SMA Bulletin192

B

the SCHOOLS MUSIC ASSOCIATION part of the Incorporated Society of Musicians AUTUMN 2016 No. 192

Supporting Music in Schools

SMAe the

£2.50

ULLETIN

Hon. editor: Carole Lindsay-Douglas carole@lindsaymusic.co.uk tel: 01767-260815

Change of VENUE for SMA Training Day 21 October 2016

SMA announces an exciting competition to write a work for children at KS2

The ISM-SMA Steering Group is very aware that many members, in the course of their everyday work in schools, will have written music-stories of their own for performance by the children they teach.

Since we went to press in April this year, the hotel at which the ISM-SMA Training Day was to have taken place, has been sold, and the new owners are undertaking extensive refurbishment. So a new venue has had to be selected.

The new venue for MUSIC AT THE HEART of SCHOOL LIFE is The Broadway Hotel, Letchworth in Hertfordshire. This is just a stone’s throw from Letchworth railway station and affords all the facilities necessary for this practical day of ideas and tips for embedding music in your school at KS1 & 2.

A booking form is enclosed with this issue, or can be found on http://www.ism. org/professional-development/seminars

Perhaps you’re in the throes of writing something at the moment? Or perhaps you have a work which you wrote in the past? So long as it is entirely original and has never been previously published or won an award, then you can submit it. There is no charge for entry.

There is a £1000 prize on offer (to be shared equally between the writer/s and the school/s in which they work), and the winning work will also be considered for publication by ISM Corporate Member Lindsay Music.

The rules, regulations and deadlines are overleaf. Please note that this is not a competition for professional composers, but for those whose work regularly brings them into direct contact with children at school. Membership of ISM-SMA is not a requirement.

The deadline for entries is midnight on 31 March 2017.

We look forward to receiving your entry.

ISM-SMA COMPETITION TO COMPOSE A WORK FOR CHILDREN (8-12 YEARS)

Eligibility The competition is open to all teachers currently working with young people in a school The composition This is to be a work for children aged 8-12 consisting of songs and narration (or cast) based on a folk tale or original story

Scores must be computer processed (Finale, Notion, Sibelius etc.) or handwritten clearly in black ink to a professional standard on A4 size pages, and accompanied by a recording of the music

Entrant/s may submit only one work

The work should be of 30-40 minutes duration and contain a minimum of five songs

Four hard copies of the score must be submitted

The songs can be in unison or two parts

name/s of the writer/s must not be on the score.

On these scores a code-word should be placed.

All names with addresses, telephone numbers and e-mails should be in a sealed envelope with the code word clearly written on the outside of the envelope.

The accompaniment should be for a keyboard but there can be additional parts for children to play consisting of melodic instruments and pitched and unpitched percussion The work can be written for concert performance or for a staged presentation The spoken part can be for a narrator (or narrators) or can be written for varying characters The work can be written by more than one person Prize There will be a prize of £1,000 donated by the Schools Music Association, shared 50:50 by the creator/s and the school/s in which they work The winning work will be considered for publication

by Lindsay Music

To ensure anonymity to the judging panel, the real

The entrant/s will retain the copyright, with the exception of the prize-winner, who for the purposes of publishing will be required to assign copyright to the publisher in accordance with standard publishing practice should Lindsay Music take up its option to publish.

Scores are sent in at the entrant/s’ own risk.

At the end of the competition, scores will only be returned if a stamped, addressed envelope is included.

The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

The judging panel reserves the right to withhold the prize

Submitting a work for the competition will indicate that the entrant/s accept/s these rules and conditions

Judging Panel

Timetable

The judging panel, members of which will not be permitted to enter the competition, will be announced shortly

Entries must be received by midnight on 31 March 2017

Terms and conditions The work must be entirely an unpublished original and complete work The work must not have won a prize in any other competition Entries must not infringe the intellectual property rights of any third party

The winner will be announced no later than 31 July 2017 by publication on the following web-sites: www.ism.org and www.lindsaymusic.co.uk Address for entries All entries should be sent to:Carole Lindsay-Douglas ISM-SMA Steering Group 24 Royston Street, Potton, Bedfordshire, SG19 2LP

Music for children

by Rebecca Rumens-Syratt pub: Pavilion Books eBook ISBN: 9781849943987 Print ISBN: 9781849943093

Price £12.99 www.pavilionbooks.com When a new hardback book arrived on my desk a month or so ago, my first reaction was ‘Oh no, not another book explaining the rudiments of music!’, but on closer inspection, I found The Batsford Book of Music for Children by Rebecca Rumens-Syratt to be an engaging read-through – even for an adult. The language used is not babyish, nor in the least patronising. It is straightforward and uncomplicated, explaining musical jargon as it crops up, and any youngster who has mastered the art of reading English will quickly become absorbed in learning about the nuts and bolts of the language of music, trying out some of the lovely ideas for composing and playing and discovering more about instruments and how they work. The author also acknowledges other genres of music (apart from classical) with descriptions of a variety of folk and world music, pop and rock, as well as jazz, and the volume is beautifully illustrated throughout. With Christmas fast approaching I can see this being an ideal gift for the child who is showing an interest in music, but equally as part of the primary classroom library, where, with the new emphasis on music-reading, this publication will be a handy reference book.

