This morning in the bright spring sunshine the Year 2 neighbourhood traveled on the tram (this involved a short walk because the tram stop is not directly outside our school – Archie M) to get to Hamer Hall. Our reason for visiting Hamer Hall was to learn from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and conductor Nicholas Buc as they unpacked the score to the Disney film “The Little Mermaid”. The focus of the performance was how music can paint a picture. This will benefit us as we continue to develop our narratives and how they can be enhanced through the additional of music and sound.
Some of the things we learnt were:
- That the character can’t hear most of the music unless it is source music. (Felix)
- That music was used to make sound effects. This is called Mickey Mousing because this is what was done in the original Disney films. (Lachlan)
- That music is a big part of movies. That music can show the character’s emotions. (Sebastien)
- I was surprised that Alan Menkan, who composed the film score also composed the score to lots of other famous films. (Mia)
- There are different names for the different families of instruments. I like the brass family. (Molly)
- I didn’t know that the kazoo could sound like a string instrument. (Alessia)
- Today was the first time the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra had played the kazoo. (Tao)
- I was surprised that instruments are used to make film music. (Lyla)
- I liked the piccolo trumpet because I have never heard/seen one before. (Maggie)
- I learnt that some people can understand music as a drawing because they can picture it in their head. (Robert)