056 - The Valentine Composition Project

Field Notes on Music Teaching & Learning · Feb 8, 2023 · 11m

It was 1997.My piano teacher had just shown us a picture of Belle, Bonne, Sage, a rondeau about love written in the shape of a heart by 15th-century French composer, Baude Cordier.This signaled the beginning of the annual studio-wide Valentine composition project.Every year around this time, my piano teacher invited us to write our own piece of music, a "musical Valentine," as she called it. The idea was to not only write an original piece, but gift it to someone—maybe a grandparent, friend, or neighbor—and perform it for them.We worked on these compositions for several weeks, usually…