FLYNN CENTER PRESENTS

A concert that re-imagines

music and events from the

American Civil War through

the artistic language of

jazz; the conflict which set

the stage for the

development of this great

American art form.

Music of the American Civil War:

“The Better Angels of Our

Nature”

We appreciate and value your feedback.

Click here to evaluate our study guides.

Click here for Teacher Feedback Forms for the performance.

Click here for Student Feedback Forms for the performance.

Click here for Parent Forms to help parents engage with their children around the show.

Welcome to the 2015-2016 Student Matinee Season!

Today’s scholars and researchers say creativity is the top skill our kids will need when they

enter the work force of the future, so we salute YOU for valuing the educational and

inspirational power of live performance. By using this study guide you are taking an even

greater step toward implementing the arts as a vital and inspiring educational tool.

We hope you find this guide useful. If you have any suggestions for content or format of

this guide, please contact sms@flynncenter.org.

Enjoy the show!

This guide was written & compiled by the Education Department at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts with materials taken

from Brian McCarthy’s website..

Permission is granted for teachers, parents, and students who are coming to Flynn shows to copy & distribute this guide for

educational purposes only.

The Flynn Center recognizes that field trip resources for schools are extremely limited, thus matinee prices for

schools are significantly lower than prices for public performances. As a non-profit organization, the Flynn is

deeply grateful to the foundations, corporations, and individuals whose generous financial support keeps

matinees affordable for schools.

Thank you to the Flynn Matinee 2015-2016 underwriters: Andrea’s Legacy Fund, Champlain Investment

Partners, LLC, Bari and Peter Dreissigacker, William Randolph Hearst Foundation, Forrest and Frances Lattner

Foundation, Surdna Foundation, Tracy and Richard Tarrant, TD Charitable Foundation, Vermont Concert Artists

Fund of the Vermont Community Foundation, Vermont Community Foundation, New England Foundation for

the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Flynn Jazz Endowment.

Additional support from the Bruce J. Anderson Foundation, Green Mountain Fund, Walter Cerf Community

Fund, the Vermont Arts Council, the Susan Quinn Memorial Fund, and the Ronald McDonald House Charities.

The Performance & the Story

The Production

Things to Think About Before/During/After you see the show

Meet Brian McCarthy

Biography of Brian McCarthy

Context & History

House Congressional Resolution 57

Reflection Questions

Activities to Deepen Understanding

Jazz and Creative Writing

Jazz and Visual Art

Bring the Art Form to Life

The Art Form: the Elements of Jazz

Resources

Additional Activities

Your Visit

The Flynn Center

Etiquette for Live Performance

Why is Etiquette Important?

Being a Mindful Audience Member

Common Core Standards

The Common Core broadens the definition of a “text,” viewing performance as a form of text, so your students are experiencing and interacting with a text when they attend a Flynn show.

Seeing live performance provides rich opportunities to write reflections, narratives, arguments, and more. By writing responses and/or using the Flynn Study Guides, all performances can be linked to Common Core:

CC ELA: W 1-10

You can use this performance and study guide to address the following Common Core Standards (additional standards listed by specific activities):

CC ELA: RL 3&7, SL 1-2, WHST 7-9, RH1-10

C3Hist: D2.His.1-5 & 14, & D41

Before you see the show:

Jazz can provide lessons in how to function in a

democratic society. As a jazz musician you have

freedom and responsibility and you must

contribute to your musical surroundings—

sometimes listening to other musicians and

supporting them and sometimes coming forward

and making a statement while always being

sensitive to those around you. What are some

other examples of ways in which music influences

the way that we interact with our surroundings

or provides a metaphor for a broader theme in

our lives?

As you watch the show:

How do the musicians interact with the one

another on stage? Is it always verbal or are they

using other techniques to speak to each other?

What does this say about their relationship on

stage? Do you think this comes naturally or is

this something they had to learn and perfect?

After you see the show:

Why do you think Jazz was the chosen genre for

Brian McCarthy to tell this story? How does jazz

specifically help you understand this era in

history? If you were going to tell your life story

creatively, what medium or genre would you

use? Why would you choose that format as the

ideal way to express your story? Or, pick an

important historical moment. What artistic

medium would most effectively communicate

this moment?

