Compositori In Erba Project 2014/2016
In 2014, the Fondazione Spinola Banna per l’Arte set up a new music training project titled Compositori in Erba dedicated to primary schools across the local territory.
The project aims to encourage creativity and musical composition in young people, exploring the world of sound through listening, improvisation, the organisation of short musical pieces, the use of traditional musical instruments and the creation of original musical instruments.
The disciplinary objectives are: to develop the ability to listen to music and in particular to recognise sounds at a given or unknown pitch, notes and musical intervals; to learn the basics of rhythm, melody, harmony and timbre; to experiment with sounds and instruments, and to play with composition.
The course takes place at the school throughout the school year, with one-hour lessons per class each week and a final concert with parents at the Foundation’s headquarters. The course is taught by an expert appointed by the Foundation, who is accompanied during lessons by the schoolteacher. The method used integrates various theories and experiences, referring in particular to the pedagogical methods of Carl Orff, Rudolf Steiner, François Delalande and Boris Porena. Various musical instruments provided by the Foundation are used: recorders, violins, guitars, xylophones and various percussion instruments.
The pilot project was launched in the school year 2014–2015 in the Primary School of Villanova d’Asti (AT) in the third-year classes (47 children), up to the end of the fifth grade, with a three-year continuous teaching cycle in mind. In the 2015–2016 school year, the project took place in two fourth-year and one third-year elementary class, thus starting a second three-year teaching cycle.
The project is foreseen to continue with the teaching of these two classes for a further two years, for a total of three years, up until the end of the fifth year, and to start other three-year teaching cycles with the upcoming third-year primary school classes. We focus on children between eight and ten years old because they are considered the age group most suitable to learning to play through abstract rules and developing compositional thinking.
The intention is to continue over the years to come, again with a three-year programme, from the third to the fifth year of primary school; over all, around 150 children per year will be involved.
Teacher for the 2014/2015 – 2015/2016 academic years:
