February 2011 Session 3

Hugh Nankivell and Ben Ballard joined the SWMS Feeder students to run the February Feeder Session at Dartington.  Tying in with the Core Programme residential, all as part of the Tagore Festival, they used some of the creative works of Rabindranath Tagore.  This was the starting point from which was created 30minutes of new performances/compositions and structured improvisations.  These were shared in a public performance for parents and others at the end of the day. 

They used four paintings by Tagore:

Landscape in Yellow, Black and Blue/Green
Figures in Sepia
Lady With A Fan
Figure In Black - Bare-armed, Green background

Which were used to help create new textures and rhythms

The group also used extracts from three poems:

One Day
The Ferry
Against Meditative Knowledge

The group created a big melody using the name of 'Tagore' as the starting point and with each person's name as an accompaniment.

They sang all together, played all together as an ensemble and also created three distinct smaller groups of 6/7 in number.

There were some very positive responses from parents who commented briefly at the end how much they thought the music and approach was very good/original.