Canon Barnett Takeover Festival: Sonic tours with Rus

Our Takeover Festival with pupils at Canon Barnett Primary School takes place  next Friday (22 March). In the run up to the day we’ll be sharing with you some of the projects that we’ve been working on with the children. First up, Music Leader Rus Pearson tells us about audio tour-guiding.

Pupils of Canon Barnett Primary School. Photo: Alys Tomlinson.

In my role as sound artist, this session saw me working with two small groups to explore the immediate and wider sonic environments. We began by reading and discussing the poem below, then closed our eyes and analysed the sounds that we could hear in the classroom, these included projectors purring, boys breathing, girls giggling, construction cranes clattering and registers rustling.

We then embarked on a sound walk through the school, each group being led by a ‘sonic tour guide’. Using portable audio recorders we documented the many interesting sounds that we discovered on our journey. We visited a number of locations including the stairwells, the dinner hall, several classrooms, the nursery, the school reception, the playground, the garden and held our microphones through the gates to record the sounds of the traffic. We encountered trucks, cars and even a policeman on a motorbike, although much to our disappointment he didn’t make any interesting sounds!

Night Noises In The City
by Jane Yolen

In the country
Things are quiet.
In the city
Noise runs riot.

Car horns beep.
Buses boom.
People shout.
Trucks zoom-zoom.

Fire engine
Siren wails,
Someone whistles
Taxi hails.

Garbage truck
Churns crackety-crack.
Subway rails
Go clickety-clack.

Close your eyes
And use your ears.
And hear what
A city sleeper hears.

Here are several examples of some of the recordings that we made during our journey. Can you guess what they are?

These sounds will form one of the many installations that will be presented on the festival day including the laptop orchestra, a dance mat quartet and “The Cave”. Stay tuned for more details…

We had a great time as sonic adventurers paying attention to the many unusual sounds that surround us, searching for the heart of the city. Close your eyes and listen, what do you hear?

Rus Pearson
Music Leader

Answers: 1) Jewels hidden in the nursery, 2) Giant Connect 4 Game, 3) Radiator Guiro, 4) Spoons in a cup

Idea Store Reflections

Zoë Palmer works with us regularly on our Learning & Participation programme. Over the past year she has been working with library staff from Idea Stores across Tower Hamlets to develop singing and storytelling skills specifically for engaging early years (0-2s) audiences.

Idea Store storytelling yurt at the Midsummer Street Party

Sitting in a yurt as part of the Spitalfields Music Summer Festival, Raju turned the first page of his story, looked at the audience of 20 toddlers and their families, and asked, “so where is the golden egg?” But his question was more an invitation to play, move, dance and sing with staff from Idea Stores in Tower Hamlets who had just completed a year-long training programme integrating music into their storytelling work.

“It’s on the bus,” one child shouted, “it’s a star in the sky,” added another, “it’s behind you!” And there it was hanging from the canvas like makeshift sunshine. The next 30 minutes were bursting with questions and answers, spoken, sung, drummed and shaken as Raju narrated the story of Aysha, a little girl from East London whose search for the golden egg takes her on an adventure around the local area. His audience joined in, contributing their voices to the cacophony, sometimes singing without words, as though they were revelling in the magic of collective music-making.

From my position at the back of the tent observing the Idea Store staff as they led the session, it was clear to see how much fun everyone was having. It seemed that they had each found their own role: Sally was using puppets to support the story, Florence was dancing and Jesnara mixed baby sign with her actions to encourage very small children to join in. Parents were singing too, something that doesn’t always happen, but when it does it feels like we’re getting close to achieving what we set out to do.

When we had begun working together a year earlier it was a very different story. I met the group with a fair amount of trepidation; it can be difficult working with adults on training courses, especially where singing is involved. I was also aware that delivering story-time sessions is one aspect of their busy and varied working lives, so keeping the training relevant, engaging and fun was at the forefront of my mind. However, as the year unfolded something exciting started to happen – people were bringing their own ideas into the sessions, sharing their experiences and best practise and supporting each other during the time in between. We learnt songs from Bangladesh, Somalia and Tanzania, amongst others, aiming to reflect and connect with the parents who would turn up to their library based groups on a regular basis.

By the time we reached our final session early last month, it seemed as though the group had taken on its own momentum beyond our sessions. Alongside some reflection and recording, we spent most of our time making things – music, stories, pictures – and then putting them together. We drew pictures of each other without looking at the paper and used puppets to give feedback. We jumped from one thing to the next, as the children we work with so often do, enjoying each task for it’s own sake. In the process I listened to staff say that they felt more creative and less stuck in a rut; the funny thing was, after a year working with them all, I did too!

Zoë Palmer
Workshop Leader

Intern Diaries: Community choirs, Christmas songs & back to school

Two months have passed since my last post and I’m now just over half way through my internship. The L&P calendar for Spring 2012 is super busy, full of really interesting and enjoyable projects.  I was recently at a session in Osmani Primary School with a Year 3 class and they were starting work on a joint project with the Royal Academy of Music. I’m enjoying the variety of work that I’m experiencing as part of my internship and all the lovely people I’m getting to meet!

Neighbourhood Songs at the Spitalfields Music Winter Festival 2011

Recruitment has started once again for the two community singing groups, Spitalfields Singers and Women sing East.  I’m really looking forward to working with both these choirs again and will be very sad to say goodbye to them at the end of this term!  The Women Sing East concert in our Winter Festival was a definite highlight for me.  With the support of Clare I was project managing this concert.  As a musician I have played in many concerts, but this was the first time that I had been on the other side – managing the musicians! The concert was a huge success – the choir sounded absolutely fantastic and Laka sang a wonderful arrangement of the ‘Christmas Song’ to get us all in the Christmas spirit.  This was a truly magical concert – my face muscles ached from smiling so much!

Kathryn Allnutt                                                                                                    Learning and Participation Intern

Intern Diaries: Meet Kathryn

Kathryn Allnutt has joined us as our new Learning and Participation Intern! She plays the French horn, and enjoys chilling in the garden during her free time (even in November!) She shares with us how she has found her first month as a Spitalfields Music intern.

It has now been four weeks since I started my internship working within the L&P team at Spitalfields Music and I’m loving it!  I have been made to feel very welcome in the office (with the frequent offerings of chocolate and brownies!) and I’m now feeling very much part of the team.

My main focus over the past four weeks has been to recruit members for Spitalfields Singers, an exciting new community singing group that meets on Thursday lunchtimes at Hanbury Hall (it’s still not too late to join us!)  The first two rehearsals have been a huge success, with membership now double that of the previous year!

The past four weeks have zoooomed past SO quickly – they do say that time flies when having fun! My initial impression of the office and of Spitalfields Music is one of amazement – amazement both at the exciting and interesting programme of concerts and education projects that they run within Tower Hamlets, but also at how cool, calm and collected everyone is (or at least, appears to be!) in the office despite having so much going on!

I had my first monthly review with Natalie this morning, reflecting on the past month.  Scary to think that I’m already one –sixth of the way through! If the first month is anything to go by, I think I’m in for a very enjoyable (and busy!) six months!