Musicmakers

1991, Total Running Time 35 Minutes (2 x Episodes)

This two-part series features well known musicians involved in the areas of composing, performing, conducting and educating. It is designed to develop children’s awareness of how music is conceived, created and presented and to encourage their enjoyment and participation.

Part One Bending the Beat looks at the way composer Michael Atherton encourages children to explore the musicality in ordinary, everyday situations. Part Two Selling Notes demonstrates the songwriting process, featuring jingle writers Geoff and Jenny Ayling.

EPISODES

Bending the Beat (16 Minutes) Composer Michael Atherton firmly believes that music is an essential part of what makes us human beings. In this film he takes a group of children and musical instruments out of the traditional concert hall and into ordinary, everyday situations. Using a variety of instruments from guitar, saxophone, trumpet and violin to clapping sticks, conch shells and spoons, he plays with and conducts the children in performances at shopping malls, on cliffs and in the kitchen to demonstrate that music is part of everything we do.

Selling Notes (19 Minutes) Nat and her amateur filmmaker friend ‘Scoot’ get into big trouble after they find that they’ve been locked out of their local park. It’s been taken over by Browle Industries, who plan to build a factory on the site. The two friends sneak over the wire fence, but are sprung by the new owner who tells them to get lost. A friendly policeman advises them to attend a ‘Save Our Park’ community action group meeting to talk with their local councillor. Nat decides they need a protest song to aid their cause and enlists the help of advertising jingle experts Geoff and Jenny Ayling. Using an early electronic synthesiser, Geoff composes the music and Jenny writes the lyrics. The end result is a powerful plea to ‘Listen to our voices! Give us back our dreams and our place to play.’

© 2011 National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.