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NAME:
Mrs. Robin Pape
SCHOOL:
Martin Elementary School
CLASS:
Music Teacher for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades
SCHOOL PHONE:
731-587-2290
Why I Teach Music
I. Music is a Science. It is exact, specific, and it demands exact
acoustics. A conductor's full score is a chart, a graph which indicates
frequencies, intensities, volume changes, melody, and harmony all at once
and with the most exact control of time.
II. Music is Mathematical. It is rhythmically based on the subdivisions of
time into fractions which must be done instantaneously, not worked out on
paper.
III. Music is a Foreign Language. Most of the terms are in Italian,
German, or French; and the notation is certainly not English- but a highly
developed kind of shorthand that uses symbols to represent ideas. The
semantics of music is the most complete and universal language.
IV. Music is History. Music usually reflects the environemnt and times of
its creation, often even the country and/or racial feeling.
V. Music is Physical Education. It requires fantastic coordination of
fingers, hands, arms, lip, cheek, and facial muscles in addition to
extraordinary control of the diaphragmatic, back, stomach, and chest
muscles, which respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind
interprets.
VI. Music Develops Insight and Demands Research.
VII. Music is all these things but most of all, Music is Art. It allows a
human being to take all these, dry technically boring (but difficult)
techniques and use them to create emotion. That is one thing science cannot
duplicate; humanism, feeling, emotion, call it what you will.
That is why we teach music:
Not because we expect you to major in music
Not because we expect you to play or sing all your life . . .
But so you will be human
So you will recognize beauty
So you will be closer to an infinite beyond this world
So you will have something to cling to
So you will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness, more good
In short, more Life.
Music is important to children. Some like to listen to it, alone, through
headphones while others like to sing, hum, whistle, or chant it. Some want
to play it on a musical instrument. Others enjoy dancing to it or
responding with some kind of physical movement. Some like to create "brand
new music" and poems, plays and dances to go with it. Whether listening,
singing, playing, moving or creating music, musical experiences are
important in the lives of children.
At MES, children are able to experience music in all these ways. They have
the opportunity to explore and, most importantly, to appreciate the
connection music has with other disciplines, such as history, language arts,
science and math. The many ways your children can participate in music has
the potential to enrich their lives in the best possible way.
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