Comments on: Music, the Holocaust and Social Justice http://collective.musiced.net/2006/05/22/music-the-holocaust-and-social-justice/ A Music Education Blog Collective Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:16:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=wordpress-mu-1.2.1 By: etobias http://collective.musiced.net/2006/05/22/music-the-holocaust-and-social-justice/#comment-256 etobias Tue, 23 May 2006 12:56:30 +0000 http://collective.musiced.net/2006/05/22/music-the-holocaust-and-social-justice/#comment-256 I haven't addressed the Holocaust directly but did use an excerpt from the "Diary of Anne Frank" as a main component in an interdisciplinary lesson I did last year looking at unifying factors in music,literature and painting http://musiced.net/willowgrove/music/6thgrade/interdisciplinary1.htm As far as other tragedies, last year I had my fifth graders set original poems that had been written by 2nd graders about the Tsunamiin South East Asia to thier own music. It was a goal for them to express the feelings and emotions of the poems which were emotionally charged due to the subject matter. You can hear two of them http://musiced.net/willowgrove/music/5thgrade/artsong_comps.htm I am curious how other music teachers approach the holocaust or other tragic situations through music. I have wanted to address Sept. 11th but have not yet since I haven't figured out a way to approach it yet though I have some music in mind for when I eventually figure out how to approach it. I haven’t addressed the Holocaust directly but did use an excerpt from the “Diary of Anne Frank” as a main component in an interdisciplinary lesson I did last year looking at unifying factors in music,literature and painting http://musiced.net/willowgrove/music/6thgrade/interdisciplinary1.htm

As far as other tragedies, last year I had my fifth graders set original poems that had been written by 2nd graders about the Tsunamiin South East Asia to thier own music. It was a goal for them to express the feelings and emotions of the poems which were emotionally charged due to the subject matter. You can hear two of them
http://musiced.net/willowgrove/music/5thgrade/artsong_comps.htm

I am curious how other music teachers approach the holocaust or other tragic situations through music. I have wanted to address Sept. 11th but have not yet since I haven’t figured out a way to approach it yet though I have some music in mind for when I eventually figure out how to approach it.

]]> By: jabramo http://collective.musiced.net/2006/05/22/music-the-holocaust-and-social-justice/#comment-255 jabramo Mon, 22 May 2006 22:41:25 +0000 http://collective.musiced.net/2006/05/22/music-the-holocaust-and-social-justice/#comment-255 Great comments Evan. Have you, or anyone else reading this, ever done anything in their music classroom with the Holocaust? I would be curious to hear about some student reactions to this. Great comments Evan. Have you, or anyone else reading this, ever done anything in their music classroom with the Holocaust? I would be curious to hear about some student reactions to this.

]]> By: etobias http://collective.musiced.net/2006/05/22/music-the-holocaust-and-social-justice/#comment-254 etobias Mon, 22 May 2006 19:28:54 +0000 http://collective.musiced.net/2006/05/22/music-the-holocaust-and-social-justice/#comment-254 Some provocative questions! I was thinking about your question "How does experiencing these things through music differ than just talking about it" - and it made me think about how tragic situations can demonstrate how there are so many different ways of experiencing things and how the arts offer a very different way of fathoming something difficult to think about than "just talking about it". One way of fathoming the holocaust is by thinking about the numbers of people murdered. Students in schools have used paperclips to do this and a museum is working on fathoming the numbers through the use of butterflies http://hmh.org/minisite/butterfly/index.html The arts offer a very different way of fathoming the holocaust- whether through poetry or song. The book "I Never Saw Another Butterfly" http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805210156/ref=pd_bxgy_text_b/002-0826442-1988807?%5Fencoding=UTF8 includes poetry and drawings by children who were victims of Terezin. Having our students try to express their thoughts about and fathom the holocaust through the creation of music could be very powerful. It would be very possible to have students set the poems in "I never Saw another Butterfly" to their own original music,(This has actually been done already and recorded - http://www.radio.cz/en/article/50021 )or create their own completely original music without text. The strong emotions that students would have to confront, express and discuss could certainly be framed through a social justice lens. As teachers we would have to figure out how we would negotiate the discomfort of our students but I could see this being a potentially life changing experience for some students. Here's another resource for music of the holocaust http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/arts/music.htm Some provocative questions! I was thinking about your question “How does experiencing these things through music differ than just talking about it” - and it made me think about how tragic situations can demonstrate how there are so many different ways of experiencing things and how the arts offer a very different way of fathoming something difficult to think about than “just talking about it”.

One way of fathoming the holocaust is by thinking about the numbers of people murdered. Students in schools have used paperclips to do this and a museum is working on fathoming the numbers through the use of butterflies
http://hmh.org/minisite/butterfly/index.html

The arts offer a very different way of fathoming the holocaust- whether through poetry or song.

The book “I Never Saw Another Butterfly” http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805210156/ref=pd_bxgy_text_b/002-0826442-1988807?%5Fencoding=UTF8 includes poetry and drawings by children who were victims of Terezin.

Having our students try to express their thoughts about and fathom the holocaust through the creation of music could be very powerful. It would be very possible to have students set the poems in “I never Saw another Butterfly” to their own original music,(This has actually been done already and recorded - http://www.radio.cz/en/article/50021 )or create their own completely original music without text.

The strong emotions that students would have to confront, express and discuss could certainly be framed through a social justice lens. As teachers we would have to figure out how we would negotiate the discomfort of our students but I could see this being a potentially life changing experience for some students.

Here’s another resource for music of the holocaust
http://fcit.usf.edu/holocaust/arts/music.htm

]]> By: Jonathan Savage http://collective.musiced.net/2006/05/22/music-the-holocaust-and-social-justice/#comment-253 Jonathan Savage Mon, 22 May 2006 15:58:31 +0000 http://collective.musiced.net/2006/05/22/music-the-holocaust-and-social-justice/#comment-253 The BBC together with the Auschwitz-Birkenau music have recently released a superb film of music recorded in and around the Auschwitz concentration camp. This film was broadcast on BBC television some time ago and received much critical acclaim. It has subsequently won many awards. In my opinion, it is one of the most moving pieces of film you are every likely to see. You can find out more information <a href="http://www.auschwitz.org.pl/publikacje/index.php?language=EN&ksiazka=259&mode=ksiazka&submode=info" rel="nofollow">here. The BBC together with the Auschwitz-Birkenau music have recently released a superb film of music recorded in and around the Auschwitz concentration camp. This film was broadcast on BBC television some time ago and received much critical acclaim. It has subsequently won many awards. In my opinion, it is one of the most moving pieces of film you are every likely to see. You can find out more information here.

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