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for concert winds, brass, percussion & electroacoustics grade 2 Emerging Series JODIE BLACKSHAW The Little Bush BuddhaThe Little Bush Buddha FORWOODWIND, BRASS & PERCUSSION JODIE BLACKSHAW INSTRUMENTATION F LUTE U PPER F LUTE L OWER O BOE B ASSOON ( OPT .) B ♭ C LARINET U PPER B ♭ C LARINET L OWER B ♭ B ASS C LARINET IN B ♭ E ♭ A LTO S AXOPHONE B ♭ T ENOR S AXOPHONE E ♭ B ARITONE S AXOPHONE B ♭ T RUMPET U PPER B ♭ T RUMPET L OWER H ORN IN F T ROMBONE E UPHONIUM T UBA B ASS G UITAR M ALLET P ERCUSSION : G LOCKENSPIEL P ERCUSSION I: T IMPANI P ERCUSSION 2 : B ASS D RUM P ERCUSSION 3: C YMBALS ( CAN BE MORE THAN ONE PLAYER – SEE NOTES ) ©2022 ColourFULL Music. All rights reserved. International rights secured. jodieblackshaw.comi …and then it hit me. It was entirely possible that I would see the extinction of the koala in my own lifetime (and I’m already in my 50’s). Tears rolled down my cheeks. How could I not know? How could I, a passionate environmentalist, a proud Australian and a member of a regional Australian community not know how desperately fragile the situation is for the Australia koala at this very moment? The global pandemic greatly overshadowed the impact of the 2019-2020 Australian bushfires. The impact of those devastating fires didn’t just magically go away, it’s just that the media turned our attention toward the next “big disaster”. Communities didn’t have time to catch their breath and our native flora and fauna were seemingly left out in the cold. It will literally take decades for native populations to recover (if they ever do). Two years later, on Feb. 11, 2022, the koala was listed as endangered by the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Prior to British settlement, there were an estimated 10 million koalas living along the East coast. Today, the Australian Koala Foundation places that number at somewhere between 43-80 thousand. 61,000 koalas were lost in the bushfires. “The Little Bush Buddha” is a wakeup call to all Australians. We can ensure the future of the koala and many other precious native Australian species IF we act now. What we need to do is write to our local politicians strongly requesting a new act of parliament called the ‘Koala Protection Act’ that will prioritise the protection of native bushland. The ‘Koala Protection Act’ will help to establish corridors of bushland throughout the East coast of Australia to enable wider movement, migration, access to healthy habitat and safe passages for travel. You can do this easily through the Australian Koala Foundation (they’ve written a letter for you AND provide easy links to find the right person in your electorate:) https://www.savethekoala.com/our-work/support-the-koala-protection-act/ (You can even scan this code and do it now, while you wait for the concert to start.) Scan here to write to send a letter Scan here to learn how to make your home safe for wildlife Scan here to donate to the Australian Koala Foundation As for the “The Little Bush Buddha”, you will hear what urbanisation might sound like to a koala. Place yourself in their shoes for the next 5 or so minutes and treat the band in front of you as their impression of human beings. Notice how things change when the musicians become aware of their place within the ecosystem and tread with more consideration and respect. “If you cannot save the Koala, you cannot save anything.” Deborah Talbart, OAM, Director, Australian Koala Foundation Jodie Blackshaw Baranduda, Victoria, 2022 ii Dr. Jodie Blackshaw (b. 1971) grew up in the south-east of rural Australia and formed a very personal relationship with music early in life through the creative application of her imagination to musical colours and movement. Today, she continues to seek creative experiences for students through her teaching and composing so they, too, may enjoy the personal relationship she discovered in her formative years. In 2020 Blackshaw completed her PhD in Composition with Dr. Christopher Sainsbury at the Australian National University. In addition to composing and presenting music education workshops, Blackshaw is passionate about fostering equality in concert programs, including schools. In 2018 she curated the website www.colourfullmusic.com to share diverse wind band programs created by leading conductors with the global wind music community. In 2021 Blackshaw launched the Teaching Performance through Composition series. This series is evidence-based and was developed as part of Jodie’s post-graduate studies into the compositional process and how best to apply that to an educational environment. To find out more please visit: www.jodieblackshaw.com: www.jodieblackshaw.com EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: Introduce the concept that an ensemble is a carefully balanced ecosystem that needs to constantly work with each other to maintain that balance. This includes considered entries and releases. Discover the difference between an ‘ugly’ sound and a ‘beautiful’ sound and when each is appropriate. Establish cue, patterns in 3 and 4, considered entry and release and what this looks like from the podium. THE ELECTRONIC TRACK(s) Four electronic tracks are included with this piece: 1.Opening soundscape 2.Galahs overhead 3.Magpie soundscape 4.A new day • Tracks 1-3 will fade in and out naturally with the music written when started at the measure specified in the score and part. Check levels for each track as each sound system will have different capability. • Track 4 is approximately 2min long. It is not anticipated that the end soundscape will continue for this long. Instruct the person playing these tracks to “fade out” this track manually at the appropriate time. • All tracks are stereo and should be played out of a minimum of 1x left and 1 x right speakers appropriately positioned either side of the stage. • Foldback for the band (and conductor) is optional. • This part may also activate the Power point slides at rehearsal marking B. POWER POINT SLIDES A short video containing informative slides and imagery is included in the package and must be presented at rehearsal marking ‘B’ during the performance (as detailed in the score). The band members are strongly encouraged to freeze after the loud, dissonant chord at measure 14 and then slowly, and gradually move into rest position whilst the slides are presented. Alternatively, students strongly encouraged to create their own students