Hyperscore lends itself beautifully to STEAM education and beyond because any teacher can integrate music into just about any subject – without needing specialized training in music education. Composing music gives students a powerful tool to express concepts, stories and feelings about what they are learning. Here are some examples from our Second Sunday workshops, all pieces composed collaboratively in one hour.
Visual art: Taking a line of music for a walk
Inspired by this Paul Klee painting and his notion that a drawing is “taking a line for a walk,” we composed a six-note motif, took it “for a walk” going down a hill followed by a second strand going up. We then came up with percussion beats to inject energy and a jazzy vibe to the tune.
Storytelling: Cappy’s Day
Invent characters for a story: what are their personalities? Where do they live? What’s the action? How does the story unfold? In this video, we introduce musical motifs for each character in this story: A jolly capybara, his happy music and footsteps, the sparkly river and a crocodile! These elements are combined to tell Cappy’s story. Listen to see if you can figure out what happens.
Harmonizing a Haiku
Set a haiku to music. We chose one by the great master, Basho:
In the autumn night
Breaking into the silence
Voices murmuring
Speak the lines out loud to explore the natural tonalities and rhythms of language. See what happens when the lines are repeated and overlapped. Choose instruments that express the mood and content of the poem.
A canticle for climate change: The Melt
We came across an article about recording the sound of an ancient glacier melting. You can hear dripping water and an occasional pop as primordial air bubbles are released – the sound of climate change. Can we capture this sound with music? Is it repetitive like a clock or more irregular? What instruments work best? What feelings does the sound arouse?
Social emotional skills: The Hero in You
Inspired by Harmony Hare, a picture book for young children by Tammy Vallieres. We meet little hare’s three personas: victim, villain and hero. The story encourages children to recognize these inner states. Each inspired a theme (in blue, red and yellow), and the composition brings them into relationships with one another.
History and social studies: My grandfather’s clock
An older man recalls a favorite song from his childhood in India. He hums a few bars, which we reproduced in Hyperscore. It is reminiscent of the grandfather’s clock song, which prompts the use of wooden percussion sounds. This was a delightful exercise in bringing the past to life through music.
Ecology and nature: Dance of the fireflies
An image of fireflies twinkling in the night inspired this composition. The “firefly melody” portrays the on-off flashing of lights. The jaunty melody captures the festive mood. It’s is rhythmic but irregular because this is life, not a machine. The same theme is copied and varied slightly. Other sounds portray the leaves rustling in the wind.
Technology & history: The countess of Lovelace
Ada Lovelace invented computer programming for the world’s first computer, the Analytical Machine of Charles Babbage. A video of a modern replica of the Analytical Engine inspired a young Hyperscore composer to create a piece that portrayed the clatter of the moving parts against a melodic theme reminiscent of English popular music of the time.
Math: Fraction attraction
A simple example using the length of musical notes to represent fractions. Each motif represents a specific note length: whole, half, quarter, eighths, etc. Students can see how many of each fractional note take the same amount of time as a longer note. Hyperscore can support thirds, fifths – any type of fraction!
