A Brief Description of the Unit

What the study is focussed on, for whom it is intended and the level of commitment expected:
During this unit of work students will be introduced to selected Indonesian music which they will have the opportunity to study through performance and listening analysis, to compare and contrast with other indigenous art works and to present as re-creations for audiences within their own classes and schools.  There may also be opportunities for students to create their own performance items drawing on ideas, concepts and their own imaginations as a consequence of studying music and dance in this way.  It is important that all students be encouraged to participate.

Rationale

Why the unit is being conducted
The unit should encourage students in Australian classrooms, through increased awareness of Indonesian music, its construction, its historical and other cultural contexts and its performance, to be sensitively aware of worldviews other than their own and of accepting these as being as valid as their own. It is easy to be driven in our teaching by the desire for our students to understand musical concepts which are west-centric high arts constructs, such as music theory, analysis and literacy which may bear no relationship to the music of any other culture but their own(Bridges,1984).  Where it does happen the music of other cultures and even popular music may be included only as vehicles for teaching mainstream concepts, based on the west-centric 'elements of music - melody, rhythm, harmony timbre, and form,'  - approach (Smith,1993). This unit attempts, by focussing less concern on musical literacy or the 'elements' of music, to let the art and music speak for themselves.

Anticipated Learning Outcomes

The aims of the study are....
As a consequence of their participation in this unit of study students should have, through observing, learning, rehearsing, performing and presenting examples of  Indonesian music,

• experienced Indonesian music and dance, from traditional to contemporary;
• an increasing awareness of the way Indonesian people view the world;
• had opportunities to compare and discuss music with which they are familiar and other musics particularly but not exclusively Indonesian music;
• been provided with opportunities to reflect on tolerance and inclusivity;
• an appreciation of the strengths of Indonesian culture and what they and other Australians can learn from studying it;

Work Requirements

What work students must complete to match the anticipated learning outcomes:
Students will take part in the activities detailed throughout the teaching and learning sequence, all of which are designed to support the anticipated learning outcomes.  These are detailed where appropriate at each stage of the process in this program.

Resources

• A tape of samples of music to be experienced during the study.
• Music, and related Arts and Crafts, Drama and Dance items.
• Newsprint (butcher's paper), felt tipped marking pens (textas).
• Related arts and interdisciplinary work (Search the web).
• For original work: Butcher's paper, textas, instruments and other sound makers, separate working spaces if possible.

Moving towards an Indonesian environment

Obviously there are a number of things we can not do to preserve our Indonesian Song's authenticity.  Our children have not arrived at school from Indonesian homes...at least most haven't.  Our schools do not operate in 'shifts' as do many Indonesian schools.  Very few of our students are able to speak Indonesian.  The food we eat at recess and lunchtime will probably not be Indonesian.  And so on and so on...  But we can go part way to creating an Indonesian environment in our classrooms, so that our song has some appropriateness. Anything is, I believe, better than nothing...the more we are able to do the better.
As far as it is possible we can use Indonesian words and phrases in our music lesson.  These might include salutory greetings...'selamat pagi' if it is morning, 'selamat siang', late morning, 'selamat sore', afternoon, 'selamat malam', good night and so on.  If you would like to be even more ambitious consider greeting the students as 'anak anak' (children), ie 'selamat pagi, anak anak.'  They can greet you as (if you are female) 'Ibu ...........' or (if you are male) 'Pak .............'(short for 'Bapak')
'Diam' is a useful word even if its use goes contrary to my suggestion that verbal reprimands are rather a waste of time.  It means '...be quiet'. 'Harap diam' is a more polite way of expressing the same, 'I would like you to be quiet.'   Of course good manners go a long way...'Terima kasi' is 'Thank you'!
If you are still being adventurous at the end of your lesson, farewell your departing students with  'Selamat jalan, anak anak,' (a farewell for those leaving) to which they should reply 'Selamat tinggal, Ibu/Pak ..........'  ('ngg' is like ng in sing but with an extra hard 'g'...like people from Birminggham say it!!)  Be brave...if its's good enough for us to expect the students in our classes to learn new concepts why should we escape!  I learnt the Indonesian words for colours (as I use them in this lesson) within the short space of one lesson with a class of year 3 students who got a lot of fun out of my many mistakes...but we all got there in the end, and I gained rather than lost kudos by making my mistakes so public!
Other useful classroom phrases include 'Sudah siap?' ('Are you ready?') to which the hoped-for reply is 'Ya, sudah!' ('Yes, ready!')... ('belum'= 'not ready'), and one of my favourites...'Tangan di kapala!' ('Hands on head!') which I use frequently in music classes as an effective control.

