Sarah Crothers, HLTA, Oxfordshire Hospital School has kindly written this post for us.
Over
the past two weeks a small group of four students have been using Manet’s painting of Mademoiselle Clause as inspiration for a music project.
At first this small group found the task of creating a song difficult, they found that trying to start at the beginning of the song and work through to end was not working. To help the group find some inspiration they used a midi board to create a basic drum beat and rhythm for the project, this is when the project turned into a rap. Taking the drum beat as a starting point the group soon became very animated, they chose to try pairing up words and phrases using each other’s ideas, this mixed with lots of laughter and some very cheesy French accents resulted in a rap with several verses and a chorus which was created in under an hour.
Throughout the rap there are references to popular culture linking this particular part of the Art’s award back to pupils’ previous work where they made canvases comparing Mademoiselle Clause to modern icons. The line’s ‘My corset is too tight, My bustle is to light’ take inspiration from Kim Kardashians tight clothing and pride in the shape of her bottom; and the repeated reference to the Eurovision song contest was inspired by the decision to include Australia in the contest this year leading to discussions around previous French entries.
The rap was finished off with the help of some musicians who came into to support another aspect of the Arts Award, they provided some violin and accordion backing music to add a sense of time and location to the rap.
Throughout the process the pupils worked together to produce a piece of work which they can all be proud of. Each individual showed talent in at least one area of the process form lyric writing to rapping, recording and mixing to finalising and publishing the rap. The group showed high levels of enthusiasm throughout the project and the atmosphere in the room was always jovial.