PALATINE

A project studying algorithmic aspects in music. Based at the Darmstadt University of Technology.

The site for a music making toolkit being developed for GCSE and A-level students, using images and sounds from the Antarctic to stimulate composition.

Article by Jonathan Savage, resulting from his PALATINE Development Award.
(June 2004, DP)

Strathclyde Consortium for Action Research in Learning Approaches and Teaching Techniques in Inventing.

University of Toronto

Yo Tomita's Bach musicological font for Mac and PC direct from Yo Tomita's Web pages.

Scans sheet music and converts it to MIDI and NIFF files. This is a link to Musitek's own pages containing information and downloadable DEMO COPY for PC.

Resources for learning composition, orchestration and arranging by commercial composer Pete Thomas. These materials were used for the commercial composition course at the University of Southampton. Areas covered include basic techniques for many styles of music including classical, jazz and pop.

Site of the month 05/04
With support from a PALATINE Development Award, Jonathan Savage (Manchester Metropolitan University) developed materials based on his research into using case studies of a number of popular musicians, focusing closely on the practical ways in which they carry out the task of musical composition, in order to develop interesting classroom models for composition. The collaboration between Yamaha and the Virtual Learning Environments Foundation, together with Jonathan's own interests in songwriting, led to the production of a CD-ROM entitled "Found Sound - Exploring Songwriting." This CD-ROM was conceived by the education wing of Yamaha Kemble and distributed freely to every high school in the UK through their financial support. The Found Sound website contains detailed teaching notes that staff from the VLEF and Jonathan wrote in support of Yamaha Kemble's CDROM. Jonathan's report for PALATINE, Found Sound - Exploring Songwriting: An "Outside-in" Approach to Composition in the Classroom (PDF file) provides further details and an overview of the complete project. You might also be interested to read Jonathan's article, Informal Approaches to the Development of Young People's Composition Skills.
(May 2004, DP)

Have you written a song or lyric that tells a great story? If so, INSC is for you.

Resourceful and interesting site by music producer, composer and performer Pete Thomas. Apart from a wealth of information and advice on saxophone in particular, there are major sections on composition and arranging, and jazz theory, consisting of course materials developed for students at HE level. These could be a useful and detailed reference source for students working in commercial or pop composition and jazz improvisation, arranging and composition.
(DP, May 2004)

Report from a PALATINE workshop held at Bath Spa University College as part of the UK Songwriting Festival on 11 November 2004.
(November 2004, DP)

Article by Scott D Stanton, College of Eastern Utah.