The Production

Writer and battle historian Shelby Foote describes the American Civil War

as "opening us [America] to being what we became...good and bad things."

Though not the only contributor to American culture, this great conflict

reset the stage to allow an eventual flourish of artistic advancement from

the African American community, leading to one of America's most

significant artistic contributions to the world, Jazz. "The Better Angels of

Our Nature" is a quote from Lincoln in his first inaugural address, in which

he pleaded to both Union and what would become the Confederacy to

avoid any conflict with one-another. With six horn players and rhythm

section, this 9-piece ensemble provides all the power and color of a big

band, with the intimacy of a small group. The program material will explore

popular songs of the American Civil War, some of which are very familiar

even today, and introduce original material based around figures and

events of the era. This premiere performance brings together a diverse

group of musicians: Bill Mobley, Trumpet - Brian McCarthy, Alto Sax - Daniel Ian Smith, Tenor Sax -

Stantawn Kendrick, Tenor Sax - Cameron MacManus, Trombone - Linda Little, Bari Sax - Justin

Kauflin, Piano - Matt Aronoff, Bass - Zach Harmon, Drums.

Brian McCarthy: Artist, Musician, Innovator

An accomplished performer and formidable composer and arranger, this saxophonist has emerged

as a prominent example of the modern day jazz musician. Seven Days called him "…a staple of the

New England jazz scene." Jazz trumpet marvel, Ray Vega, called him plainly, "one of the most

important jazz musicians to the Vermont scene," a sentiment echoed by mentor and saxophone

guru Dr. David Demsey, coordinator of the renowned jazz program at William Paterson University,

McCarthy's alma mater, who added, "Brian...has gone on, as expected, to become a major force

and fixture on the New England music scene, as a player and as a teacher." His accomplishments

as a saxophonist were recognized in 2011 by the prestigious companys Conn-Selmer and Selmer

Paris, who saw fit to add McCarthy to their elite roster of endorsed artists.

A 2015 Vermont Arts Council/National Endowment for the Arts Creation Grant recipient for his

project "The Better Angels of Our Nature" has landed a two-night premiere in the November 2015,

which has the Vermont community buzzing in anticipation. His first album as a leader, “This Just

In” (2013), received widespread acclaim. All About Jazz says“ [McCarthy] touches those roads

Joshua Redman travels on with a fresh footing. This band excels at building anticipation…

exciting” and “[McCarthy’s] alto has plenty of fire without surrendering its lighter touch.” John

Barron, of Jazz World Blog says “Saxophonist Brian McCarthy takes a progressive approach to

straight-ahead jazz, demonstrating a strong command of the jazz saxophone lineage.” The album

can be heard from coast to coast on radio stations and syndicated programming like Jazz After

Hours with Jim Wilke.

When he is not headlining, you can find him rounding out the horn section with mogul jazz

trumpeter Ray Vega and his Quintet. And those who frequent Burlington’s most popular night

clubs can catch him with the area’s most popular funk establishment, The Grippo Funk Band. In

2010, bassist Mike Gordon, of the superstar jam band Phish, called upon McCarthy’s talents to

arrange and play on his latest solo release “Moss.”

Offstage, Brian has laid down roots as a central figure in arranging, presenting and education. A

faculty member at the University of Vermont, Johnson State College, and is director of bands at

Saint Michael's College. In addition to his college involvement, he is active with students at the

middle and high school level as a clinician, adjudicator and guest conductor with the Green

Mountain District Music Festival and Vermont All-State Music Festival. In 2011, Brian also

established and continues to produce Jazz at St. Michael’s College, a concert and educational

series featuring artists such as Mulgrew Miller, Joe Locke, the power-house Brian Blade and The

Fellowship Band, Steve Wilson with Lewis Nash and Nat Reeves, and The New World Jazz

Composers Octet.

