Music 

Welcome Back to Term 3 MUSIC, and to Grades PREP DB, CC and MY, Grades 1JS, 1JT and 1NL, Grades 2RV, 2JC and 2SE  and Grades 3SE, 3ME and 3EC.  These classes have completed their first four lessons for Term 3 and it was great to see how many children remembered some of the material we covered last year when they were Grade PREPS, Ones and Grade Twos. Many children have not forgotten the songs, beats and chants that we learned. They also have not forgotten the MUSIC Room rules and their behaviour and manners. It is so refreshing to teach so many beautifully behaved and polite children! We welcome the PREPS to MUSIC for this year. 

This Term sees the Grade PREPS and Grade Ones playing non-tuned percussion instruments, exploring sound and silence and ways of using their voices, movement and instruments to express ideas, practising matching pitch to sing in tune and experimenting with speaking and singing voice to recognise the differences and creating long/ short/ loud and soft sounds with their voices or instruments. The Grade Prep and Grade One students will be learning/ revising the first verse of Australia's National Anthem, Advance Australia Fair. 

The Grade Twos and Threes will focus on an Australian Song unit of work, amongst other material, focusing on famous and popular Australian songs, how they came to be written, by whom and what is the history of these pieces. They will use voice and body percussion to experiment with the elements of music and create contrasting musical ideas, for example, noise and silence, faster and slower, longer and shorter, higher and lower, louder and softer and happy and sad. The Grade Twos and Threes will be focusing on the well known and much loved Australian story, song and ballad, Waltzing Matilda, written by Banjo Patterson and based on real life fact. 

All Grades will also be participating in an Indigenous Unit of Work, looking at how Music is used in The Olympic Games, Anthems, and some preparation work for our annual Remembrance Day Ceremony to be held on Friday 1st November.

HISTORY OF THE OFFICIAL OLYMPIC GAMES ANTHEM

 Created by Greek composer Spýros Samáaras to words written by his fellow countryman, poet Kostís Palamás, the Olympic Anthem is in fact the oldest property of the modern Games.

The renowned composer was given the task of composing it to give a musical identity to the start of the 1896 Games in Athens, the first modern Games, held two years after Pierre de Coubertin had created the IOC. On 6 April 1896, the Games opened in Athens. The Panathenaic Stadium was packed for the Opening Ceremony, with an audience of around 80,000 enthusiastic spectators. King George I of Greece declared: “I hereby proclaim the opening of the First International Olympic Games in Athens,” whereupon, an eyewitness – the gymnast who became a celebrated educationalist and Greek sports leader, Ioannis Chrissafis – wrote: “Once the long applause from the spectators had died down, an orchestra and a choir, of enormous size compared with the city of Athens at the end of the 19th century, took their place at the heart of the stadium to perform the Olympic Anthem composed by the illustrious Greek musician, Spyros Samaras, with words by poet Kostís Palamas inspired by the odes of Pindar.” Samaras personally conducted a total of nine philharmonic orchestras and 250 singers. Chrissafis went on: “This imposing symphonic array so moved the souls of the spectators, from the King himself to the humblest citizen, that they wished to hear the piece a second time. It was therefore performed again. The Olympic anthem lyrics penned by Palamas to accompany the music by Samaras create a bridge between the ancient and modern Games:

“O Ancient immortal Spirit, pure father

Of beauty, of greatness and of truth,

Descend, reveal yourself and flash like lightning here,

within the glory of your own earth and sky.

At running and at wrestling and at throwing,

Shine in the momentum of noble contests,

And crown with the unfading branch

And make the body worthy and ironlike.

Plains, mountains and seas glow with you

Like a white-and-purple great temple,

And hurries at the temple here, your pilgrim,

O Ancient immortal Spirit, every nation.”

Music has always been an important part of the Olympic celebrations, and it was even part of the art competitions held from the 1912 Games in Stockholm to those in London in 1948, with medals awarded for all kinds of musical works: compositions for one instrument, works for choirs and soloists, and compositions for orchestras. But the Olympic Anthem by Samaras and Palamás disappeared from view for more than 60 years.

The reason was that, at the opening ceremonies, either there was no anthem at all (especially at the first Games of the 20th century), or a work by a local composer was used or, failing that, simply the national anthem of the host country. Finally, at the 55th IOC Session in Tokyo in 1958, the work by Samaras was played for the opening by the Tokyo orchestra and choir. Those attending were spellbound. IOC member Prince Axel of Denmark then proposed: “Let us return to this paean rather than what was composed recently, and which the majority of the members do not like.” His proposal was adopted unanimously.

Thus, it was played again for the first time at the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Games held in Palisades Tahoe on 18 February 1960 in front of the spectators in the Blyth Arena, and then at the start of the Summer Games in Rome on 25 August the same year. There, the anthem composed in 1896 rang out in the Olympic Stadium of the Eternal City, with words translated into Italian by Professor Sigfrido Troilo and a musical arrangement by conductor Bonaventura Somma.

After that, the Olympic Anthem became a standard part of the protocol. It is played after the parade of nations and once the Games have been officially declared open by the head of state of the host country. It can then also be used for the gold medallists competing independently, and for example was used in 1992 for the champions of the Unified Team composed of the athletes of the 12 former USSR countries. It is also played at the closing ceremonies.

The performance of the Anthem has always been a particularly moving moment, and an integral part of Olympic identity.

Stay warm this Term, Fiona Jamieson