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| Edward Hicks, Peaceable Kingdom, oil on canvas, 1837 |
One of our favorite projects this season was aural in nature - nature being a key word! For the first time in our after school program, the Art Brainers used a strictly musical approach in their art making. They were asked to imagine what kind of music plants, animals, and other elements of nature might like, and how that music might sound different from our own. Would a squirrel like to listen to wild, crazy music, or soothing sounds like wind blowing through the leaves of a tree? What kind of sounds might make a cactus feel happy? Each class used some instruments and their own hands and voices to compose and perform songs for a few select creatures. You can listen to some examples of the results below.
These have not been market tested just yet, but I can say that my cat jumped up and exited the room upon hearing a number of these, so I'm thinking we've accomplished *something*, though that something may not be for cats. ("Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable," etc.)
And because hearing the kids' voices introducing each of the songs was killing me with cuteness, I couldn't resist collecting a bunch of those in one place, too.
Click "Read more" below to take a listen to the Art Brains kids' awesome tunes, and report back if your pet electric eel is into it!
Music for electric eels (blub blub)
Shark Mountain (a mountain island guarded by sharks). Sounds of wind and waves punctuated with menace and concluded with chomping.
A song for a cricket, and one for a gerbil.
Venus fly traps. Bzzz
A song about water.
Song for birds and a song for crazy dogs!
A song for whales.
Collection of kid song intros!
