CHRISTMAS MUSIC

A select collection of interactive music websites for the Christmas season, featuring carols from France, music by J.S. Bach, advent calendars, festive carols, midi tracks and lyrics.

‘Hang‘ is a mystery instrument! The video from Link TV has just been posted.

Your comments on this instrument here.

“Why can’t we use youtube?” a student asks.

There are lots of music resources available to music teachers on youtube, google video and yahoo video. However, due to school filtering systems, students are normally unable to access these resources. With this in mind, the video resources recently added to TANBUR come from other sources.

Why not try some of the providers listed and let everyone know if the links work in your school with a student login.

Are you able to access Internet music videos in your school? Can you access popular music videos from MTV? Should sources such as GOOGLE VIDEO, YAHOO VIDEO, MTV and YOUTUBE be available for student use?  

You can also SUGGEST A MUSIC VIDEO LINK. Please note that link suggestions may not be published.

Please post your comments on video links here.

Time Machine is a fun interactive music quiz from dsokids. Your task is to return each of 42 composers to the correct period in time.

Pull the lever on the time machine to eject the name and picture of a famous composer, read the clues, then decide if your composer belongs to the Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic or Modern period.

Mix Match Schumann is a fun interactive music quiz. The instructions are simple: 

• Visit the Ravinia website and explore the Robert Schumann interactive presentation.  

• Listen to ‘Scenes of Childhood’.

• Follow the links to Robert Schumann Life and Times, Timeline, the Piano and ‘Carnaval’. 

• Now try the quiz!

Why not try the quiz in a team or with some friends? Each ‘team’ can load a new set of questions. 

There’s lots more fun with other Mix and Match quizzes on Tanbur. You could also Invent a Mix Match Music Quiz.

Many more interactive music education website links have been posted. 

CIMBALON VIDEOS

The Cimbalon is a folk instrument found in many parts of the world.

TONEWHEELS

Chance music especially designed for the Internet.

TONAL MUSIC THEORY

Musical extracts with scores for the study of harmony.  

PERCY GRAINGER

Listen to ‘Random Round’ then create your own version.

HIP HOP OR SHAKESPEARE?

Video quiz from BBC Blast, presented by Hip Hop artist Akala (note that BBC videos will not display outside the UK).

 HICKORY DICKORY DOCK

 A song for very young children, with climbing mouse!

 SONGWRITING TIPS

 Top tips on songwriting with Hip Hop artist Akala.

 SLAM POETRY

 Top tips on slam poetry, with video performances from BBC Blast.

 UKULELE BEATLES FUN

 Songs by the Beatles, with chord symbols for ukulele.

 I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW

 Listen, compare and perform versions of the famous song by Johnny Nash.

Did you find a useful link?  It’s easy to post your comment below!

Jeff Hall’s recorded realization of  TERRY RILEY IN C  provides an excellent introduction to ‘chance’ or aleatoric music; the accompanying text explains the terminology with reference to MINIMALIST composers of the 20th Century, including Philip Glass and Terry Riley.

So you found the track and clicked play. Did you continue listening for the full 50 minutes and 10 seconds? I must confess that on my first visit to the site I pressed stop after only a minute or so. Perhaps it was the tug on my arm from my two year old boy asking to be taken to ’slide’. We needed to go, be involved and active!

Next day, and the two year old is out with mum. I’ve clicked play again. Now this time it’s different. I’m listening in minute two, and, yes.. that’s definitely an organ holding me in there. The music changes, and changes, and changes again. I’m still here in minute nine, the music slows, repeated sounds, single notes, bassoon, woodwind, repetitive, but changing, slowing, changing to strings…

It’s minute eleven.. twelve.. and I want to take part.. interact with the group, the recording. Something is tugging at me again, but this time it is different. I’m involved.. really listening. Seventeen minutes..

The word ‘interactive’ invites participation and, with this in mind, several interactive versions of CHANCE MUSIC are presented on the Tanbur website. Some of these are specially devised for the Internet, such as those by Robert White at SPNM PLAYGROUND.  Some inventions require you to participate as listener, others demand that you respond.  Tilt the three dimensional cube and thereby control and adjust according to Rob White’s rules of play.  

There is another category that uses sampled sounds on a website to imitate real instruments. What would Gamelan musicians from Bali make of websites that produce the sound of the Gender with the click of a mouse? The Internet computer cannot attempt to replace the ‘hands on’ physical experience of a real instrument played with mallets and having individual bamboo resonators for each bar, but we can interact and control a piece that follows very precise rules using authentic tunings and derived structures: PLAY1.   

Others are modern interactive presentations of historical models. Here are three of them, listed in chronological order: 

MINUET MIXER    An online version of dice games from the 18th century, pioneered by W.A. Mozart and others.

RANDOM ROUND composed 1912, Percy Grainger. As an online participant you will be the conductor, making decisions regarding timbre, the playing of melodies and counter melodies within defined sections of the piece.

MUSIC FOR PIECES OF WOOD composed 1973, Steve Reich.  Complex sounds and phase shifting are created from simple patterns. See LUNANOVA for detailed sound samples and score analysis.

32 minutes.. I hear a new section. . organ.. imitation.. new ideas.. changing. Can you find other categories of chance music on Tanbur Music Education Links, or elsewhere on the Internet? Did you listen for 50 minutes and 10 seconds? Was this a real orchestra with a conductor? Does ’chance art’ exist?

Terry Riley IN C  score download.

COMPOSERS’ GALLERY

Enter your selected gallery of composers and choose a portrait. 

PAKISTAN CONNECTION 

Listen to the National Anthem of Pakistan and singing in praise of the prophet Muhammad as part of this interactive presentation.  

LABUAT

‘Soye de aire’ –  pintando una canción.

CRAY MACHINE

An experiment that allows you to combine animations with sound effects.

Invent questions and answers for a music quiz on Listen 3: Mix and Match. Questions and answers should be based on one or more of the Listen 3 links. They need to fit the boxes easily, so only use a few words for each one!

How many mix match pairs do you need? This is up to you to decide and may depend on the topic for your quiz. For example, Listen 1: Mix and Match has 70 questions; Mix Match Mozart 1 has 14 questions; Mix Match Mozart 2 has 16 questions.

When your quiz is ready please POST YOUR QUIZ HERE, or in COMMENTS below. Please note that all posts will be reviewed and will not appear on this space unless approved for publication.

Good luck with your music quiz!

The Kennedy Center ArtsEdge interactive presentation JAZZ IN TIME provides an excellent introduction to the eras and styles of jazz. Listening samples include:

“Black Bottom Stomp” by Jelly Roll Morton

“St. Louis Blues” by Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong

“Ballin’ The Jack” by James Reese Europe

“Canal Street Blues” by King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band

“Wild Man Blues” by Johnny Dodds and his Chicago Boys

“You’ve Got to Be Modernistic” by James P. Johnson

“Heebie Jeebies” by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Fives

“Lester Leaps In” by Lester Young

“It Don’t mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” by Duke Ellington

“Bebop” by Dizzy Gillespie

“Moanin’” by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers

“Boplicity” by Miles Davis

“Eventually” by Ornette Coleman

“A Love Supreme” by John Coltrane

“I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel To Be Free” by Billy Taylor

“Sly” by Herbie Hancock

“Cantaloupe (Flip Fantasia)” by Us3