Whether reconstructing big band scores for the Thad Jones,

Clark Terry, James Williams archive, or generating sheet

music for bands such as Guster, Mike Gordon, and Trey

Anastasio, Brian's well-rounded skills keep him working with

the best.

Continuing to expand his work as a leader, composer, first-

call sideman, and sought after teacher, the future holds

many remarkable developments from this "major force and

fixture."

House Congressional Resolution 57

Passed by the 100th Congress of the United States of America Introduced by the Honorable John Conyers Jr. (D-MI): Passed by the House of Representatives September 23, 1987 Passed by the Senate December 4, 1987

Whereas, jazz has achieved preeminence throughout the world as an indigenous American music and art form, bringing to this country and the world a uniquely American musical synthesis and culture through the African-American experience and

· makes evident to the world an outstanding artistic model of individual expression and democratic cooperation within the creative process, thus fulfilling the highest ideals and aspirations of our republic,

· is a unifying force, bridging cultural, religious, ethnic and age differences in our diverse society,

· is a true music of the people, finding its inspiration in the cultures and most personal experiences of the diverse peoples that constitute our Nation,

· has evolved into a multifaceted art form which continues to birth and nurture new stylistic idioms and cultural fusions,

· has had an historic, pervasive and continuing influence on other genres of music both here and abroad, and

· has become a true international language adopted by musicians around the world as a music best able to express contemporary realities from a personal perspective;

Whereas, this great American musical art form has not yet been properly recognized nor accorded the institutional status commensurate with its value and importance;

Whereas, it is important for the youth of America to recognize and understand jazz as a significant part of their cultural and intellectual heritage;

Whereas, in as much as there exists no effective national infrastructure to support and preserve jazz;

Whereas, documentation and archival support required by such a great art form has yet to be systematically applied to the jazz field; and

Whereas, it is now in the best interest of the national welfare and all of our citizens to preserve and celebrate this unique art form;

Now, therefore be it Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), that it is the sense of the Congress that jazz is hereby designated as a rare and valuable national American treasure to which we should devote our attention, support and resources to make certain it is preserved, understood and promulgated.

Reflection Questions:

Why would Congress pass a resolution recognizing the importance of Jazz in our country’s culture and history? What is the significance of Jazz as an art form?

In “Better Angels of Our Nature” how does Brian McCarthy show American history’s impact on jazz, and conversely, jazz’s impact on American history?

Jazz and Visual Art

Listen to a piece of jazz music several times with your class (you might pick something from the Smithsonian website or play something from Brian McCarthy’s website: http://www.brianmccarthyjazz.com/music--video.html

Activity 1—Abstract Drawings

As the students listen to the music have them trace the line of the melody on a piece of paper—they might simply draw a line up and down when the notes are high or low or they might draw smooth or jagged lines depending on the sound and feel of the music, or perhaps they will want to make squiggly lines when the music gets fast or many notes are played quickly together, etc. They should not worry about drawing anything in particular for this part of the exercise but just letting the music move their pencils on the paper. When the song ends have volunteers share their abstract drawings.

Discuss: Can students remember or describe which parts of the song corresponded with certain parts of their drawings?

Activity 2—Cover Art

Next have students listen to a song and encourage them to imagine that they are designing the cover art for the album. Have them sketch or draw as they listen.

Discuss students’ impressions and drawings.

· What did they want to convey through the cover art?

· What colors did the music make them think of and use in the drawings?

· What shapes did they use in response to how the music sounded?

· How did they try to capture the mood of the music in their artwork?

Jazz and Creative Writing

Play a piece of jazz music from one of the recordings listed on the First Grade Jazz site or download and play (for free) one of the great recordings found on the Smithsonian’s Jazz website: http://www.smithsonianjazz.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=104&Itemid=96

Have students write down words that come to mind as they listen to the music. When the song ends have students look at the words they wrote down and rearrange them/adapt them to create a response poem to the song. Ask for volunteers to share their poems with the class for an impromptu poetry reading session. You might want to play some jazz music quietly underneath the poetry readings to set the mood of a jazzy open mic event!

Discuss: What common themes or ideas that came out in the poems and/or disparate responses. How did the music affect students? What did the music seem to say?

