Music by children

[patois]

watched the above-posted you tube videos

the first, we see the boy in the blue t-shirt attempting to conduct, but the instrument setup has the players with their backs turned to him. So... I guess they have every right to say (as they do) that they can play whatever they want. A pity though, since he's left feeling pretty inneffectual.

Our setup involved players fixing all their attention on the conductor; having chosen a narrow pallette of sounds beforehand they simply made their designated sound or phrase when pointed to. Conductor was mounted on a chair and was able to 'trigger' the sounds with hands and/or feet through gesture. As a player I found this focussed attention completely absorbing and it avoided senseless pounding.

Since for the second video, I felt sorry for the girls' ears somewhat... much like DW's objection to babies pushing the start button on casiotone drumbeats, leave the 'popcorn music' mantra (for my 2 year old it was 'jacket jacket', among other things) off the stereo. I like the kids to listen to each other, and believe a bit of guidance here can help.

Meanwhile, Tony Conrad has the right idea perhaps - archive it. It is a joy to listen back to your kid's playing years later, but as for release, unless that decision is made by the child when they're old enough to do so the exploitation argument is pretty valid.

l i f

[LaNoam]

Christian Vander of Magma presented a version of Mekanik Destructiw Kommando featuring a 65-piece children's choir, along with 6 percussionists & 13 instrumentalists throughout (supplemented by 5 adult musicians). I like what the review on the ReR Megacorp site says about it:

...after the first minutes disentangling yourself from Magma you start to realise what this says about Vander's compositional ability and the rubbish that's talked about simplicity and complexity and music. Because the tunes are good and the composition is logical a large children’s choir has no problem with the additive rhythms, cycles, counterpoint or sudden tempo changes.

The piece features all-new lyrics (in French, not Kobaian) and was retitled Baba Yaga.

And whilst on the subject of kids & the music of Magma, let me present to you the best YouTube ever:

Jade sings Magma

[Vincent Kargatis]

Randy Porter in Oakland released a cd in 1994 called Big Music, Little Musicians as a result of improv classes for elementary students. Don't know how to get a hold of a copy, but you can probably track someone down associated with it (maybe through Dan Plonsey?). I remember it being pretty decent for its goals, with a wonderful version of Sun Ra's "Planet Earth".

[Duncan Bruce]

Hi there, just joined up so I could reply to this interesting post.

For a while I have had in my collection an LP by Michael Vetter called Informationen - Eine avantgardistische Musik-Stunde fur Kinder. I have never been able to find out any information about this from google other than the Stockhausen/Vetter connection. It sounds great, almost like a looser Ligeti work in parts. Unfortunately I don't speak german so am unable to give a more accurate description although there are lenghty liner notes (I can scan these if anybody is interested). Has anybody out there heard this one?

Other examples I can think of off the top of my head are the Kagel one (1898) and a track by American violinist Michael White on his Impulse! album Spirit Dance (1972).

In regards to ethical questions raised by this sort of stuff, the Kagel and Vetter do sound heavily directed in parts but I think these kids are a bit older (7-12?) so are perhaps slightly more aware of the overall process.

Most of my other choices have already been mentioned up-thread but there's also a couple of Campbell Kneale albums that i've read about that apparently feature his children playing instruments.

Oh yeah and Ornette at 12 is still in my top ten sax and drums albums!!!

Cheers
Duncan

[NotReallyDamo]

Most of my other choices have already been mentioned up-thread but there's also a couple of Campbell Kneale albums that i've read about that apparently feature his children playing instruments.

One of my favourite Birchville Cat Motel albums is Creeping Frost Onset, which I think features the whole Kneale family clattering away on a variety of household objects and toys in the second half. I read a description of it as a "primitive preschool free jazz jam session," which is about right.

[mudd]

dennis gonzalez yells at eels is gonzalez and his kids. they're adults by now, but early in the history of the band they were fairly young.

not so young they weren't already pretty good, though.

m

[Duncan Bruce]

dennis gonzalez yells at eels is gonzalez and his kids. they're adults by now, but early in the history of the band they were fairly young.

not so young they weren't already pretty good, though.

m

That one looks interesting Mudd - unfortunately can't hear the samples on myspace due to my terrible dial up connection but will keep an eye out. How old are these guys?
Maybe we could start another thread about musician families

One I forgot about that I did manage to download from a blog a while back (but have not listened to much yet) is this one:

[Alastair]

On the last track on the above album, "Quiet Dawn", pre-teen Waheeda Massey sings in an almost-convincing jazz style.

[patois]

Just on holiday atm, but home in a few days and will make available some sample recordings from my classroom.

But now, where to track down some of these above-given examples?
l i f

[eric weddle]

A little self-promotional, but, this is what you are asking for:

Human Skab: http://myspace.com/humanskab

"Well, there's this 10-year old singer from Elma, Washington. He's really cool. His mom calls him Travis but his real name is Human Skab. Picture this: the Skab zips around the living room shooting toy guns. He hits the family piano with his fists. He tries real hard to play guitar. He makes up songs about terrorism and radiation and throwing rocks at windows. Cool!" -- Bruce Pavitt, Sub Pop Zine 1986

"If Captain Beefheart were ten years old, this is what he'd probably sound like" -- Spin March 1986

A ltd. LP will be out in May, followed by a CD of different material.

[patois]

As promised, recordings of conducted improvisation by children in my class.

There were eight children and myself involved during this session; the diagram I hope helps:



The Master Conductor gives gestures for stop/start and dynamics to the group conductors to allow a greater variety and balance between the two groups (one at a time or both together etc). The Group Conductors use the same gestures with thier respective groups. Roles would switch so everyone had a chance to play each role. Children are 10years old and engage in regular ensemble play during the year. We play all-acoustic instruments at this school and mainly play a folk-music repertoire (given my penchant for gypsy and breton music and the curriculum we follow) though, given the results of this activity - i.e. active listening and becoming comfortable with uncertainty, I will undoubtedly engage the class in more improvisational music/game pieces in the coming year.

I've cut 3 short pieces for readers here to sample should they be so inclined:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/m7168g
http://www.sendspace.com/file/q748n6
http://www.sendspace.com/file/o4sky1

I apologise for the recordings being marred somewhat by microphone disturbance... my fault for not putting dampening between the mic stand and the floor; drum vibrations being picked up . I don't think it detracts too much from its essence...

l i f