1.        Enjoy the 'first time' experience of discovering a performing arts event

Description of the methods

Mrs Boldwill invites her Years 6 and 7 students to listen to and enjoy the 'first time experience of Indonesian music which she has recorded as a medley of musical excerpts.  These range from traditional gamelan to folk songs and from contemporary serious through 'commercial' music genres.  She directs the students to listen, at this time, without making any comments or giving any feedback.  She says they are simply encouraged to enjoy the 'first time 'experience.  However Mrs Boldwill does place her expectation on her students that they will demonstrate their ability to listen to the musical excerpts without distraction, and with awareness.  She suggests to them that this might be an aspect of her assessment of their participation in this lesson.
Next the class performs new music which is similar. Mrs Boldwill introduces the songs,  'Tangan di Kepala' and 'Ibu Jari' from a recording she has found with both on it.

Actions for  'Tangan di Kepala'

Hands on heads, then on shoulders, out in front, shake your hands about.
Look at Mrs Thumb, Keep looking.Turn your body around, Hand on your heart.

Assessment points and indicators

Mrs Boldwill's students have begun to explore ideas and feelings through music.  Although, at this time, their responses are informal and unrecorded Mrs Boldwill's students should be beginning to react to key features of the music played them and the two new songs.

2.    Return to the 'first time' event - discuss opinions and feelings   

Description of the methods

Mrs Boldwill asks her class to sit quietly at their desks.  When they are settled she explains that she is going to play the tape she asked them to listen to without comment the previous week.  However this week while she would like them again to enjoy the experience of listening to unfamiliar music they are going to have the opportunity to comment on what they heard and how they reacted to it.  She plays the tape from the first lesson again.  When it concludes she says nothing for a few seconds, signalling casually to her students that she wants them to just sit quietly for that time.  Now she encourage her class to talk about what they heard, and to discuss their opinions and the feelings the music evoked for them.  As a few open the discussion with their reactions others begin to feel 'safe' with numbers and a regular flood tide of opinions flows over the room.  Some comment on the music, others comment and respond to their comments.
Now Mrs Boldwill invites them to nominate more songs which they think are similar to some of these and, where possible, to perform those together informally.  One student thinks a song sounds like the South African 'Wimoweh'.  Others agree.
'Let's sing that then,' suggests Mrs Boldwill and the class joins her in singing it.
Mrs Boldwill revises the two Indonesian action songs 'Tangan di Kepala' and 'Ibu Jari' with the class who, while they initially thought the two songs were a bit 'juvenile', now enjoy performing them.
Next they share reading of J Brandt Buys poem 'The Gamelan Gilds the Time' and notes about the gamelan.  The lesson concludes with discussion about the poem and their research about Javanese Gamelan.

Javanese Gamelan.

The Gamelan gilds the time. The hours forget their usual course.
The quarters shrink to golden minutes, minutes seem like blissful hours.
Now in the softer moments, the music sounds as if I heard angels sing,
Now, when at half strength, as if I heard all the chimes in heaven.
And then again, in the fullness of its mighty power,
It is as if a storm of bronze thunders through my temples.
J.S.Brandts Buys.

From their reading and 'web-surfing' the class finds that  Gamelan derives from two words, 'gamel' 'to handle' and 'gangsa', the word for bronze.  The word embraces a variety of musical ensembles in Western Indonesia. All have tuned metal gongs, gong-chimes, metallophones and drums, and frequently include a xylophone, flute, 2-stringed fiddle(Rebab) and singers. While most gamelan gongs are made of bronze, iron and bamboo are sometimes used. Gamelan have a lengthy history, as carvings at Borobudur and Javanese mythology indicate.  Some gamelan are sacred, and only played at religious ceremonies.
The forging of the metallic instruments is shrouded in deliberately promoted mystery, handed down among the 'smiths' across countless generations. The three parts tin to ten parts copper is believed capable of creating a living sound making the Gamelan a living spirit. No two Gamelans are exactly tuned, giving Gamelan orchestras 'a shimmering sound'. Gamelan must be played regularly to maintain their 'life'. Like humans it takes twenty years of playing for them to reach 'maturity'.

Assessment points and indicators

Mrs Boldwill's students respond to key features of music and related art works under study, giving their own reasons for their likes and dislikes. Students respond to key features of art works.  She has them talk and write informally about their personal observations.

3.    Re-create the 'first time' event   

Description of the methods

While the remainder of the class is at a Physical Education (PE) lesson with the school's PE specialist Mrs Boldwill has two students excused from physical activity help her to arrange sixteen tuned percussion in four rows of four across the room.  They set these up smallest to the front, largest to the back. 

