Music for Teachers

I’ve recently been listening to music by Philip Glass, a composer who has often been described as ‘minimalist’ although he prefers to be thought of as a composer who works with patterns of sound. A recent (2006) recording by Naxos of the Symphony ‘Heroes’ is worthy of exploration in the classroom.

It uses as its inspiration the David Bowie album ‘Heroes’ - it does not try to give a simple orchestral rendering of the work but genuinely explores the themes in an orchestral texture. All the movements are based on tracks from the album, which was a collaboration between Brian Eno and Bowie.

Naxos is a superb label offering a massive range of material in a wide range of genre and at a low price.

For more information try the following links:

Naxos

Philip Glass - Heroes Symphony

David Bowie

A few places left on the music and mathematics course on Tuesday 23rd January 2007 in Shrewsbury. The morning course will explore the use of patterns in music and mathematics through a wide range of practical activities, also looking at higher level thinking and will have direct application to the creative classroom. Contact the Shropshire Advisory Service for further details.

Post-course note: The course provided some good practical composition work which has been recorded onto CD and copied for course members. Materials used on the course are available on my Digitalbrain site at this link

The course will be repeated next year - watch this space for details.