Carole Lindsay-Douglas

Bacc for the Future…now more than ever!

We want everyone to see the latest GCSE results and the ongoing erosion of the creative subjects.

Figures released by the Joint Council for Qualifications show a continuing fall in uptake of creative, artistic and technical GCSEs. There have been calls on the Government to urgently review [its] EBacc plans with the Royal Academy of the Arts adding its voice to criticism of EBacc. The Department for Education has said that they want to make our country “a place where there is no limit on anyone’s ambition or what they can achieve.” But their EBacc proposal, which without evidence, focuses on a narrow set of subjects, is actively diminishing pupils’ choices in school and discouraging their ambitions.

This year, creative, artistic and technical GCSEs have seen a further fall of 7.7% and the Bacc for the Future campaign is urging the Government to reconsider their EBacc proposals before irreversible damage is done to creative subjects.

How can you help?

You can help to keep up the momentum by writing to your MP, sending them a personal message or attending one of their advice surgeries to discuss your concerns in person; many of the personal comments received by MPs were mentioned in the recent debate in Parliament and they make a real difference. If you receive a reply from an MP, please email it to derin.adebiyi@

ism.org. Please also continue encourage your friends and family to join the 200 plus organisations and 100,000 petition signatories and help ensure that creative subjects, so vital to the UK economy, are not forced out of our schools.

Here are the key GCSE figures in full

* The data for Dance was not available at the time of going to press

Engagement at KS3 through the medium of radio

Olivia Campbell in the foreground, with Douglas Coombes (right) and Carole Lindsay-Douglas at the controls

The Friday Afternoons Project Fund means up to £2000 is available to individuals and organisations seeking to deliver Friday Afternoons Projects, and applications are currently being accepted. The funding, enabled through an Exceptional Awards grant from Arts Council England, allows partners to deliver activity and performance opportunities throughout the year, with a focus on digital delivery, creative responses and working in areas of low engagement. For more information and to apply: http://www.fridayafternoonsmusic.co.uk/news

It was back in 2013 when Carole Lindsay-Douglas, as part of a presentation by ISM at the Music Education Expo, put forward the notion that devising a radio show, involving research, listening and presentational skills could be an ideal route into greater engagement in music, at a stage when young minds can so easily be ‘turned off ’ the subject. A number of those who attended requested a copy of the presentation afterwards and it is hoped that those teachers have tried out the idea. The first example which has come to the attention of SMA is from Leighton Linslade Middle School in Bedfordshire, where Head of Music, Beth Albone took up the opportunity for a student to take part in a live show on local radio station Biggles FM. Beth made the exercise part of her normal music lessons, after inviting Douglas Coombes to visit her school and talk about script-writing, research and presentation. Students were asked to select a short piece of music and ‘present’ it to an audience.

Pupils had to say what it was that appealed to them, provide some historical background and if possible, find an entertaining story regarding the piece or perhaps the composer. The whole segment, including playing the music itself from a recording, was to be no more than 15 minutes. Once the project was complete the students themselves voted for what they considered to be the best, in collaboration with the Head Teacher. Olivia Campbell (aged 12) came out on top, and together with her parents came to the Biggles FM studios earlier this year to be part of Douglas Coombes’ live show Variations, when she presented the 1st movement of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Olivia coped extremely well under the pressure of ‘live’ conditions, with several listeners commenting that they thought it was a great idea to put school work out to the benefit of the wider community.

This project was based on classical music, but could work equally well with any genre. Have you tried anything along these lines?

We’d love to know.

Anne Geoghegan

B Mus., BA(Hons), LRAM (voice), ARCM (piano) Dip.Ed. SMA is greatly saddened to learn of the death in August of this year, of a highly respected and greatly valued member of the International Guild of Adjudicators and Workshop Presenters.

Anne had battled with illness for some months. Anne Geoghegan graduated from London University and studied singing with Dame Eva Turner and Bruce Boyce at the Royal Academy of Music for four years. Continuing with a freelance career, Anne successfully appeared as a mezzo soprano soloist at festivals in Europe and Russia. Since the 70s Anne combined performing with a teaching career and was Head of Performing Arts at King Edward VI school in Birmingham. During this time, she obtained an Honours degree from the Open University and undertook extensive work as a moderator for several examining boards. In the early 70s she was appointed to the music panel of Trinity/ Guildhall and examined for them in the UK and throughout the world. As an active choral conductor, Anne has been associated with several societies including the Birmingham based Zimriyah choir with whom she made numerous recordings and broadcasts. In September 2011 Anne founded Penkridge Voices, a mixed choir. Adjudicating, both in the UK and abroad, Anne also worked as a voice consultant for soloists and choirs with master-classes a speciality. She will be greatly missed by her professional colleagues, husband Paul and daughters Claire and Sara. Those wishing to send personal condolences should contact paul.musicmaker@gmail.com