title: Facilitating Elemental Composition in an Orff Classroom

authors: Stewart, Celia Ann

subjects: Orff Schulwerk

abstract: This study sought to gain an understanding of how the programming and pedagogical decisions of an Orff teacher impact on the success of a group of children in composing in an elemental style. Orff-Schulwerk is a child-centred approach to music education, which uses songs, dances, rhymes, clapping games, poetry and stories from the child’s world as the basis of music and movement activities. Carl Orff, originator of the approach, called this music and movement activity “elemental” – basic, unsophisticated, concerned with the fundamental building blocks of music and movement. 

This self-study project focused on two questions: 1. What pedagogical decision-making facilitated student achievement of the music programme learning objectives? 2. What activity design factors facilitated student achievement of the music programme learning objectives? To answer these questions, a programme of work was planned and implemented with a group of sixteen Year 5 and 6 students. The students worked sequentially with a range of Orff processes and media before embarking on their own compositions. Data were collected through four methods: a personal reflective journal, video recordings of two sessions, the observations of two critical friends and a focus group made up of five students, randomly selected from the participants who were interviewed at the mid- and end-point of the programme. An inductive, thematic approach was used to analyse the data. Themes emerging from an analysis of journal reflections were compared and contrasted with themes emerging from an analysis of critical friend observations and focus group interviews.

This study found that the most successful pedagogical strategies that facilitated successful outcomes for this group of students were: creating a safe and supportive environment; facilitation of collaborative learning; encouraging and empowering the children to make connections to, and draw on, their previous learning; facilitating opportunities for in-depth reflection by the peer group and the students themselves; providing constructive feedback and feed-forward; the provision of sufficient time and opportunity; the use of humour; teacher modelling: ensuring the aims and expectations are clear and managing classroom behaviour.

In investigating the general nature of activities, this study found that the most successful were those that: explored Orff media and utilised Orff pedagogy; energised and focussed the participants; involved the children in practical music making where they were using their whole bodies to sing, move and play; were scaffolded and allowed children to enter at a level that was comfortable for them; had clear links to both the short and long-term goals; and made links to children’s lives and experiences. The specific activities that the students found most successful were those that explored the pentatonic scale and provided opportunities for improvisation and the playing activities, with both body and untuned percussion. 

The study was limited to a small group of children in a high-decile school that was well resourced. All students except one had a strong musical background with some instrumental skills. Results may have been different with a cohort of students from a lower decile school, who may not have had the musical background that this group had.

text: Facilitating Elemental Composition in an Orff Classroom This study sought to gain an understanding of how the programming and pedagogical decisions of an Orff teacher impact on the success of a group of children in composing in an elemental style. Orff-Schulwerk is a child-centred approach to music education, which uses songs, dances, rhymes, clapping games, poetry and stories from the child’s world as the basis of music and movement activities. Carl Orff, originator of the approach, called this music and movement activity “elemental” – basic, unsophisticated, concerned with the fundamental building blocks of music and movement. 

This self-study project focused on two questions: 1. What pedagogical decision-making facilitated student achievement of the music programme learning objectives? 2. What activity design factors facilitated student achievement of the music programme learning objectives? To answer these questions, a programme of work was planned and implemented with a group of sixteen Year 5 and 6 students. The students worked sequentially with a range of Orff processes and media before embarking on their own compositions. Data were collected through four methods: a personal reflective journal, video recordings of two sessions, the observations of two critical friends and a focus group made up of five students, randomly selected from the participants who were interviewed at the mid- and end-point of the programme. An inductive, thematic approach was used to analyse the data. Themes emerging from an analysis of journal reflections were compared and contrasted with themes emerging from an analysis of critical friend observations and focus group interviews.

This study found that the most successful pedagogical strategies that facilitated successful outcomes for this group of students were: creating a safe and supportive environment; facilitation of collaborative learning; encouraging and empowering the children to make connections to, and draw on, their previous learning; facilitating opportunities for in-depth reflection by the peer group and the students themselves; providing constructive feedback and feed-forward; the provision of sufficient time and opportunity; the use of humour; teacher modelling: ensuring the aims and expectations are clear and managing classroom behaviour.

