HARMONY AND CANON

We started this morning to a track from the c.d. of Russian Dance Music compiled by the Russian/Dutch folklorist and dancer, Hennie Konings. The beautiful and remarkably open sounds of the singers inspired us to concentrate on singing gently with a relaxed and open throat. That focus led us into our version of Pachelbel's Canon which we sang in three part harmony and sounded specially good.
Next we sang the African song Banuwa with its rich harmonies.
Then we returned to I'LL FLY AWAY, remembering the three parts and enjoying how they fit well together.

After the coffee, with everyone on instruments, we learned this canon written by my good friend Wolfgang Hartmann. To begin with it's a great exercise to memorise the structure and shape of the melody, then it's good practice in crossing over the beaters and ultimately should be an effective and exciting sound played in canon with added percussion. That'll take some weeks but the process should be fun. I've copied the music here to give help with memorising, since you can't look at music while playing the xylophone!

Click to enlarge - then right click mouse below the music image to choose print