Presidents’ Message 2

February Workshop Review 6

October Workshop Review 8

Care and Feeding of Teachers 12

Upcoming Events 14

Newsletter of the Ontario Orff Chapter • Music For Children - Musique Pour Enfants • Volume 21 Issue 1

Winter 2015

How The Orff Instruments Came into Being by Carl Orff

Translated and Condensed by Margaret Murray

In the autumn of 1926 Orff was in-

troduced to two Swedish sisters who

worked with puppets and who had

heard, through a mutual friend, of

his experiments with percussion

improvisation with students at the

Guntherschule in Munich. They

visited the school and in turn invited

him to visit them in the Wagnerstras-

se in the Schwabing district of

Munich. There, in a large, tumble-

down studio they had built a theatre,

and everything - from the hand-

carved puppets, to the way the

scenery was arranged was absolutely

novel, full of imagination, and in its

way convincing. The only essential

thing lacking was suitable music, and

this they had not yet found. A

friend’s attempts at an improvised

accompaniment on a violin were

touching but somewhat helpless.

Now that the sisters had heard and

seen the percussion ensemble at the

Guntherschule they were filled with

new plans, and Orff felt that some

work wih them would produce

interesting results.

After an improvised performance of

a legend and a fairy tale, a long

discussion ensued in which Orff dis-

covered that the sisters had travelled

far. They had witnessed Chinese as

well as Japanese shadow plays, with

their unusual small orchestra, and

had several photographs to show.

They were also able to talk about

Gamelan orchestras, and felt that the

xylophone was particularly appropri-

ate for the puppet theatre. This re-

minded Orff of his earlier childhood

experiments when he enacted Mae-

terlinck’s “Death of Tintagiles”, and

of how a small Chinese drum was the

source of inspiration for the whole

scene. Orff finally left the studios

promising to come again, perhaps

next time with a small percussion

group from the school and the sisters

in turn promised him that through

their Oriental connections they

would try to procure for him a

Gamelan xylophone.

After some weeks, Orff received a

parcel. To his amazement it con-

tained a large African xylophone, a

marimba such as those he had seen

in collections but had never had the

opportunity to play, let along pos-

sess. The only clue to the sender

was a note inside: “Greetings from

Africa. Lycka till!” (Swedish for

“Good Luck!”). Orff’s attempts to

contact the Swedish sisters and thank

them proved fruitless. He heard

from the friend that had introduced

them that because of a severe illness

that had overcome the older sister,

they had returned to Sweden and

had left no forwarding address. He

never heard from them again.

Orff was fascinated by this new

world of sound and spent long hours

experimenting and improvising on his

new African xylophone, using various

types of beaters in all possible ways:

long quiet tremolos, using two beat-

ers in each hand, single and double

glissandi. All at once he had found

the instrument he needed for further

extension of his educational ideas and

for his dance orchestra. It would

supply those resonances that had

previously been missing, and upon it

melodies and ostinato of all kinds

could be built. As he looked back at

the earlier percussion experiments

they seemed like skeleton sketches

that would only now have some

meaning.

The xylophone is one of the oldest

melody instruments and was wide-

spread throughout Asia and Africa,

from whence it travelled to South

(Continued on page 3)

Greetings from the Ontario Orff Chapter! As I sit here to write this message to you, I am in a bit of shock! I never would have thought that when I began my music teaching journey that I would become Co-President of an organization.

I have been involved with the Ontario Chapter since 2006, when my mentor and mother, Anne Tipler, encouraged me to get involved. I started as a Member at Large and then moved on to Co-Vice President. Since 2006, the group of dedi-cated Orff Teachers that sit on the board of directors has held space for me to grow as a music teacher and as a leader. As a member of this organization, I have learned the importance of the work that we do. We provide music educa-tors space for professional development, a space for collaboration and a space to nurture relationships. Each time I see the board members at a meeting or a workshop, I leave with a renewed sense of positivity for what I do with my work as an Orff Specialist.

Why do I choose to continue my work with the Ontario Chapter? It is because of YOU. The members! Being part of something bigger than just my little Orff classroom in Mississauga is what drives me forward. I encourage YOU to

become more involved! How you might ask? Here are some suggestions:

SHOW UP! Please continue to attend workshops and connect with oth-

ers. Without YOUR support, our organization would not be the same.

