[NewMusic] Braxton on FOX

[Phillip Greenlief]

-----Original Message-----
On Behalf Of ted brinkley

i hope it is not a little known secret that HS kids
are the perfect cohort for exposure to all kinds of
cool guerrilla shit under the guise of "band" or "jazz
ensemble"......

y'all talk about building audience (and personnel
pool)---HS teaching may be potentially fertile soil
for "outreach".

--GC

no accident this happened in the cleveland area.

PG:
I am in complete agreement with Mr. Brinkley on this one. I have a new
job teaching at Oakland School for the Arts, and am working with middle
and high school kids - it's been going really well so far. I mention it,
because I brought in Braxton's Composition #338 recently (I think that's
the # anyway...). They were pretty amazed by the notation.
 
I've also brought in some of Pauline Oliveros' Orchestra Meditations,
some of Jon Raskin's graphic scores, some of my newer graphic pieces,
etc. In addition, we've been doing some free improvisation - on the
first day, everyone had to improvise for 15 seconds, in reference to
Andy Warhol's comment that in the future everyone would be famous for 15
seconds...now we're doing more free improvisation (mostly solo...) with
a mind to think about some essential "musical parameters" like: tone,
intonation, timbre, rhythm, melody (no melody), form, intervals,
scale-wise movement, arpeggios, etc. Each student has to listen and
comment on how the improviser dealt with those elements. We're up to
improvising for a minute now, (it gets a little longer every week), and
from time to time I compose graphic scores on the blackboard that they
have to play. They're really digging it, and they all admit that
improvising "is really scary".

They also know they are going to have to compose at least one
"traditional" piece for ensemble (and solo) this year, as well as
composing a graphic score, or "directions for improvisation". We're also
covering all the usual technical stuff as well (scales, arpeggios,
interval studies, etudes, duets, long tones, rhythm studies, etc.).

But yeah, get them while they're young, and open their ears and expose
them to a host of ideas before they think they know what it's all about.