Children of the Atom

ISBN 9781622772070.

Does your student have unexplained arm pain when playing violin? Does a beginner in your band complain of a sore neck and shortness of breath when playing clarinet? Or does your piano student complain of sore wrists? Expanding on the concepts of Body Mapping developed by Barbara Conable in her flagship book, What Every Musician Needs to Know about the Body, licensed Andover Educator Jennifer Johnson presents anatomical facts, movement activities, and tools for preventing injury in our young music students. Teaching Body Mapping to Children is an essential guide for teachers to recognize potential movement and posture problems and to help their students find free, healthy, and efficient ways to make music. Clear definitions and useful drawings illustrate the structure of the body and healthy movement patterns. Imaginative games and activities for both individual and group instruction teach musically appropriate movement and self-awareness. Suggestions for using anatomically accurate teaching language are provided. Also addressed are the challenges that daily activities (such as texting, writing, and using a computer) present to the well-being of our students. A comprehensive list of resources adds to the value of the book. Great resource! The beauty of this book is that there is help here for all musicians regardless of their discipline! —Jean Ritter, British Columbia The Canadian Music Teacher, Spring Journal.

SKU: HL.402076

ISBN 9781705160077. UPC: 196288056812. 9.0x12.0x0.167 inches.

The Right of Your Senses is a set of nine songs for children's voices, solo soprano, and orchestra written for the National Children's Chorus, American Youth Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic Association. The texts are primarily 17th-century, by Thomas Traherne and George Herbert, but two of them come from the 11th-century Enchiridion by Byrhtferth. The overarching theme is the story of creation, but not just the list of objects created: the texts deal with the emotional resonances of the sun, the sea, the air, and the moon with all their mysterious, bright, and dark potential. There is a recurring gesture in the strings, introduced at the very top: a simple descending pattern which binds many of the movements together, even when hidden in the more tumultuous sections. The first two movements are bright, whereas the middle three movements are violent and deal with the angrier natural elements. The seventh movement is the most abstract and playful, and here a direct nod to Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols, with a fast three-part canon depicting the behavior of the atom. The eighth movement, Night, is the slowest, and depicts the night sky. The final movement is calm, and encourages us: Be faithful in a little, and you shall be master over much. The piece ends with five strokes of high bells. x Nico Muhly.