SHARE! Share your success on the Facebook Page (Ontario Orff Chap-

ter) or Twitter @ontarioorff

SHINE! You are ready NOW to take on a leadership role in this organi-

zation. Contact me at trichick2@hotmail.com to find out how.

We are welcoming a lot of new faces to the board of directors this year and I hope that one day you will consider joining us. I am excited to work alongside Co-President Batya Levy, and we both extend our thanks to Marion Roy who is stepping into the role of Past President.

I am excited to share with you what lights ME up in my teaching at “An Orff Duet”. This is a workshop I am giving in conjunction with Julie Grierson on Sun-

day Feburary 8, 2014. Hope to see you then!

Allison Tipler

Page 2 Message from

the Co-presidents:

Allison Tipler and Batya Levy

Ontario Orff Executive

2014-2015

Co - President:

Batya Levy

Allison Tipler

Past - President:

Marion Roy

1st Vice President—Children’s Festival, Scholarships:

Suzanne Waller

2nd Vice President—Clinicians:

Kristina Barratt

3rd Vice President—Workshop Venue:

Andrea McNeil

Secretary:

Catherine Irving

Treasurer:

Batya Levy

Membership:

Caren Ludwig-Shoychet

Mass Communication & Membership:

Louise Lui

Newsletter Editor:

Jennifer Stacey

Website:

Lori Moccio

Publicity:

Dubravka Vasic

National Archivist:

AnneTipler

Advocacy & Outreach:

Elizabeth Seo

Industrial Rep:

Bruce Grant—St. John’s Music

Mosaic Mosaïque is published three times a year by the Ontario Chapter of Music for Children, Carl Orff Canada, Musique pour enfants. Articles in the newsletter express the viewpoints of their

authors and do not imply endorsement by the Chapter.

Mosaic Mosaïque welcomes contributions of articles, ideas for

columns, news and questions.

Submissions are requested by November 25 for the January Issue,

February 25 for the April Issue and July 25 for the September Issue.

Submissions are subject to approval and editing. Please send

submissions to:

Jennifer Stacey

j.staceyorff@gmail.com

Page 3 America, primitive forms giving way

to those with box-resonators.

Some of the primitive forms proba-

bly found their way to Europe in

the 16th century, through wander-

ing musicians. In contrast to the

non-European xylophones, its

development in Europe was limited,

and not until the 19th century, in a

version called a four-row xylo-

phones (1) did it make a temporary

appearance as an orchestral instru-

ment. In more recent times, the

American model has appeared, with

its piano keyboard arrangement and

amplification by means of resona-

tors, and with it the development

of the western form of the xylo-

phone has reached a conclusive

stage for the time being.

In 1889, Debussy came into contact

with the music of the far east

through the World Exhibition in

Paris. To this exhibition came thea-

tres and exotic orchestras from

China, India and Java. Debussy is

known to have been fascinated by

the sounds, and particularly by the

Gamelan orchestra. According to

Heinrich Strobel, Debussy consid-

ered that in comparison with the

refined and blended sound of this

orchestra the percussion instru-

ments of the cultured European

orchestra only produced the bar-

baric noise of a circus.

The Gamelan music of Indonesia,

with its polyrhythms and polyphony

can be considered as the peak of

achievement for non-European

music culture, and is from a certain

viewpoint an equal counterpart to

western art music, looking back as

it does over hundreds of years’

history. Even when only consid-

ered visually, this orchestra from

the east, with its instruments that

have culture and magical meaning,

leaves behind an overwhelming

impression.

(Continued from page 1) In spite of the profound and direc-

tional influence of the sound of the

Gamelan orchestra upon Debussy,

he never used such an instrument

in any of his works. For Orff, an

experience no less weighty for him

was intended. It was the sound of

one single instrument, the marimba.

This African xylophone not only

initiated a new stage in his educa-

tional work but also provided an

important point of departure for all

his subsequent compositions.

He asked Gunild Keetman to famil-

iarise herself with the technique of

the marimba, whose tuning con-

tained intervals that were smaller

than a semitone and that would be

difficult to combine with our west-

ern tuning. Then he and Keetman

would play together on it after

school hours until late at night.

They preferred playing on it “four-

handed”, not knowing that this was

quite usual in its home country.

