Creating a Program: Making Things Fit!

This is the 3rd installment and final (for now) of a series of posts on creating a program.

Something that can be hard to do is find pieces that fit a theme that you have come up with.  Often I start my program with one musical selection that I'm excited about and build the program around that piece.  Last year the piece that inspired me was Lo Yisa Goi (a beautiful Israeli Folk Song).  From that piece I decided to build a concert that traveled around the world visiting different holiday traditions.

What I find difficult is finding pieces that are age appropriate for my groups that fit the theme I have selected.  It can be maddening to round out the concert with that last musical selection.  Another reason that this sometimes stumps me is because I like to have a balance of choral, instrumental and movement in my performances.  Let's face it, we have all been to that monotonous choral performance.  I don't want my concerts to feel that way, so it sometimes makes planning a program more difficult (it may also be my anal nature).  :)

Some tricks I have learned along the way are:

1.  Create your own arrangements.
I have to admit, I did not feel comfortable with this until I took my Level I.  It really helped me better understand how to write for barred instruments and my kids.  This has really opened up song selection because an interesting arrangement and form can drastically change a simple folk song while making it more appropriate for upper grades.

2.  Transfer melodies to recorder.
Once you have created those holiday arrangements, how about performing the melody on recorder.  While most parents don't like to hear their kids practicing this instrument at home, they are very impressed when they perform a melody on it.

3.  Simple Melodies
Besides creating a more complicated harmonic accompaniment, think about how you can up simple songs for older grades.  Can you add movement?  Extend the form?  Add ostinati?  Sing it as a round?

4.  Package Performances
Sometimes package performances have a great script but the musical selections are okay.  Can you replace one of the intended musical selections with another holiday tune.  Or, can you insert other musical selections other places in the musical?

Did you miss the first two posts?  Links are below:

Creating a Program: Theme
Creating a Program: Favorite Resources

Creating a Program: Theme

Recently a teacher who follows my blog emailed asking about how I start or come up with a concert program.  Over the next few weeks I will post about this; how I go about creating a program and putting a twist on package programs.  I hope this is helpful as you plan for your holiday performances or for another later in the year.

This may sound crazy but I start planning my winter program in May!  I don't finalize anything but I want at least a vague idea of where I'm headed and what date I'm working towards.  I find that starting my year with these events semi planned helps give me direction and lower my stress level.  It doesn't concern me that I'm not sure which kids will be in my group because I can always tweak things later to meet the overall ability of the group.

My winter concert is more on the traditional choral side of things.  Most of our singing is standing on risers with some stationary movement.  However, I do like to add some dances in with small groups and our orff group does all of the instrumental parts and some highlight pieces as well.  In addition to all of this I like to have some sort of script and offer some kids the opportunity of a narrators role.  I usually create this script so that it fits the theme of our program and highlights some of the skills involved in the performance of the piece.

When I am planning for this event I always like to start with a theme.  One year it was A Passport Through the Holidays another Toys.  Usually a specific piece inspires the theme.  For my Passport Through the Holidays concert it was Lo Yisa Goi, an Israeli Folk Song.  While this piece is not a traditional holiday piece, it had a great message that is prevalent at the holidays.  Once I have the theme it is easy to focus in on what other pieces of music would fit well in the program.

You can make just about any theme work.  Here are some jumping off points:

-by composer
-by region
-by holiday
-by subject (i.e. toys)

And on and on....

Since it is close to the holidays, what are some of your favorite themes for holiday programs?