WEAVING WORDS & MUSIC - IMAGES
VITERBO UNIVERSITY HUMANITIES SYMPOSIUM - "Behind the Wall" with Victoria Biggs

"Weaving Words and Music: Fostering a Meaningful Intercultural Exchange through Music Composition"

For the past several years, Viterbo University music theory courses have included music composition as a powerful tool for unlocking creative potential.  The work began as a way to engage and motivate sophomore music theory students, but mushroomed into papers and original compositions that have been presented and performed at choir concerts, recitals, and conferences.  Embedding composition into the theory curriculum had immediate benefits because it required application of the basic elements of music in a creative and personal manner.  Music composition developed students’ theoretical knowledge of the elements of music and gave them tools for making decisions regarding melodic shape, harmonic choices, and musicianship details, not to mention discovering their old scores with fresh eyes.  
 
Motivating university students to sustain a long-range project can be a daunting task, so it is necessary to give them projects that are intrinsically motivating and without right or wrong answers—projects based on meaningful experience. Each project has had an inherent, values-based concept that was broad enough for students to make their own choices, while staying within the parameters of a common theme.

The sophomore composition project for 2015-2016, “Weaving Words and Music,” has broadened students’ understanding of global conflict by incorporating personal experiences of Palestinians living in Bethlehem. Research and study of the wall around Bethlehem added perspective and depth to the VU university music theory project.  Adding global awareness while weaving meaning into the sophomore music composition project, “Weaving Words and Music – Sophomore Music Composition Project 2016,” is the subject of this paper.


D.B. Reinhart Institute for Ethics in Leadership - WEAVING WORDS & MUSIC 2016:
weaving_words_and_music--atiner_30_may_-_03_june_2016.docx
File Size: 288 kb
File Type: docx
Download File
SELECTED STUDENT SCORES
​