Grand jeu/Grande écoute • Guide pédagogique

Série hommage • Denis Gougeon SMCQ 1

On track with Denis Gougeon !

Teacher’s GuideActivities for analyzing, performing and creating music

Primary and Secondary level students

Homage Series no 4All Ears / All Play

Document prepared by the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ) as part of the Homage Series (2013-2014) dedicated to Denis Gougeon..

On track with Denis Gougeon!Copy editor: Claire Cavanagh (SMCQ), in collaboration with Hélène Lévesque (CSDM music education consultant)Consultants (Ontario): Frédéric Julien and Gena NorburyTranslation: Peggy NiloffIllustration: Élisabeth Eudes-PascalCoordination: Claire CavanaghLayout: Noémie Pascal

Homage Series / Denis GougeonArtistic Director: Walter BoudreauGeneral Director: Aïda Aoun

© Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ), 2013

300, boul. de Maisonneuve Est, Montréal (Québec), H2X 3X6Telephone: 514-843-9305 | Fax: 514-843-3167 | smcq@smcq.qc.ca

Table of contentsThe Homage Series and All Ears/All Play 2014 p. 4 Biography of Denis Gougeon p. 4Educational tools for All Ears/All Play 2014 p. 6

Pedagogical activities p. 7

A) Primary levels

Le piano muet : Music based on a story by Gilles VigneaultPreparatory games p. 10Appreciation/Critical analysis p. 13

Les Fables de Lafontaine : A study of tempos and character Appreciation/Critical analysis p. 14Creation p. 15

À l’Aventure : When the music takes us on twists and turnsAppreciation/Critical analysis p. 18

Voler comme un oiseau : Singalong with Denis Gougeon and create a musical collagePerformance p. 20Creation p. 20

B) Primary and Secondary levels

Jeu d’imitation (suivez-moi!) : A study of the imitative process in music Appreciation/Critical analysis p. 25Creation p. 26

C) Secondaray levels

À l’Aventure : When music takes us on an adventure Appreciation/Critical analysis p. 28Creation p. 29

Un train pour l’enfer : When music encourages reflection on social issuesAppreciation/Critical analysis p. 30Creation p. 30 Chant de l’amitié : A passacaglia for school bandsPerformance p. 32Creation p. 32

Reproducible Forms (RF) p. 35

Evaluation Forms (EF) p. 67Annex p. 91

Suggestions for other works p. 93Concerts by and for young people p. 95Registration form/Compositeurs en herbe p. 97

Série hommage • Denis Gougeon

Série hommage • Denis Gougeon4 SMCQ

The Homage Series and the All Ears/All Play project

A biennial event organized by the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ), the Homage Series creates a veritable artistic convergence surrounding a remarkable composer, underscoring their contri-bution and lauding them as a “national treasure”. An appeal is made to ensembles and experienced artists From all music genres: early music, classical and contemporary, who participate by integrating some of the featured composer’s works into their programming. This year, more than 50 concerts and 200 activities will take place throughout the country to honor Denis Gougeon!

Teachers and their students are invited to participate in the Homage Series via the All Ears/All Play project, especially designed for young people. Teachers can bring an awareness of Denis Gougeon and his works via the music performance, creation and critical analysis activities presented in this Guide. Reproducible forms facilitate the classroom activities and assessment grids are also provided in conjunction with the objectives of Quebec and Ontario music programs. Several of the presented works provide contextual choices to chal-lenge/interpret sociocultural issues, including cultural references.

All Ears/All Play in the community

The Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ) has undertaken specific initiatives to sensitize local media to the All Ears/All Play project. Some 20,000 students participated in the last edition featuring composer Ana Sokolovic, and several articles were published in media outlets. Young people find it exciting when they note that an important event which they are involved in gets media coverage.

Teachers and students are also invited to share their experiences of the All Ears/All Play project on the SMCQ blog, musiquecontemporaine.wordpress.com or on its Facebook page. Feel Free to contact us (ccava-nagh@smcq.qc.ca ) - we eagerly await your feedback!

Denis Gougeon: biography

Departure: Granby

Denis Gougeon is born in Granby (Quebec) in 1951,just a few steps away From the famous zoo. His childhoodis marked by animals, merry-go-rounds and visitors fromall over the world. Holidays are spent working in theamusement park, on biking escapades to the aerodromeor on train rides, thanks to his father being the stationmaster. As a youth, music is not a major part of his life:Denis Gougeon’s dreams focus on travel.

