GIOVANNI PIAZZA

Professor of composition at the S.Cecilia Conservatory in Rome. Author of the Italian edition of the Orff-Schulwerk, of many other didactic publications, including didactical software and presently editor of the Collana Didattica OSI. Composer of music for didactic use and for the theatre and member, in the seventies, of the Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza. Former contributor to the national music program of in-service teacher training and to the Specialization Programs of the Universities of Latium and Campania. Holds courses, seminars and lectures in collaboration with many Italian and foreign institutions. Former musical consultant to the Rome Opera House, to RAI-TV and to the Ministry of Education. Project leader in 1998 of a EEC Regional Course for music educators training. Presently permanent director of an ongoing Orff-Schulwerk three-level course in Rome, chairman of the Association Orff-Schulwerk Italiano. Former member of the national “Progetto Speciale Musica” and of the National Committee for the Practical Learning of Music in the School (2006-2009). Former co-ordinator of an Orff-Schulwerk Special Course at the S.Cecilia Conservatory in Rome (2008-2009).

TOGHETER … ENSEMBLE/II
Using pentatonic scales and other five-tone scale-schemes (pentaphonies) in the Orff Music Ensemble
A global model of playing together
For teachers and atelierists with any level of musical knowledge

Languages: Italian, German, English.

The Orff Instrumentarium is certainly one of the most successful Orff-Schulwerk “inventions”: widespread today more than ever, it is often mistaken for the “method” itself. Simply using Orff Instruments to play elementary music is sometimes misunderstood for an adequate use of the Schulwerk. This common reduction also clarifies why the Orff Instrumentarium as “self-sufficient” ensemble can be nowadays perceived as a too narrow and dated musical environment.
Both this conception and this utilization of the Orff Instrumentarium are widely passed. In the modern approach the bar instruments are the elemental harmonic “body” of an open ensemble that includes all the electronic, historic, folkloric, self-made, etc. instruments that the group can have available. Considering the regained popularity of percussion instruments, the Orff Instrumentarium reveals a very high suitability to today’s youth sensibility. The diatonic setting-out of the basic models and the possibility to extract and replace the bars according to the contextual needs of the group, offer the clarity and manageability, which are essential in a didactical environment. The aim of the Orff Ensemble is not to “even out” the skills of the group, so that the “most skilled” is restrained and the “less skilled” becomes a hindrance. On the contrary, it aims to integrate the different skills and knowledge, so that both the “most skilled” and “less skilled” can all find a satisfactory placing.
The use of the “pentaphonies” (different scale-schemes with five tones) as a melodic and harmonic field “free of objective mistakes”, which can be managed very directly, without needing any previous theoretical notions, allow the participants - including diverse-skilled - to integrate their different abilities and competences.
The workshop aims to the collective realization of progressive models of vocal-instrumental didactic arrangements using materials different than last year’s. Particular attention will be given to training with the backing tracks of “Pentajazz” (a teaching book on a new didactic approach to jazz by S. Macaro e G. Piazza, OSI/MKT Edition) not only for practicing improvisation but especially for the elaboration of settled and complete music structures.
The participants are invited to bring their own instruments (string-, wind-, pluck-instruments, accordeon, etc.)