Before visiting schools I sent teachers documentation material, texts and audio CDs concerning sound installations and soundscapes created by me and other composers. These were discussed and listened to in class thus enabling students to form both ideas about current sound installations as well as my work as a composer before I visited the classroom in person.

The projects started with a mutual introduction. I explained something of my career to date as many students were interested in how one becomes a composer in the first place. Students shared some of their previous musical experiences with me as well as their expectations of the project.

Then began an introduction into sound editing: We recorded simple sounds (e.g. the zip of a pencil case) and modified the recordings using various electronic effects on a computer in order to “see what you can do”. I demonstrated the most common effects and the principles according to which they function. Then students began to work independently using DAT and minidisc recorders to record the surrounding area, e.g. sounds and noises in school (sport instruction, noise during breaks, scrambling in the bus) as well as sounds in nature (e.g. the mud flats around the island Spiekeroog). Later we listened to the recordings together.

Some students identified themselves with the recordings having imagined how they would sound and now – listening to the recording – hearing how different they sounded played back.

I then gave an intensive introduction to a cutting and editing computer program during which various stages in the process of composition were discussed: the idea or basic sound material (the recordings); sound editing and modification; cutting and arranging, “composition”, performance situations. It was noted that these elements need not always occur according to a predetermined order but each can mutually determine and influence one another. To these elements belong such technical components as a microphone, audio interface/audio card, computer, software, storage medium, sound player, amplifier, speakers etc.

Students developed ideas for their own pieces as well as possible performance situations. One group had an idea of representing four different feelings in sound which could then be listened to on headphones by fellow students in the common room. During listening a sleep mask should be worn in order that attention is focused exclusively on the music.

At another school students in four work groups conceived a plan whereby eight rooms in a cellar be used for musical presentation. The rooms were divided into Yin and Yang (relaxed and aggressive). Recordings from everyday school life were played back according to the (predetermined) movement of the audience through the rooms which were lit up in various different ways.

All teachers and students were open and interested in the projects. Students were co-operative and worked well with each other. The challenging software presented few problems. The most involving aspect of the project was making sure enough computers with the necessary software were available.

Through the project many subject areas, as well as artistic and technical matters were addressed. Occasionally there wasn’t enough time for students to fully realise and finish their work. Nevertheless I hope that students received an introduction to previously unknown sound worlds, got some ideas about how to edit sound creatively and independently on a computer and are now able to make pieces extending beyond conventional forms.

Kirsten Reese

From the mudflats to sound studio

It is now three weeks since the composer Kirsten Reese from Berlin visited students from the Hermann-Lietz-Schule over a weekend on the island of Spiekeroog.

The Hermann-Lietz-Schule is a boarding school. Teachers and students live closely together, the teachers almost acting as surrogate parents. They distribute pocket money and make sure rooms are clean and tidy.

Things are more relaxed here than in other schools. Students often come late. One student was elected as prefect and asked various smaller work groups about their progress. A very individual approach to music became evident ranging from techno created from the sounds of nature, a polyphonic “solo” for violin to drum rhythms distorted in order to expressions emotions of aggression, love and mourning.

The essential idea of the project was to record sounds on location. Sounds were then edited and modified using computer software. After this process the question was how to optimise and further develop what had been recorded as well as what to discard. Kirsten Reese and the students listened to the recorded sounds together and discussed them in consultation with the music teachers Florian Schlesiger and Frauke Koller. If a recording was distorted it had to be discarded and the sound re-recorded. Kirsten Reese was always available to help overcome technical hurdles. Some of what was attempted was too trivial while other attempts too ambitious. However, ideas soon emerged as to what work could be presented.

The work phase begins. Students move into various rooms. Squealing heavy metal music can be heard from one practice group, a scream becomes audible – clearly an expression of aggression. In the chemistry room Sebastian has recorded a Klezmer piece with the violin and creates a polyphonic version by layering the same track. Jonathon creates unreal sounds by distorting drum beats on his laptop. Max studies his recording from a hike through the mud flats and cuts out unwanted parts. Techno music comprised of accordion sounds and familiar beats can be heard from Kim’s room. Kirsten Reese wanders from one room to the next giving suggestions, explaining details of the computer program and discusses with students how the use of sounds can be further improved.

At the end of the project the groups met in the assembly hall, pieces were played and continuing work discussed. Kirsten Reese looked content, the students exhausted. The next the day the project was brought to a conclusion ready for presentation on open day.

Friederike Kohn, project organiser

The Lower Saxony Sparkasse Foundation has kindly given their permission to kompositionforum.de for the reproduction of the above two contributions. They are taken from the brochure “Contemporary Music in the Classroom” published by the “Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung” which can be ordered online along with a DVD.

This article was translated from German by Simon Barber.