Using iMovie for Soundscape Composition in General Music

Abstract

In this column, I discuss a soundscape composition activity that I implemented with primary/elementary music classes. During this activity, students used the iPad app, iMovie, to record, organize and edit sound to accompany photos of artworks that they had created. Overall, I found iMovie to be a useful app for music composition with general music classes.

Experimenting With Music: Soundscape Composition in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme

“…This student is in her first year of the IB DP and may choose to continue experimenting with the genre of soundscape composition in her second year of the course. This is not the first time I have discussed soundscape composition in general music settings, and if you wish to find out how you can develop activities using this medium for primary/elementary classes, please see my previous column (i.e., Norman, 2022). Composing need not be limited to traditional forms and styles and with the ever-increasing prevalence of digital technologies in the classroom, I encourage you to consider how you could potentially incorporate soundscape composition into your practice.…”

“…First, however, it is important to establish what is meant by the term, “soundscape composition.” As I discuss in a previous column (i.e., Norman, 2022), a soundscape composition should contain “recognizable environmental sounds that invoke listeners’ associations, memories, and imaginations related to the soundscape” (Yanko, 2019, p. 274). However, as Truax (2008) observed, “music created through soundscape composition cannot be organised with much similarity to instrumental music; in fact, a broader definition of music such as ‘organised sound’ must be invoked” (p. 105).…”

“…In a previous column, I explored how iMovie for iOS can be used for soundscape composition in general music and provided an example of a task that I implemented with Year 4 students (9- to 10-year-olds), which involved students composing soundscapes inspired by their own triptych artworks (Norman, 2022). I concluded that “when iMovie for iOS is effectively incorporated into composition tasks, students are afforded the opportunity to engage in a cyclic process of composing, recording, and refining, which may otherwise be limited by traditional music notation” and that iMovie is “both a useful and intuitive app that has several advantages for music composition in general music education” (p. 40).…”