In investigating the general nature of activities, this study found that the most successful were those that: explored Orff media and utilised Orff pedagogy; energised and focussed the participants; involved the children in practical music making where they were using their whole bodies to sing, move and play; were scaffolded and allowed children to enter at a level that was comfortable for them; had clear links to both the short and long-term goals; and made links to children’s lives and experiences. The specific activities that the students found most successful were those that explored the pentatonic scale and provided opportunities for improvisation and the playing activities, with both body and untuned percussion. 

The study was limited to a small group of children in a high-decile school that was well resourced. All students except one had a strong musical background with some instrumental skills. Results may have been different with a cohort of students from a lower decile school, who may not have had the musical background that this group had.

year: 2013

title: Tonality re-framed: The tone clock as gateway to expanded tonality

authors: Baker, Shamus Adam

subjects: Tone clock

abstract: During the 20ᵗʰ century, developments in musical practice courted controversy by abandoning traditional means of musical organization and expression. A potent response to this trend was the work of Peter Schat in creating the tone clock theory of musical composition, and Jenny McLeod’s efforts to develop these ideas in the New Zealand context. However, Schat’s claim to have created an ‘atonical tonality’ is problematic. This thesis uses the tone clock as a tool for generating an expanded form of true tonality. Based upon the common branching groupings of both tonal framing and tone clock steering, the two approaches are combined to create an expanded tonality of emancipated intervals, allowing the population of an expanded musical territory with the expressive possibilities tonality is already known to possess through the work of earlier composers and theorists. The approach, developed using small experiments in composition and analysis, is that the groupings which emerge from the small number of tonal framing motions are easily described by a steering tree, which relates them to the principles of the tone clock. This allows the same basic tonal framings to be transposed into a greater number of interval combinations. This expanded tonality is also demonstrated in multi-voice textures, making use of unconventional chordal sonorities channeled according to the same framing principles.

text: Tonality re-framed: The tone clock as gateway to expanded tonality During the 20ᵗʰ century, developments in musical practice courted controversy by abandoning traditional means of musical organization and expression. A potent response to this trend was the work of Peter Schat in creating the tone clock theory of musical composition, and Jenny McLeod’s efforts to develop these ideas in the New Zealand context. However, Schat’s claim to have created an ‘atonical tonality’ is problematic. This thesis uses the tone clock as a tool for generating an expanded form of true tonality. Based upon the common branching groupings of both tonal framing and tone clock steering, the two approaches are combined to create an expanded tonality of emancipated intervals, allowing the population of an expanded musical territory with the expressive possibilities tonality is already known to possess through the work of earlier composers and theorists. The approach, developed using small experiments in composition and analysis, is that the groupings which emerge from the small number of tonal framing motions are easily described by a steering tree, which relates them to the principles of the tone clock. This allows the same basic tonal framings to be transposed into a greater number of interval combinations. This expanded tonality is also demonstrated in multi-voice textures, making use of unconventional chordal sonorities channeled according to the same framing principles.

year: 2022

title: The Digital Divide in New Zealand: The position of Māori and Pacific peoples

authors: Gibson, John

subjects: Māori digital access

abstract: Information and communication technology plays an ever-growing role in economic, political and social life and those who are unable to access such technologies are increasingly disadvantaged. Hence, what has come to be known as the ‘digital divide’ is of considerable significance. Here, indicators of that divide as it affects Māori and Pacific Islands peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand are presented and discussed.

text: The Digital Divide in New Zealand: The position of Māori and Pacific peoples Information and communication technology plays an ever-growing role in economic, political and social life and those who are unable to access such technologies are increasingly disadvantaged. Hence, what has come to be known as the ‘digital divide’ is of considerable significance. Here, indicators of that divide as it affects Māori and Pacific Islands peoples in Aotearoa/New Zealand are presented and discussed.

year: 2002-09