More and more students came to

listen and brought with them a vari-

ety of small percussion instruments,

- maracas, jingles, and drums. Out

of the first tentative improvisation

experiments they soon achieved a

real ensemble.

Magda Lex was also drawn into

these evening music sessions, and

her delight in the new sounds

inspired her to compose a dance

study “Stabetanz”. (2)

Attractive as all these experiments

were, it was clear that an instru-

ment that fitted into our western

tuning would have to be made.

When Orff turned to Curt Sachs

for counsel he was advised against

trying to build a series of instru-

ments based on the African model.

Sachs argued that the construction

was of purely African origin, the

materials (the right kind of wood

for the bars and the calabash reso-

nators) were not to hand, and even

if one had success with making one

of the instruments, the making of a

series was unthinkable. Sachs sug-

gested instead that he should make

use of recorders. Orff knew these

instruments from amateur circles

that gave themselves to the playing

of baroque music and he had heard

of Arnold Dolmetsch in Haslemere,

England, who was making new

copies of old instruments for the

performance of baroque music . In

spite of a high esteem for the out-

standing musicological research that

established a style of playing, Orff

was following other paths. He also

did not wish to appear to have any

parallel relationship to Fritz Jode’s

efforts at introducing the recorder

to the youth movement in the

Germany of the early twenties.

Sachs understood Orff’s objections,

but was able to refute them histori-

cally by suggesting that the baroque

way of playing had no means

exhausted all possibilities and that

other sound qualities could be

produced with a different blowing

technique. When, finally, Sachs told

him that some old forms of record-

ers (bone flutes) that could be dated

as having belonged to the Stone Age

had been found in North Europe,

Orff felt freed of all misgivings at the

idea of including an avowed baroque

art instrument in his elemental mu-

sic ensemble.

Sachs advised Orff to approach

Peter Harlan, who had a workshop

in Markneukirchen where he made

his lutes, viols, and most of all,

recorders. Orff was fascinated with

the idea of including a quartet of

recorders - descant (soprano), tre-

ble (alto), tenor and bass - in his

instrumental ensemble, and the fact

that they were not too

difficult

(Continued on page 4)

Page 4

(Continued from page 3)

to play was certainly an advantage.

The excitement over the prospect

of the inclusion of recorders and

the opportunity to learn to play

them helped to veil the disappoint-

ment that everyone felt at Sachs’

negative response to the feasibility

of building further marimbas, espe-

cially since the final result of Magda

Lex’s “Stabetanz” could not have

shown more convincingly how

movement evokes music, and

music, movement; and the marim-

ba played four-handed had created

a minor sensation with the way it

fitted in with the small ensemble of

glockenspiel, tom-tom, tambourine

and jingles, in spite of its different

tuning.

While Orff was waiting for the

recorders, a crate arrived at the

school from Hamburg. It had been

sent by a student from the school

and contained a “Kaffir piano” that

had been sold privately by a sailor

who had just come back from the

Cameroons. The resonance box of

this “Kaffir piano”, a crude name

for a simple African xylophone,

consisted of an ordinary wooden

box, that had once contained

10,000 builders’ nails and still bore

the burnt-on German lettering

“10,000 Bretterstifte”. The only

African things about this xylophone

were the wooden bars, strung by

means of laces across the open

side of the box, and this provided

an example of a primitive form of

box or trough xylophone without

any kind of resonator. When

struck with suitable beaters this

xylophone produced a beautiful,

full tone similar to the marimba,

and its tuning was nearer to the

European pitch and could there-

fore be used immedi-

ately. Keetman had

soon written a book

with some pieces for

this xylophone in combination with

other percussion instruments. Parts

were copied out and passed from

hand to hand. Hourly, daily and for

half the night the instrument was

used for practice, rehearsal and

play, both two-handed and four-

handed.

Curt Sachs’ misgivings about the

reproduction of xylophones in large

numbers could not apply to

this African model of unsurpassed

simplicity, and it should be possible

to produce such a simple box xylo-

phone without resonators.

For this purpose, Orff turned to

Maendler, a then well-known

restorer and maker of harpsi-

chords. Maendler had felt hardly

able to tackle the African marimba,

but when he heard Keetman play

solos and pieces with other percus-

sion on the “Kaffir piano” he did

feel that he could build such an

instrument provided that it was

given another name. He called the

first one he made an “alto xylo-

phone”, and it was such a success

that he promised to build another,

a “soprano xylophone” that would

give a higher pitch range. Later the

notes on the alto and soprano xylo-

phones were secured by means of

nails so that notes could be inter-

changed and other keys formed,

increasing the range of usefulness

of the instrument.

