4.    Map musical attributes   

Description of the methods

Mrs Boldwill rolls out butchers' paper across the floor in the centre of the room.  'Let's take another listen to and look at Singo nebah', she says.

Together she and the class negotiate and plan a 'road-map' for the lancaran, highlighting significant markers or 'events' in its passage.  These include which instruments play where, who performs when, when the notes of a particular cell stop repeating themselves and change to a new pair of 'letters'.  In many ways this is simply reinforcing what she and the students covered in the previous lesson.  However, when she asks them if it was any help as an activity several suggest that it has helped them 'picture' how the music works more clearly in their heads.  As Mrs Boldwill plans to use the chart as the basis for further rehearsal and performance and to prompt their own original musical ideas she is pleased that it has made more sense of the music. 

She asks 'What geometric shape might best fit this piece of music and music like it?'
'Well,' begins one girl, 'The music seems to have no real end once you get started playing it.  It goes round and round.
Wouldn't a circle be best?'
The class agrees.
'All right,' she concludes, 'Keep those thoughts! We'll be returning to them later.'  The lessons moves to a new activity.

Mrs Boldwill plays 'Burung Kakaktua' from a tape recording she bought on a trip to Bali, 'Angklung - Instrumental Indonesian Bamboo Music'.  Without comment she distributes three octaves of angklung she also bought on behalf of her school on the same trip.  Each student gets one instruments.  Mrs Boldwill has 'colour-coded' each angklung and she uses a matching colour-coded notation chart to teach  the class 'Topi Saya Bundar'. 
'How', she asks' does this song seem to be related to 'Burung Kakaktua?'
Several students raise their hand and she choose one to answer.
'Burung Kakaktau begins with the tune of Topi Sayar Bundar, Miss.'
That's correct.'
She 'walks' them through the music exhorting each student to take responsibility for their own notes.  They play the song and repeat it until they are comfortable with it and the tune is distinct and easily recognised.

Assessment points and indicators

• Did the students participate as individuals or within the group?
• Did they identify event markers in the mapping exercice?  Did their discoveries indicate that they understood which musical events took place where? Did they offer opinions and reasons for decisions made?

Mrs Boldwill marks individually and as a class for number of 'events recorded correctly.
In the angklung activity did students take responsibility for their individual playing role within the group?

5.    Communicating music to a familiar audience

Description of the methods

Mrs Boldwill introduces related music to re-create.   
She has them view a second segment from a Gamelan rehearsal video, this time of the lancaran 'Kebo Giro', the 'Buffalo' lancaran.  Using the same procedure as she used for 'Singo Nebah' she begins to help them to learn this second lancaran.

Finally she has them rehearse all the items they have learnt up to this time. She wants the class to begin to negotiate and organise a concert repertoire for presentation both to another class as a familiar relatively non threatening audience and later, when the whole program is complete, to a more public audience.  She discusses with the class that, in selecting items they need to recognise the need, in a sustained performance, for balance, flow, contrast and the expectations of each particular audience.  Performing to their peers will be very different to performing to adults.  What do they need to consider?
They have a 'draft' program set up of the items they have enjoyed so far.  They invite the school principal to watch and listen as they perform their favourite rehearsed works.
Next they share their work with another middle primary school class.  This truns in to a bit of a 'social affair' as the teacher of the other class reciprocates by having his students prepare an afternoon tea for the performers.  There is much friendly banter about the quality of the performance, compared with the quality of the food.  However, otherwise no serious criticisms are made of either.

Assessment points and indicators

Sharing opinions on individual and group performances with the class, Mrs Boldwill assesses the students' participation in the rehearsal and in the performance for the principal. She assesses the program they are devising according to the interest and excitement it communicates. The principal is also invited to participate as a critical friendly listener.

6.    View related arts and disciplines   

Description of the methods

Together the class view related arts, stories, paintings, craft, in Indonesian settings.  They listen to the Indonesian Pop Musician Iwan Fals singing his protest hit 'Ethiopia'.  Mrs Boldwill herself wonders how Fals has managed to survive as a politically protagonistic popular musician in Indonesia's recent fragile political climate.  However she does not make an issue of this with her students.   One student brings Balinese puppets to school.  Mrs Boldwill encourages him and a couple of friends to find out what they can about Balinese Puppets.

Assessment points and indicators

Mrs Boldwill again assesses her students in part for their participation in discussion on the ways in which music and related arts are made and used for a range of purposes across cultures.
She also assesses her students for their skill in identifying distinguishing features of art works that locate them in a particular time, place or culture. 
Finally the class together assess the effectiveness of group creations and re-creations of music (and dance?).

Crossover to other learning areas

Art, Literature (in English) Indonesian or other language studies, Social Studies.

7.    Use new understandings to begin to inform original music