Meridian’s seasoned all-star composers spent the trimester with a mammoth task; to write their own versions of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons”. The class explored and incorporated different musical ideas for each season using Antonio as a guide. Additionally, the composers had to complete a list of requirements that included writing for trumpet, having one fully acoustic movement, and performing the songs live with classmates. It’s remarkable what these students have done, and all in their own incredible personal styles. Please enjoy the works in the order each composer chose, top to bottom : )
This trimester, Division 3 composers explored many different ways to approach writing a new song. The selections you will find here started as either 1) a beat written by a classmate, 2) the pentatonic scale and a simple melody, or 3) with the poem Stone by Charles Simic.
The final project for this class required students to use all of their newfound Beginning Music Theory knowledge. After identifying the key, melodic scale degrees, and all intervals of a given song, each student had to transpose the entire song into a new key. They then created a new manuscript by hand using the somewhat frustrating rules of musical penmanship.
In this new Division 1 foundations course, we explore all things rhythm. The class finds the groove in speech, songs, drumbeats, and even naturally occurring rhythms in the outside world (think rain... or construction sites). Our final unit deals with body percussion and the unity of drumlines. Please enjoy these videos showing off our skills!
After learning about many different families of instruments, each student was challenged to invent their own string instrument. The instrument had to play at least three different notes and be able to change pitch. Enjoy these informative and entertaining videos!
Finally, explore our world percussion map! Navigate just like you would a GoogleMap and click the links to hear any instruments you don’t know about.
