Final Exam

On the 5^th day of my Beijing Orff Course, it’s time for the Final Exam. Usually that would mean answering prepared questions about what they learned— or at least what I thought they should have learned. There would be right and wrong answers and some sense of high stakes— a passing grade needed to move to the next level. There might be an essay question where each would individually demonstrate the extent of their understanding. They would be working at desks in absolute silence, with a strict proctor circulating to make sure no one is cheating or disturbing the peace. All of which is well and good for what it is. But is what it is enough?

 

Not according to my view of the Orff approach. Having given them a choice of assignments, I walk into the room after lunch and see some eight circles of people. Some are dancing, some playing drums, come moving around with Boomwhacker plastic tubes, some singing and some some combination of above. The room is abuzz with energy and excitement and adults and kids so happily connected and engaged. After being mostly front and center leading 110 people into coherent music, dance and drama for six hours a day, this is the moment for me to step back and let them loose. In that sense, it also my final exam, a testimony to what they got from their 30 hours commitment spoken not in words or right and wrong answers, but in a creative project that reveals what made sense to them. 

 

During the week, they happily accepted activities I shared with no specific cultural focus— simply exploring what any group of human beings might do with bodies and voices that can make coherent musical sounds, with percussion instruments in a circle, with a xylophone waiting to reveal its “secret song,” They equally were fascinated and in some cases, profoundly uplifted by, material from musical cultures ranging from Ghana, Zimbabwe, Thailand, the Philippines, Finland, Denmark, Spain, Chile, Cuba, the U.S. and more. They also seemed intrigued by a few Chinese songs I shared, orchestrated on Orff instruments with them singing the familiar song (my Mandarin is ten words) without even a shadow of someone thinking, “Cultural Appropriation!”

 

But now it’s all turned back to them. Their music, dance, stories, poems, cultural background, artistic and otherwise. Which is the whole point of inviting this foreign guy who has considerable expertise in an approach somewhat new to many. I’ve known throughout my 35 years of traveling the world that I wasn’t there to convince anyone to use Orff and Keetman’s Volumes of Music for Children nor impose American rhymes and folk songs. But to use the ideas that reach beyond business as usual and open the imagination to the endless possibilities this human mind, body and heart can dream. To begin that marvelous journey into new possibility from one’s cultural inheritance and then move beyond those borders as you wish. 

 

 

I wrote the above while they were working and when they shared, reminded them that this little project was to summarize what they already know (a Chinese song/ story/ proverb etc.), what they learned (the ideas of how to develop material modeled in these five days) and what they didn’t yet know—their imaginative treatment of it all. Each of the ten performances was simply wonderful— A+ for all! Now time for certificates and the closing circle. Stay tuned.  (8/23)