| Music Recreation at the Residence Salomon |
| Two students from Concordia University, majoring in Human Relations, offered me to play music at the Residence Salomon in Montreal. The age of the participants ranged from 75 to 101 years old. I chose the music of William Gillock as a soothing experience for people’s heart and ears. Usually, activities at the Residence attract between 6 to 13 people. We got about 16 participants. Some residents have pain in their back, hands or feet, some show symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, while others have bad hearing. We did three 1-hour sessions on consecutive days, featuring mainly Gillock’s pieces, “Procession of the Mandarin” “Argentina” “Holiday in Spain” “Autumn Sketch” “Forest Murmur”; with the intent to use music to travel around the world. |
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For each piece, we talked about what it could bring to the imagination
and some participants talked about their memories. With their ideas we made a musical story titled “Around the World” One student did the narration and played the part of Hanah, and the other part was played by most of all participants “Around the World” |
Hello! My name is Hanah.
| I would like to travel with you. Shall we? Listen carefully; we can hear some sound from far away. The emperor is carried in a litter by four servants and surrounded by numerous others who are beating drums and gongs to frighten away evil spirits along their route. Procession of the Mandarin & Oriental Wind-chimes We are in China! We want to see the Great Wall of China! Let’s go and have a delicious lunch. Is there anybody who wants to go with us? (show the photos) Argentina & Fiesta It was wonderful! I am so happy to travel. Let’s go to South America. Can you hear the rhythm of TANGO? [Tap out rhythm, everybody seems to feel good] We are well on the beat. One more Dance.(Fiesta) [Tap on the table. Even those who have bad hearing could feel the vibration and enjoyed it. The rhythm session was wonderful, the result was better than I expected] Holiday in Spain & Toreador We flew and we are in Spain! Hanah met a nice Spaniard! She fell in love with him at first sight. He is a bullfighter. So in the afternoon she went to watch the bull fight. When the Spaniard fought with a big and aggressive bull, she had butterflies in her stomach and was very nervous. She prayed! After the fight, she said” what a relief!” and she was then quite hungry. So Hanah went to a nice Spanish restaurant with all her friends. At the restaurant we listen to wonderful music. Autumn Sketch & Hymne al’amour What a romantic city Paris is! It is autumn and trees have changed their colours, yellow, brown, red, and gold. We feel sentimental and we would like to be with somebody. HANAH: Let’s enjoy Paris. What we can do? KAY: Let’s go canoeing! I would like to be on the water, drifting calmly. VERA: I want to go shopping, but in Paris, everything is so expensive! MARGARET: Paris is the perfect place to buy perfumes! HENRY: It is wonderful to watch beautiful girls walking on the street. SAM: I want to play the game “horse ride”! MARIE:I will dress up and will dance at the Folies Bergeres. Harry: I want to dance! FREIDA: On the way back I would love to take a big ship and eat delicious food on deck and everything is so peaceful! ALL: I am happy! |
| Forest Murmurs & Fiesta We came back on a big ship, the ‘Queen Elizabeth”, to our country Canada. Here we have a lot of trees. It is colorful and so beautiful. In addition, we had a wonderful trip. But all good things must come to an end. For the memory of our trip, let’s make a toast! We had a glass of wine on the top of the mountain in the beautiful scenery. Tomorrow, we return to our routine, but we now have good friends through our trips to China, Argentine, Spain, and France! HANAH: Thanks everybody for coming with me. Let’s dance “Fiesta” once more [everybody enjoyed tapping on the table; Henry came in the middle of the circle and he danced] |
| When the student said to the participants: This is the story made with your imagination and memories. This is your original! When they heard that they looked satisfied. ♪ At the beginning, everybody said that they did not have any imagination but, after one student provided an example, it became easier for them to express their imagination ♪ Many participants said that Gillock’s pieces were very soothing. ♪ One of them loved “Oriental Wind-chimes” very much and asked me who the composer was. ♪ The original story created by the participants involved them more and more in a common activity and made them feel as one unit ♪ Participants remained in the room after the concert and were still feeling strongly about their musical experience of the day. ♪ One woman came to the piano and played with her handicapped hand. ♪ Others wanted to shake hands with me, thanking me for the music session. ♪ The students prepared a card to thank me, and all the participants signed it, even those with a handicap. This was a big present for me. I thank you, June and Melissa, for giving me such a wonderful occasion to work with you at the Residence! |
July 11,12,13th
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