When the class returns from PE she seats her students on the floor with two behind each instrument. Then on the clean whiteboard at the front of the room Mrs Boldwill carefully sets up a 'block' of 16 squares in sequence.  Into these she enters 'dashes' and letters as follows:
She tells the class that these notes in the second line of the first set they will play 'generate' the rest of the music,  just as does each second line of the other two sets they are about to learn.  She explains what she means:

'This line will be the line people in the SECOND row play.  To find out what the fourth row will play we have a simple rule - choose the last letter in each group of four beats and put it in the first and third squares, like this:'

Now she invites rows one and two to play the second line and rows three and four to play this new line at the same time.  They practise this together several times, the back two rows playing one the 'first' and 'third' beats and rows one and two following on beats 'two' and 'four'.

Now she copies on to the board, in the same way, the 'generator' for the second set of the music.
Using the previous model they work out, together, that the third and fourth rows will play
They add these to the lines already learned and play through both twice.  One line remains.   She has the class play each twice through to the bottom of the page.

Now she asks them to look again at the music she has charted so far.  Can they find patterns?  Can they use these patterns to help them work out how the last set of lines will go?  After some hazarded guesses some students realise that the last four beats of a set herald the next twelve of a new set. 
'So how will the last set go, if you know that the music goes around in circles and we go back to the beginning from the end?'

Finally this is what they come up with:

Now they have all three sets for rows two and four.   Mrs Boldwill tells row one that all they need to do is play the same as row two but play two notes for every one.  She also directs row three to use row four's notes but in a different rhythm pattern.  Instead of row four's first and third 'crotchet' (or 'quarter note') pattern they should play to this rhythm:

They play around with this notion just working on the first set.  It takes time for everyone to understand but Mrs Boldwill believes firmly that the best way to learn is to 'do'  and she has them play over their own lines together with the others until it begins not only to make sense but to sound very effective both rhythmically and harmonically.

The concept is difficult but ultimately quite logical.  Mrs Bothwill believes too that by understanding how this piece of music works her students may begin to have an understanding of how time goes around recursively in the animo-Hindu worldview of old Java. Now they have the whole piece charted on the board, some of it written up without their input, but the remainder calculated by the class using some simple but very effective musical rules.
Mrs Boldwill says one thing is missing.  'We haven't put in the traditional opening, called the buka.'  She charts this on the board and selects a solo student to play the 'buka' or introduction
 
She explains to her students about the reasons the music works like it does:  'Because this music grows from the Hinduism which was traditional in parts of western Indonesia it is 'circular' rather than linear in the way it passes through time.  Really it has no true beginning or end.  You may finish when you feel the time is right!'
Later the class views a video of a Javanese gamelan orchestra.  Briefly they brainstorm this 'first-time' experience of a traditional Javanese lancaran, discussing ideas, opinions and other feelings they have about the music and the dance. 
Mrs Boldwill uses 'who, what, how, why, when, where, which' questions to help elicit appropriate answers.  These include 'What did we hear?' 'Who performs the music ?' 'Why do you think this music came into being?' 'How do you feel about it?' 'Why?'
They talk about the instruments they saw and match them with pictures and descriptions in a book which describes instruments of the gamelan orchestra.  They notice that there are instruments like xylophones or marimbas, These have metal bars or keys suspended over a wooden base.  Some have resonators (sound boxes), others don't.  Struck with wooden mallets these instruments, starting with the Saron, the Demung which is an octave lower and the Saron Paneris or Peking, an octave higher, play the main tune.
Then there are knobbed gongs including the bonangs, the kenongs which are larger, and the ketuk which are smaller.
Then come the suspended Gongs which are the largest instruments of the gamelan orchestra. They hang vertically, and mark the main events of the music.
The smallest gongs kempul, plays the highest pitches.  The largest gong ageng opens and closes each section. Its deep note is so low that often we can only just hear it.
Other instruments may also be played in the gamelan orchestra.  In fact a pair of double headed hand drums 'leads' the Gamelan, setting the timing and speed. Sometimes a two stringed spike fiddle the rebab performs, playing the buka for vocal pieces and a bamboo flute, the Suling or a type of zither may also join  in.  And, of course, another instrument is highly valued, the human voice.  Solo singers and choirs often join the gamelan to perform.

Assessment points and indicators

Mrs Boldwill notes, anecdotally in her record book comments based on these questions:

• How well did students engage with the topic? 
• Did they join in discussion? 
• Did they attempt and how well did they follow through tasks set them?
• Were they able to identify the cyclical nature of the music?
• Were any able to anticipate how the music would change and could they explain why?
• Did students offer comments or preferences in critical appraisal of the work?
• Were they critical of their own performance?