When he turns 15, a revelation occurs: he borrowsa recently acquired guitar from his siblings, never to returnit. After a year of persistent self-instruction he gives hisfirst classical guitar recital. He will continue learning onhis own until he turns 20, when he decides to make the“big leap”: leaving his home town to study at Montreal’sÉcole de musique Vincent-d’Indy.

Grand jeu/Grande écoute • Guide pédagogique

Série hommage • Denis Gougeon SMCQ 5

Destination: Montreal

Denis Gougeon is now involved with diplomas and encounters. He completes his DEC and Bachelor’s degree in guitar and musicology at Vincent-d’Indy, where Sister Jacques-René intro-duces him to composition. Just a few months after his arrival, his path crosses with young soprano Marie-Danielle Parent. This is the start of a long love story and fertile music exchange. Side by side, they set up a small group, playing all types of genres in all types of venues. At the same time, the young guitarist decides to take private classes in music analysis with composer André Prévost, with whom he will continue his composition studies at the Université de Montréal, eventually attaining a second Bachelor’s degree.

At the same institution, he commences a Master’s degree in composition with composer Serge Garant, a for-mer art director of the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ). Besides helping him perfecthis music writing, Garant sensitizes him to the importance of becoming concretely involved in the cultural milieu;advice that he will follow throughout his career.

Flight

In 1980, his studies completed, Denis Gougeon accompanies Marie-Danielle Parent, now his wife, to New York, where she perfects her talent. There he composes Voix intimes, for his wife and her sister Yolande Parent. This work is noted for its entirely personal meaning. Recipient of first prize (Concours de la SOCAN), this opens the door to his professional career.

Upon returning to Montreal, encouraged by Friends such as composers Claude Vivier and John Rea, Denis continues to compose, gains commissions and wins prizes. Among others he joins Lorraine Vaillancourt for Évé-nements du Neuf and Walter Boudreau for certain SMCQ events before becoming, in 1989, the first composer-in-residence with the OSM. In 1992, having barely completed his residency, he meets Théâtre UBU director Denis Marleau, for whom he will compose music for eleven projects. He will also write for Orchestre symphonique de Québec, SMCQ, NEM,I Musici... Soon, collaborations with the dance milieu (Jean Grand-Maître and the Baye-risches Staatsballett of Munich) and shows for young audiences (SMCQ Jeunesse, Arsenal à musique) will be added to Gougeon’s impressive road map, and for quite some time he will be regarded as the only Quebec composer who can earn a living relying solely on composition.

Today, with more than 100 works in his catalog and crowned with ever more prestigious prizes (in 2010 winning the first prize, grand finale in an international composition competition in Shanghai), Denis Gougeon is consi-dered one of the most highly regarded composers, in addition to since 2001, being a devoted professor of composition at the Université de Montréal. But in spite of his accrued success, the small-town Granby boy is never very far away: a passion for life, aviation enthusiast, always ready to embark on an adventure, Gougeon continually strives to offer music that bears a message, that touches… and that allows its listeners ”to take-off“. Ready? Fasten your seat belts!

Série hommage • Denis Gougeon

Série hommage • Denis Gougeon6 SMCQ

Educational tools

The SMCQ provides various tools especially designed within the All Ears/All Play Framework, enabling you to introduce your students to the life and music of Denis Gougeon. This guide includes some suggestions, but tea-chers are Free to develop classroom activities based on their inspiration or to adapt suggested activities tai-lored to their student’s needs.

Denis Gougeon Comic Book

Denis Gougoen’s life conveyed through words and images by illus-trator Élisabeth Eudes-Pascal and youth author Marie Décary.

Pedagogical Activities

The Teacher’s Guide suggests critical analysis, performance and creation activities based on musi-cal excerpts carefully selected with the composer, for differing age groups.

DVD video

Through four thematic capsules, Denis Gougeon recounts his fas-cinating life’s work to young and old alike. He takes us through his childhood, his vision of composi-tion and his interaction with other artists.

Audio CD

Audio excerpts From Denis Gou-geon’s works are offered in con-junction with educational activities for primary and secondary level students.

Music scores

Primary school students can sing Voler comme un oiseau, a work specifically composed for them, while secondary school students can perform Chant de l’amitié, a work for school bands commis-sioned by the Centre de musique canadienne au Québec (CMC) in honor of the Homage Series. Other Denis Gougeon scores for young people are available for a small fee through the CMC by contact-ing atelier@centremusique.ca.