The building of a chromatic xylo-

phone with 25 notes further

enriched the possibilities of tone

quality. This time there was a no-

ticeable relationship with eastern

forms. Maendler made two models,

one where the notes were suspend-

ed by means of laces over a cradle-

shaped box and the other where

the notes were held in place by

nails on a more rectangular box,

and he called this new instrument a

“tenor xylophone”. Only on this

instrument, with its adjacent semi-

tones, was it possible to play glissan-

di that had a magical effect. Hard

and soft beaters or even bamboo

sticks were used.

Meanwhile, the recorders had

arrived but without any kind of

fingering chart, and at that time

Hotteterre’s famous “Traite de la

Flute a bec” had not yet been

reprinted. Through a friend who

knew of a group of four eccentric,

elderly men who played old music

with enthusiasm on old inherited

instruments, and would teach Orff,

and through Keetman, who said

“Give me a recorder and I will find

out how it works”, lessons began.

“Medias in res” once more. They

happily had their recorders and had

taken the trouble to master the

early stages of playing them. At the

same time they used their meagre

beginners’ resources to improvise

for movement, and for dance. Two

recorders started with drone and

melody, and an accompaniment on

a double-skinned drum joined them:

this inspired the dance, which fur-

ther stimulated the musicians.

(1) Four-row xylophone: James

Blades describes this instrument

on pgs. 307-308 of his Percus-

sion Instruments and Their His-

tory: “To effect an economy of

space the bars are arranged

ladder-wise in four rows indent-

ed into each other, with the dia-

tonic scale of C lying midway in

the ladders. The notes C natural,

F natural and C sharp are dupli-

cated to the right and left, ren-

dering the instrument, because

of the consequent choice of

’fingering’, extremely agile. (This

style of instrument is occasionally

seen today in the Continental

orchestra.)”

(2) Stabentanz: literally ’bar dance’

but here it is the bars or notes

(Continued on page 5)

Page 5 on the marimba that are being

referred to.

This is a reprint of an article

written by Margaret Murray print-

ed in the Ontario Orff Bulletin

(#9) August 1978. The article

was a condensation of an article

by Carl Orff that appeared in Ger-

man in the Orff Institute publica-

tion : Orff-SchulwerkI Informatio-

nen 18.

In an email dated December

2014, Ms Murray gave us permis-

sion to add it to the

Mosaic newsletter. The Ontario

Chapter of Orff Canada is greatly

honoured to have received

Ms Murray’s permission.

(Continued from page 4)

Please let us know if you are moving.

Send your change of address to:

Caren Ludwig-Shoychet

Rcshoychet @rogers.com

The Ontario Chapter of Carl Orff Canada extends our deepest

sympathies to the friends and family of Margaret Murray.

Margaret was the translator of the Orff Schulwerk volumes into Eng-

lish and was the founder of the Orff Society UK. She passed away Janu-

ary 31, 2015. The volumes are the foundation of all of the Orff courses

offered in Ontario.

She died peacefully in her sleep, in hospital, where she had been for

two days. Carl Orff Canada is planning to set up an online

tribute/memorial page on their website.

For further information, please visit Orff UK's website:

Page 6 Workshop Review by Lorie Wolf:

Allison Tipler and Julie Grierson—“An Orff Duet.”

On a snowy February 4th, 2015, Orff enthusiasts gathered in the prep school at Upper Canada College to learn from experi-enced Orff teachers. All of the presentations were engaging and were designed for easy implementation. For example, our first activity was lead by Music/Yoga teacher Allison Tippler who started us off with a series of yoga poses to remind us that in order for us to be the best teachers we can be, we need to take care of our-selves. Then she showed us her routine aimed at primary school chil-dren that cleverly combined various yoga poses, music and a narrative. Most of us didn't need any convincing to grab a yoga mat and take part in much appreciated (and needed!) stretch! Her clear handout in-cluded graphics of all the poses used and clear instructions so we could start using them right away.

