"Strange Humors": A Pedagogical Analysis

In order to introduce Strange Humors for clarinet quartet and djembe by John Mackey to a group of five advanced high school students during a chamber music unit or a state honors chamber group, I would first give all five musicians a djembe or hand-drumming instrument. I would have them listen to the following recording of a string quartet (the type of ensemble the piece was originally written for) and tell them to imitate what they hear. I would also ask the students to sing the parts that stick out to them.

String Quartet

http://www.ostimusic.com/Humors-media.php

The students will also learn about John Mackey and why he wrote this piece.

• Original: String Quartet with Djembe combining inspiration from African drumming and Middle Eastern music, written while Mackey was a graduate student at The Julliard School (1998)
• Wind Ensemble: commissioned by the American Bandmasters Association and transcribed (2006)
• Saxophone Quartet: transcription requested by H2 quartet (2008)
• Clarinet Quartet: transcription requested by four individuals (2012)

Resources to start with:

A Brief History: http://www.ehow.com/about_6513174_history-african-hand-drums.html

Playing Techniques: http://www.larryswanson.com/personal/world-music-dance/djembe-technique/

Non-Verbal Techniques

Musical Concepts

Students would be asked to focus on many musical elements, some which may take more attention than others to achieve.

• Rhythm-being precise and feeling the overall groove
• Intonation-especially in the chordal sections and in the upper register
• Extended techniques-pitch bending and slap tonguing: exercises and applications
• Articulation and Accents-accurate and exaggerated
• Embellishments-adding in accurate grace notes
• Dynamics-exaggerating contrasts, especially the softer dynamics

The ensemble would be allowed to choose where they would like to perform this piece. In the spirit of African and Middle Eastern music, the ensemble would most likely perform in an informal setting with the purpose of entertainment. The ensemble would also be asked to perform at a chamber music concert. As an extra bonus, the students could write program notes for their piece based on the background information they learned.

Although the visible final product is a musical performance, the students would be reminded that they should take much more away from this project than a perfect performance. There were many additional musical, social, and intellectual lessons that have already been learned throughout the project.

Strange Humors

By John Mackey

Advanced Learning Opportunities

Presentation by

Kathryn Vetter

Students will have a chance to connect this piece to other art forms. After watching the video of the dance of Strange Humors, the student will discuss the visual depictions of the music and the connections between the dance and the score.

The Final

Product

Sing, Clap, and Hiss

Improvise and Grove within the Style

After listening to the piece, but before actually playing or seeing notation, students will be asked to play a repeated rhythm from the piece on a hand drum. While the other four repeat their rhythms, the fifth person will improvise a rhythm in the style of the piece. This will hopefully get the students to internalize the beat, tempo, rhythmic patterns, and style before they even seen the parts.

Due to the many challenging rhythms in this piece, student will not be allowed to start playing the piece on their instruments until they can sing through it with accurate rhythms. This may take lots of breaking down parts and practicing at slower tempos. Clapping or hissing will eliminate any instrumental technical distractions so the students can simply focus on the rhythm. Students will also be asked to clap or hiss another student’s part, and eventually they will be asked to clap another student’s part while hissing his or her own.

Singing for Tonal Issues

For difficult tonal passages, dissonances, and intonation problems, students will be asked to sing their parts. The student should already know how to perform their parts vocally since that is how the piece was introduced. Now the focus shifts to the issues, such as intonation and dissonances rather than playing correct pitches.

Physical Representation

of the Music

Addressing Non-traditional Techniques and Accents: Students will make large swooping motions whenever pitch bending occurs. Students will also jerk quickly towards their neighbor on every accented note (all while trying not to laugh); these techniques will hopefully bring ease to the pitch bending and exaggerate the accents.

Listening

and Ethnomusicology

Rehearsal

African Hand Drumming

Strange Humors Listening

One activity the ensemble could do would be to research more about African hand drumming, from its history to playing techniques.

After experimenting and learning about African hand drumming and Middle Eastern music, the students would explore the different arrangements of the piece and listen to different recordings. The students would also be asked to compare and contrast the different arrangements.

The students would be asked to rehearse regularly and listen to many different recordings of the clarinet quartet arrangement. Although the students would now be rehearsing with their respective instruments, they would often be asked to refer back to the introduction of the piece where they all sang the melodic lines and internalized the rhythmic percussion part.

Middle-Eastern Folk Music

Saxophone Quartet: http://www.ostimusic.com/HumorsSax-media.php

Wind Ensemble:

http://www.ostimusic.com/HumorsWinds-media.php

After learning of Mackey's inspiration from Middle Eastern music, the students could use the resource listed below to investigate different Middle Eastern cultures to investigate Mackey's inspiration.

http://worldmusic.nationalgeographic.com/view/page.basic/region/content.region/middle_east_810/en_US

Introduction