What a tremendous week it has been at MISTEC in Komotini, Greece! There will be many more documents and links to videos on this blog shortly. In the meantime, here is our most recent comprehensive cue sheet. Please feel free to follow this blog in order to stay updated when new information is posted! We look forward to your comments and ideas!
Paul Scea was in residence at Pingree School in South Hamilton, MA on March 8 and 9, 2012. During his stay, he worked with a variety of high school classes and students, with a focus on improvisation and technology. Paul gave a workshop on 'Oh, Pierre!' to the Pingree Instrumental Ensemble, who have been working with the piece throughout the school year. Particular attention was given to encouraging students to think, create, and take musical risks that were outside their comfort zones. Additionally, the ensemble was also encouraged to think around a perspective of creating specific moods or energy. Below are four audio recordings of 'Oh, Pierre!' performances from that workshop. Scea gives all the cues on the first two examples, on the third he only gives cues that are requested from the ensemble, and the fourth is prompted by a student.
I am going to teach Oh, Pierre! to another incarnation of the WVU Big Band on Monday. I'm going to incorporate David Witter's clever cues as Landmarks, ie. "Country," "Metal," & major and minor chords.
One of my instrumental ensembles at Pingree has been working on creating music by using the 'Oh, Pierre!' cues. For this given assignment, they were asked to mentally conceive of an original piece of music and try to outline a sketch of it using the 'Oh, Pierre!' cues. For this phase of the assignment, they wrote out their order of cues and were given the instruction to intentionally NOT deviate from the cues they predetermined, regardless of the sonic responses provided by the ensemble. All of the compositions were recorded so students can have a chance to reflect on the music that resulted. In future phases of this assignment, they will have the chance to deviate from the cues and allow themselves to adapt their 'composition' in the moment based on the music that is unfolding. Eventually, I am looking toward the goal of their not having any cues prepared in advance and, as is one of the larger goals of 'Oh, Pierre!' of having cues evolve within and through the entire ensemble, trying to break away from the concept of "conductor/prompter" led performance. There are many levels to the pedagogy and the music evolving here. Working within 'Oh, Pierre!' allows me (and the ensemble) to get a clearer sense of where the students' 'creative comfort zone' is. Listening to the first round of recordings (linked below) will help to frame the evolution of their musical/creative/ensemble thinking.