Another highlight from Alli-son's presentations was her (or her mom's!) version of the syn-copated “Sorida”, and African singing game. We went

through the Orff procedure of learning the song by rote with gestures, doing a movement ac-tivity to demonstrate pitch awareness and rhythm, and then we moved to the Orff instru-ments to try to figure the piece out on our own. Together, we mapped out the high, medium and low pitches in “G” pentaton-ic over the rhythm we had learned, and finally, used the same rhythms and melody map to improvise and create a new song of our own.

Julie Grierson brought some wonderful books to our attention such as classroom favorite “Scaredy Squirrel” and showed us how to orchestrate the con-tents into a wonderful perfor-mance piece.

The same treatment was given to another book “The Little Old La-dy Who Was Not Afraid of Any-thing”, and “I Spy”. The ideas behind the orchestration were clever, fun, and not at all difficult to implement. I am looking for-ward to trying them out with my K-6 bunch. Meeting so many different teach-ers in different stages of their career and hanging out with new people and hearing all their ideas was very heartening. I enjoyed the day very much and am look-ing forward to this summer's workshop by Doug Goodkin. Till then, Lorie Wolf, OCT K-6 Music Teacher Clinton St. Public School Toronto

Orff Teacher Training / Additonal Qualifications

at the Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto)

For more information visit:

www.rcmusic.ca

Page 7

The ECMA of Ontario has performed 20 years of advocacy

and leadership in the field of music education for young

children.

Since it was founded in 1990 by Donna Wood with the dedi-

cated help of our first president, Mary Stouffer, the ECMA has remained

committed to fostering communication among those who value the im-

portance of developmentally appropriate, high quality musical experiences in

the lives of all children.

For more information visit:: http://ecmaontario.ca/

Page 8

On a cool October morning in

2014, eager music teachers

gather in the gym of Claude

Watson School For The Arts

in Toronto. Some were veteran

Orff teachers, others were

attending their first Orff work-

shop. Some were new music

teachers in the process of tak-

ing their Music AQ Part I with

the Toronto District School

Board. It was a truly diverse

group of teachers ranging wide-

ly in their experience and train-

ing.

As friendly chatter gained deci-

bels in the gym, Brian Hiller and

Don Dupont – two passionate

Orff educators from New

York, stood up in their match-

ing outfits and introduced

themselves. Before long, they

had everyone joining in singing

Viva la Musica – an original

composition by Brain and Don.

True to form as expert Orff

teachers, they soon had us in

three layers of speech ostinato,

added percussion accompani-

ment, created a recorder inter-

lude, all the while explaining to

Workshop Review: Brian Hiller and Don Dupont -

It’s Elemental: Lessons that Engage!

by Louise Lui

us the chord progression involving

the tonic, subdominant and domi-

nant - the fundamental concept this

piece aimed to teach.

Next Don presented Simple Simon,

a speech piece that proved to be

rousing and fun as we moved from

speaking the rhythms to playing

them with body percussion. The

rhythmic tension and the contrast

in timbre between the parts made a

simple piece of music satisfying for

all involved. Everyone was laughing

and sweating by the end of it.

Then we learned a dance that was

taught without any verbal instruc-

tion but only with simple visuals. It

was only after we learned it that

Don and Brian revealed it true pur-

pose – to teach basic mallet tech-

nique. When they finally taught us

the lyrics,

“Arms extended elbows

bent, fingers wrapped

around. Bouncing gently off

the keys, we’ll make a

pleasant sound.”

All of us exclaimed, “That was so

brilliant!” The deliberate upending

of a usual teaching sequence cre-

ated mystery and it heightened

the groups’ attention. Not to

mention that it completely liven

up a topic of mallet technique that

would have been dry for most.

The day ended with all of us

standing in a gigantic circle singing

a Ghanaian folk song, Sansa Kro-

ma. The bongo and congo joined

in with the shakers and agogo

bells. The voices were singing in

three part harmony. Brian and

Don decided that since we were

all music teachers, adding a stick

passing game while doing all of the

above should not present a prob-

lem! I was glad to say that teach-

ers from the GTA did not disap-

point. We managed to pull it off!

On behalf of the Ontario Orff

Chapter, we would like to extend

a big thank you to Don and Brian

for presenting such a wonderful

workshop. We hope you return

to Canada really soon!