The Art Form: Elements of Jazz

Improvisation

Improvisation means making it up as you go along. People improvise all the time in their daily lives. For instance, you may be improvising when you choose a different way to travel home from school on a particular day. Cooks often improvise when they are preparing a meal. Improvisation or the art of spontaneity really depends on a person’s ability to listen and observe.

Jazz musicians listen and observe carefully when they are improvising and creating music together. The musicians start with a basic idea, usually a tune that has a melody and some repeating chords. Essentially the musicians are “talking” to each other with notes, rhythms, melodic ideas and other sounds as their “language.” A musician’s success at improvising is influenced by how much they have studied the musical forms they are playing and how well they can listen and take in what other musicians in the group are doing. Musicians listen very carefully to how and what the other members of the group are playing in order to create something that sounds good as a whole.

Rhythm

Rhythm is the beat that defines and divides musical space. Rhythms are most recognizable when they are played by percussion instruments (drums, wood sticks, shakers, etc.), but they happen in melodies also. In Jazz, the “rhythm section” is the piano, bass, and drums.

In jazz, a rhythm grows out of a simple, steady beat like that of a heartbeat. This pulse creates the foundation for the music and usually remains constant. Sometimes a pulse is very slow (like in a ballad) and sometimes it is very fast (like in bebop.)

Regardless of the speed (tempo), the pulse helps to anchor the music and provides a basic contrast for other more complex rhythms that occur in the tune. In some musical styles, the beat is subdivided into two equal parts. But in jazz, the beat is divided unevenly in a bouncy fashion, that implies three, rather than two, subunits. Much of the energy in jazz lies in this irregularity of its rhythm and the deliberately unexpected accents. This is known as syncopation. Syncopation involves the shifting of accents from stronger beats to weaker ones.

READ & EXPLORE: Click here for a more in-depth description of jazz history and jazz phrases and terminology.

Resources:

Jazz : the first century. 1st ed. New York : William Morrow, c2000. An illustrated chronicle of jazz in the twentieth century, discussing the origins of the genre and the contributions of some of jazz's most significant musicians; and including articles that look at important songs, landmarks and personalities, conventions of jazz performance and composition, and the mingling of jazz with other art forms.

Ward, Geoffrey C. Jazz : an illustrated history of America's music. New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. Brings to life the story of the quintessential American music--jazz. Born in the black community of turn-of-the-century New Orleans, honed by musicians of every color, jazz underscores the history of twentieth-century America.

http://www.pbs.org/jazz/index.htm This website from the Ken Burns Jazz documentary features some great basic information on the art form as well as a variety of lesson plans, and activities.

Activities:

EXPLORE: Get a visual sense of the far-reaching nature of jazz in the U.S. Using the above websites and book, have each student choose a jazz great to focus on. Once students have chosen musicians, have them mark on a map the careers of those musicians—where did they start out, where did they begin to play music, where did they first perform, where did they travel, what other musicians did they play with and where, etc.

RESEARCH/LISTEN: As a class, choose a piece of jazz music—research the time and place of its recording and the musicians involved, create a newspaper from that time and place—what was happening there, what would have been in the news at the time this music was recorded? Can you hear anything in the music that seems to be related to or responding to the major events of the time in which it was composed?

The Flynn Center

The Flynn has been at the center of Vermont's cultural

landscape for over 80 years—from its earliest days as a

vaudeville house through five decades as a movie theater to its

present life as the region's leading performance center and

arts education organization. Today, the Flynn Center for the

Performing Arts is recognized internationally for its significant

artistic, educational, and community outreach activities;

superb technical capacity; beautiful historic setting; and world-

class presentations. At the Flynn, we celebrate a rich legacy of

connecting our community with the arts. The Flynn is

recognized for its stellar artistic programming in theater, dance, and music; and for educational programs

that reach far into the community to advance teaching and learning. For more about the Flynn, click here.

DISCUSS BEING A

MINDFUL AUDIENCE

MEMBER:

How is going to see a live

theatre performance

different from seeing a

movie, going to a

concert, or watching TV?

