Keepingscore.org from San Francisco Symphony

In November, the Institute published information about PBS's now-past broadcast, AARON COPLAND AND THE AMERICAN SOUND.

In response to that posting, Stephen Soderberg of the Library of Congress wrote to the listserv about this series and has given permission for his comments to be published here on the IEA blog.

He writes:

I have been following this series as it has been developing. All music teachers Elementary/Middle/High School/Undergraduate(!) should keep an eye on this development. It is much more than the PBS production. For a complete description of the philosophy/materials available, go to http://keepingscore.org.

What Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony are doing is combining (a) the original Leonard Bernstein Children's Concerts TV broadcast idea, (b) the idea behind the (Kalmus?) miniature scores that used to be published with helpful arrows & commentary so amateurs could follow the music, and (c) the power of the web and (what appears to be) Sibelius notation/score-reading/midi tools (probably with the help of their Scorch software).

To get the full effect of how this could be a revolution in music education, click on the "web" button at the site's header. Scroll to "Beethoven's Eroica Companion Site." Then click on "Visit the site" at the bottom of that paragraph. You should then get a full screen view & the music will start with MTT appearing at the bottom of the screen to give a brief introduction.

You now have two choices on the screen: "Revolutionary Ties" (historical commentary about Beethoven, Napolean, Heiligenstadt Testament, etc.) and "Explore the Score." Save the "Ties" for later. Click on "Explore the Score" & then "Play the Score" & then "Play" the first example. (Be patient; there's so much stuff here it takes a little time to load.)

I guarantee you'll be blown away. All at once, you'll see MTT & the SF Symph performing it (upper left window), the score itself with a vertical line following the measures as they go by, an indication of the keys (both in the score & at lower left with color coding), "themes" to follow if you haven't had practice in score reading, and an icon for "mark ups" which will circle a segment of the score -- mouse over a mark up & the music temporarily stops & a window appears with MTT or an orchestra member giving a capsule explanation of the marked segment. There's also a learn-more window that lets you take apart the themes & play various segments with midi piano single line for clarity or full orchestra for context.

Only a couple of criticisms. Navigation: Once you start, you can't stop it yourself or go back over something you missed. I assume this will be fixed in future editions. Second, the score-follower (the vertical line that follows the passing measures) needs work. It doesn't always hit the measure on the beat & can get annoying (especially in the Rite of Spring presentation with complex meters). I guess the problem is coordination with a live performance vs midi & someone probably had to do this manually, but I think there are "mechanical conductors" out there so this should be possible to fix also. But these are very minor problems in the context of this huge achievement.

A web version of the Copland PBS show isn't yet available as I write this, but beside the Beethoven Eroica site, there's one for the Stravinsky Rite of Spring that uses live dance segments from a recent performance as well as original choreography sketches from the Paris premiere. Outstanding.

Kudos to MTT and the designers & support staff that put this product together!

He also recommends Morton Subotnick's website, http://www.creatingmusic.com, that "teaches kids how to compose before they can read music."

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