Page 9

The Keith Bissell Scholarship

This scholarship is given for the study of an approved Orff Level’s course or

Master Class at a Canadian Institution, with preference given to candidates ap-

plying to courses offered in Ontario. This scholarship is usually in the

amount of $400.

Scholarship winners are asked to write a short article describing their experi-

ences in taking the course, which is then published in the Ontario Orff

Chapter newsletter.

The Last workshop of

the Waterloo-Wellington Chapter

of Carl Orff Canada.

Page 10

Royal Conservatory of Music

273 Bloor Street West, Toronto

Page 11

Thursday, May 7, 2015

10: 00 a.m – 12:00 noon

Send your application by Thursday

April 9, 2015 to:

Suzanne Waller to musical-

tigger7@gmail.com

Page 12

Why do so many music teachers

“lose” their voices in December?

A long time ago (in a land far

away) during my first December of

teaching, I lost my voice and then

spent my Christmas holidays

recovering. Then the next year, I

didn’t have any voice trouble.

What was different? In the sum-

mer between those two Decem-

bers I had the good fortune to

take a Voice Care course through

the Voice Care Network, http://

www.voicecarenetwork.org/.

Here are the things I learned to

help prevent losing my voice at

that critical time of the year:

1. Hydration. Water is the lubri-

cant for your vocal folds. Imagine

running your car’s engine without

sufficient oil. It over-heats, the

bearings wear, it starts making un-

usual noises. Do it long enough

and the engine will seize and you

have to replace it. Ouch! If you

are dehydrated your vocal ability

may be reduced and over the long

term the vocal folds may be dam-

aged. To prevent this drink 7 – 9

glasses of water a day. Oh, sorry,

coffee and other caffeinated drinks

don’t qualify. They act as diuretics

and actually take more water out

of your system than they put in.

2. Warm up before singing and

teaching. Warming up will help

prepare your voice for the strenu-

ous work that teaching and singing

are. I am not a voice teacher so I

cannot recommend warm-ups. If

you need warm-ups I suggest find-

ing a good voice teacher who can

give you some warm-ups for your

voice.

3. Rest your voice. Stop talking

so much! When teaching look for

ways to communicate with your

students without using your voice.

Challenge yourself to not to sing

with your students. When you

sing over top of your students you

are unnecessarily stressing your

voice. Sing to them to demonstrate

and let them sing back to you. This

may also allow you to better hear

them.

4. Pay attention to where you

pitch your voice when speaking.

Listen to the people around you

speaking. You may hear “vocal

fry”. Vocal fry is that gravelly

sound that many media personali-

ties cultivate. Unfortunately in our

culture that vocal sound is equated

with authority when it should be

equated with vocal abuse. Speaking

with that “deep, resonate, authori-

tative voice” places excess stress

on the voice. When you speak

your voice should feel free and

easy. Just like the three bears “not

too high, not too low, just right”.

As a professional voice user you,

take extra care of your voice.

Treat it lovingly and it will serve

you well.

Check out the “BodyMind and

Voice Course” at http://

www.voicecarenetwork.org/

courses.cfm?ID=123 for more

voice care information.

Bruce Grant, a.k.a The Orff Doctor

is the Manager of Elementary Sales

for St. John’s Music. He has been

involved in the music industry for

over 20 years. Prior to that, he

taught elementary music grades K –

6 in Alberta. He has his Orff Levels

1, 2 and 3 certification from the

University of Alberta. He has

worked with numerous Orff chap-

ters including being the President

of the Alberta Chapter, the Nation-

al Membership Secretary and is

currently the Industry Advisor for

Carl Orff Canada.

Care and feeding of Music Teachers

By Bruce Grant

Page 13

Dalcroze Society of Canada

Summer 2015 Course

August 10-18, 2015

9:00 am - 5:30 pm daily

Location: National Ballet School — 400 Jarvis Street, Toronto, ON

Please visit the our website for updates.

http://www.dalcrozecanada.com/

For information

about the Kodaly Society of Ontario

please visit

http://www.kodalysocietyofontario.com/

Page 14

Up and Coming

Press the control key and click on the Ontario Musical Note below to go to the

Website and download a PDF form to register for the workshop.

If you have any questions,

Contact: Batya Levy

Home Phone: 647-348-3396 (evenings & weekends ) / Email: batyalevy@rogers.com