Students from Mozart College, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, learn to compose music with the Paris Chamber Orchestra. The theme this Olympic year is sport and performance with a public concert planned for Thursday March 7.
Eyes widen, ears alert and smiles wide open… The students are rejoicing, they are going to write a musical score. The theme in this Olympic year : sport and performance.
How to transcribe swimming, boxing or even fencing in music ? Victor Wetzel, composer and teacher, leads the small group which has chosen to work on the high jump.
“ The goal will be to work with them on partitioning. How are we going to shape a certain sound, how to play a particular sporting gesture, how can we note it? This way, it gives the basics of what a partition is. », explains the teacher. Not all students know how to read music, but this does not seem to be a problem for Victor Wetzel. “ They will actually write their own language », he considers.
Cymbals, drums or maracas, you have to choose the instruments that can best reproduce the steps of the athlete who takes off and lands on the mattress. Nora, Ines, Firas, Mohamed, or Moussa, 5th grade students, will in some way draw the score. “ We will read the time from left to right and it is like a classical music score. It’s the same », Shows Victor Wetzel.
“I am amazed just by seeing a child play an instrument”
Classical music, that’s what it says. It’s been eight years since theParis Chamber Orchestra has established a partnership with Mozart College, classified as a Priority Education Network (REP).
Stéphie Souppaya is a violist in the orchestra. The virtuoso musician is delighted to introduce students to classical music.
“ For example, we had a session ten days ago where I saw a student… I never would have believed that he could have made a sound come out of a trumpet. I am amazed just by seeing a child play an instrument », Enthuses Stéphie Souppaya.
Exactly, what do middle school students listen to? “ Rap, sad music », Explains one of them. “ It’s really something that releases strong emotions, what’s in the heart. It makes you cry, but at the same time, it releases all the emotions you have », adds another.
In search of requirements
On the walls, very successful portraits with beard and glasses of the music teacher, Étienne Comes, sketched by the students.
He supervises all these little people, and even if the workshops are fun, the teacher is demanding. “ There are a lot of people who say that music is “fun”. As someone who went to the conservatory, I can tell you that music isn’t always “fun”, in fact. But these constraints that we impose on ourselves, this rigor, this discipline, it aims at a goal: it is quality, it is personal development, it is creativity… »
All these small working groups form a harmonious whole, like the school bell which announces the end of classes: a Mozart symphony.