In small groups, come up

with a list of positive

audience behaviors, and

behaviors that would be

disruptive to performers

and other audience

members. Come

together and create a

master list.

Etiquette for Live Performances

The Essentials

Listen, experience, imagine, discover, learn!

Give your energy and attention to the performers.

At the end of the show, clap for the performers’ time and energy.

Eating, drinking, and chewing gum are not okay.

Talk only before and after the performance.

Turn off wireless devices. No photos, videos, texting, or listening to music.

Why is Etiquette Important?

A good live performance is a powerful communication

between audience and performer. The more the audience

gives to the performer, the more the performer can give

back to the audience. The performer hears the audience

laughing, senses its sympathy, and delights in the

enthusiasm of its applause. Furthermore, each audience

member affects those sitting near him or her, in addition to

the performers onstage. Technological devices (cameras,

phones, etc.) have become so prevalent in our daily lives,

but using these devices is distracting to the performers

onstage and other audience members trying to watch the

show. Even the light from checking the time, or the buzz of a phone on vibrate can pull

the people around you out of the experience. Cell phone frequencies can even interfere

with the microphones in the production, and taking photos can be unsafe for performers.

Additionally, an artist has the right to decide what photos and videos go out into the

world. Phones keep you from being present and fully engaged with the show. Thank you

for turning devices completely off!

We can’t wait to see you at the theater!

Teachers, a few reminders:

Fill out the Seating and Travel Survey, so we can best accommodate your group’s needs in regards to dismissal,

bussing, students with different needs, etc.

Share your experience with us! Use the feedback links, or share your students’ artwork, writing,

responses. We love to hear how experiences at the Flynn impact our audiences.

Explore other student matinees at the Flynn this season. We’ve still got seats in some shows and we’d love to

help you or other teachers at your school enliven learning with an engaging arts experience!

We have some new initiatives to deepen student connection and experience!

Pre or Post-Show Video Chats: Help students build enthusiasm or process their

experience with a free, 5-10 minute video chat before or after the show! We

can set up Skype/Facetime/Google Hangouts with your class to answer

questions about the content, art form, and experience. Contact Kat,

kredniss@flynncenter.org to set up your chat!

Autism and Sensory-Friendly Accommodations: The Flynn Center has been

working diligently to break down barriers for audience members with

disabilities, with a particular focus on those with sensory-sensitivities. Social

stories, break spaces, sensory friendly materials, and more are available for all

student matinees. Feel free to let us know ahead of time if any of these would

be useful, or ask an usher at the show!

Make your field trip the most meaningful learning experience it can be with a preparatory

Companion Workshop in your classroom!

An engaging Flynn Teaching Artist can come to your school to deepen students’ understanding of both content and form

with an interactive workshop, enriching kids’ matinee experiences. Funding support is often available. To learn more, check

out this link. To book a workshop, click here. Questions? Contact Sasha: schoolprograms@flynncenter.org or (802)652-

4508

Re-stock your teaching toolkit and reignite your passion with upcoming professional

development opportunities for educators!

Get certification renewal credits, invigorate your teaching, and learn new teaching strategies that can be tailored to most

curricular material. Sponsored by the Champlain Valley Educator Development Center

November 12, 4-6PM: Workshop with Improvised Shakespeare—Chicago’s Improvised Shakespeare company leads a two

-hour workshop specially designed for Middle and High School teachers. This workshop is sure to be rapid-fire fun that

gives you new tools to get kids’ creative and critical thinking juices flowing! 2 credit hours

November 18, 9-3PM: Engaging Active Learners Conference—Now in its 7th year, we are proud to offer a full-day

conference on arts integration for Vermont educators! In collaboration with the Creative Schools Initiative, we’re thrilled to

welcome five of the nation’s top experts on arts integration to the Flynn to work with educators. In addition, choose from

a variety of content- and grade-specific teacher break-outs and hands-on workshops, and snag resources to take back to

your school. Come be part of the conversation and leave inspired! 6 credit hours

Register Now!

Hello from

the Flynn!