Power point slides based about the current state of the koala. This would provide students with the opportunity to voice what is most important to them and take a greater sense of ownership in the overall performance. Sample Power point slides are also provided as a guide, a starting point or as a template. iii EMOTIONAL CONTEXT: Embracing the 21st Century Instead of providing more specific details for emotional context on the score and in parts by way of words and directions, I have instead created a webpage that provides links to YouTube clips and imagery. All parts contain the QR code printed here (and in your score) for easy access. There are four main sections of the work and each section is linked to informative videos or other webpages. Students are invited to link a personal experience to the information provided to establish emotional attachment and relevancy. Strategies to transform these feelings and personal experiences into music making is designated by the ‘Teaching Performance through Composition’ symbol (shown here). Based on your school community, select what methodology is best for sharing/discussing student responses (you can also choose what will/will not be shared). This task is designed to couple information and imagery with personal experience to contextualise the meaning behind the work with the day to day life of your students. Contextualization that is hoped will influence their emotional and musical approach to the performance of this work. NOTE: Programme note is also available for download via this link in Word format at the bottom of the page. PREPARATORY MATERIALS A full set of preparatory materials are included with this work. Use these to learn the material before you start learning the piece. As the main melody is often divided between sections, it will work better for your students if they know what the melody is BEFORE they start playing the piece! Here is what your students can learn in these preparatory materials: • Main melody in 4/4 time (able to be played as around). • Main melody in 3/4 time (able to be played as around). • Accompaniment to melody in 3/4 focusing on these rhythm patterns | h q | q h |. • Study on sustained melodic orchestration as used at rehearsal marking ‘C’ in the main score. • Rhythmic ostinato patterns to be used as accompaniment in any way you wish! Free time section (measure 1) This section is designed to represent the urbanization of the natural environment. It is not metered. • Have a phone/stopwatch on your music stand and start it when the first audio track begins. Use this to cue the timed entries on the first page of the score. • Using silent, numbered visual commands of your own preference, cue each “group” to enter (labelled on the score between 1-6). Groups should be aware of the sound already established and enter with care and awareness. • Once the chord cluster is established and thicker in texture (with the entry of Group 6), instruct percussion to guide the beginning of the intense crescendo labelled at rehearsal marking ‘A’. You will notice that their parts are teaching them about changing the speed of their roll to increase intensity and dynamic. • At letter ‘A’, students are strongly encouraged to push as much air as possible through their instruments whilst maintaining a note. It is expected that the notes will become more and more distorted and out of tune, this timbre is sought at this time to represent the intensity of the sounds of traffic, people, electronic devices and construction sites. • ‘Wild and Crazy’: two measures before ‘B’, all woodwind & brass students (and bass guitar) are invited to ‘Go wild and crazy’. It means play whatever you want as fast and as loud as you want. BUT! Ensure that the sound intensity is maintained, especially when you return to the “normally played” dissonant chord just prior to the caesura. iv CREATIVE EXTENSION: If you have a large ensemble, you may wish to experiment with having some students from each group not play their notes but instead, add to the soundscape with ringing mobile phones, loud conversations, football whistles etc.. Let your imagination run wild! Just ensure that it all comes to a dramatic and sudden stop at the same time (as marked by the caesura). Power point Slides (Rehearsal Marking B) These slides should be shown in absolute silence and your band members should remain completely still. They should also slowly place their instruments in their laps after the dissonant chord – percussion should be particularly aware of the impact their movement has on the audience. As part of the ‘ecosystem’ Educational Objective, parts are sometimes detailed with who else in the band they are playing with or blending with. Have students sit near these students at first and then move away from them. Can they still hear them? Legato tonguing is an extension of basic tonguing and it’s never too early to learn (in my humble opinion). Encourage students to consider how they re-articulate here, the main idea is that the sound isn’t too harshly interrupted but is smooth and unintrusive. Crescendo and Decrescendo All crescendo and decrescendo markings have been deliberately left to a minimum of two measures. At times, a long decrescendo over several measures is divided into stages (see this horn part at m. 67): Students are encouraged to consider how they change their breath to alter their dynamic as well as, how this aligns with the other musicians around them. Consider introducing this concept during warm-ups. Linking Ecosystem to Band In the notes provided via the QR code, students are encouraged to draw a link between an ecosystem, and a musical ensemble. They can do this by watching two specifically chosen video clips that explain ecosystems and then discussing how the ensemble works as an ecosystem. Most importantly, the ecosystem with change based on the music, and it’s great for them to realise if they are Primary producer or not in those moments. SUGGESTION: Link with the Social Science/Humanities department to draw a curricular connection with music! This work was commissioned by St. Joseph’s College, Newtown, Victoria, Australia. Special mention to Music Director Amy Young for her passion, vision and commitment to offering students creative experiences. vThis work is dedicated to the many self-sacrificing wildlife volunteers who continue to care for our endangered animals. Let us live for the day when it is safe enough to return them all home. Next >