The Music Workshop Company Blog 

Each month the Music Workshop Company publishes two blogs. One blog, written by the MWC team addresses a key issue in Music Education or gives information about a particular genre or period of music. The other blog is written by a guest writer, highlighting good practice or key events in Music Education. We hope you enjoy reading the blogs. 
 
We embed multimedia content in many of our blog posts, if you have rejected cookies for this website, you may have white spaces where the multimedia content should be. This is due to a recent change of policy by YouTube, Spotify and other platforms. We are in the process of updating all our posts. If you come across white spaces in a blog post, you can open the link in another browser or private browser and approve cookies to access all the content. We are sorry for any inconvenience this causes. 
 
To contribute as a guest writer please email Maria@music-workshop.co.uk 

Posts tagged “SONG WRITING”

J. S. Bach’s St John Passion was first performed on Good Friday, 7th April 1724. This year we celebrate the 300th anniversary of this remarkable work. 
 
Bach is one of the most famous composers of the Baroque era and his work has been celebrated by many notable composers including Mendelssohn. 
 
The Chorale from the first part of St John Passion is recommended in the New Model Music Curriculum. 
 
Taking inspiration from Bach's use of written text, our activity explores some things to consider when writing songs based on poems. 
 
Image: Johann Sebastian Bach (aged 61) in a portrait by Elias Gottlob Haussmann, second version of his 1746 canvas. Bach is holding a copy of the six-part canon BWV 1076. 
ABBA is one of the most popular and best selling musical groups of all time. The four-piece first as a group between 1974 and 1982, and reunited in 2016. In 1974 they won the Eurovision Song Content with the song "Waterloo" which kick started their International Career. 
 
The song is recommended by the Model Music Curriculum. Our suggested activity links to preparing for performance based on ABBA's iconic stage presence. 
 
 
This month our blog explores the life and work of George Gershwin. Famous as a songwriter with his brother, Ira, Gershwin mixed European Classical music traditions with Blues and Jazz to create a sound that is particularly linked to his birth city of New York. 
 
Despite a relatively short life, Gershwin's musical output was huge, including musicals, an opera, orchestral music and film scores. 
 
The Model Music Curriculum suggests listening to two of his most famous songs “I Got Rhythm” and “Summertime” as well as “Rhapsody in Blue”.  
 
This blog explores “Rhapsody in Blue” and suggests activities linked to creating arrangements. 
 
 
 
 
Image credit: Carl Van Vechten, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 
This month’s guest blog is from a new initiative called EMERGE(NCY) PARTY which launches at the beginning of May.  
 
The initiative is aimed at asking young people how the world could change for the better after the Covid-19 crisis.  
 
It gives young people a voice in the crisis, to protest, to share and to celebrate – an opportunity to imagine and explore a better future through art. 
 
World Poetry Day falls on March 21st 2020. The annual celebration, which was adopted by UNESCO in 1999, is an opportunity to revive oral traditions, promote the reading, writing and teaching of poetry, and foster the convergence between poetry and other arts, including music. Poetry can act as a uniting force, expressing common human experiences – a vital force for connection in difficult times – and so UNESCO extends the invitation to everyone to take part. 

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