Grades 5 to 13
RESPONSE and eResponse
Student composition projects
Response ©Sonja Werner
Experiencing contemporary music more intensively and learning to hear and understand it in a more differentiated way by composing it yourself: that is the aim of the Response project. The participating students compose their own works in small groups over the course of eight to ten workshop units as a musical response to selected reference works. They are guided and accompanied on their creative and compositional journey by composer Thomas Taxus Beck. The project offers a variety of spaces for discovery and opens up opportunities for music-making without any prerequisites. As part of the ACHT BRÜCKEN | Musik für Köln festival, the pupils will perform their works for the first time in their own concert.
In 2022, eResponse pursued a new focus on electronic forms of composition. As part of the project, young people were given the opportunity to learn digital applications for producing and editing their own music and using them to develop their own creative and artistic works. They were supported by the composer Marco Mlynek. A further development of the approach by linking electronic and acoustic forms of composition is being pursued.
Further information on the student composition project can be found under the respective tabs.
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2023 Response »Migrants«
Around 90 young people will be exploring the composition »Migrants« by Georges Aperghis between February and June 2023. The students will compose their own works in small groups as a musical response to the reference work. They will be guided and accompanied on their creative and compositional journey by composer Thomas Taxus Beck. The project offers a variety of spaces for discovery and opens up opportunities for music-making without prerequisites. As part of the ACHT BRÜCKEN | Musik für Köln festival, the students will perform their works for the first time in their own concert at the COMEDIA Theater in Cologne. The reference concert with Ensemble Resonanz will take place on 12 June 2023 at the Kölner Philharmonie.
The composition »Migrants« by Georges Aperghis tells of disappearance, of drowned people off the coast of Europe and of the limits of articulation. It interweaves passages from Joseph Conrad's ‘Heart of Darkness’ with reports of refugees from Africa who survived the crossing across the Mediterranean. In the superimposition, language suffers shipwreck, becomes a fragment, becomes something that has disappeared and is echoed. Surging cascades of syllables, abstract sound, strings that part like waves. Until the music goes so far that it no longer knows how to return.
Supported by the Kuratorium KölnMusik e.V.
Dates
Project period: February to June 2023
10 school visits of 90 minutes each
FR 27/01/2023 17:00 - 18:30h
Preliminary discussion with the participating teachersMI 03/05/2023 18:00 COMEDIA Theater Köln
Final concertMON 12/06/2023 20:00 Kölner Philharmonie
Reference concert with the Ensemble Resonanz and the work »Migrants« by Georges Aperghis. Presentation by the students as part of an introduction before the concert is being planned. Participating pupils are required to attend the concert afterwards.Registration information
» to the registration formNumber of participants: 4 school classes
Cost: € 25 per pupil including concert ticket (discounts possible). Admission to the concert is free for accompanying teachers.
Registration deadline: 15/12/2022Questions?
Tel: 0221 20408 355
musikvermittlung@koelnmusik.de -
2022 eResponse »Spiegelwelten«
The new eResponse project focusses on electronic forms of composition alongside acoustic sound generators in the creative process. The use of electronic editing programmes and sounds adds new dimensions to the range of sound possibilities and brings the young people into the world in which they live.
The approximately 90 participating students spent nine weeks in 2022 exploring the music of Midori Takada. They were accompanied by a team of teachers on the way to creating their own compositions. The two composers Thomas Taxus Beck and Marco Mlynek provided support, assistance and suggestions to further develop the ideas of the small groups.The resulting video documentation provides lively insights into the eResponse project work:
The participating school classes from Wasseramselweg Gesamtschule, Humboldt Gymnasium Köln, Heinrich Böll Gesamtschule and Genoveva Gymnasium performed their specially developed works in their own school concert at the COMEDIA Theater on 3 May 2022. Some of the works were performed again as part of the concert introduction of the »Round« concert »Ambient Live« with Laurel Halo and Midori Takada as part of the festival ACHT BRÜCKEN | Musik für Köln on 5 May 2022 in the Kölner Philharmonie. The stage presentation was recorded as a video documentary:
Supported by the PwC Foundation.
ACHT BRÜCKEN│Music für Köln
in cooperation with KölnMusik.