General Overview

The MOTET Project (Music Online Telecommunications Environment for Teaching) is a pilot innovation seeking to merge the real-life performance worlds, the online communication abilities and information worlds, and the classroom environment to teach music.

Through two scheduled online performance events, students will study about contemporary music and experience interactive sessions with renown performing musicians and composers. To enhance the online sessions, students will participate in an online curriculum several weeks before and after each performance. Teachers will use this web-based material in their class to teach about contemporary music. There are activities for students of varying musical ability, including those with little or no formal training.

The online concert performances will be broadcast live over the Internet using RealAudio technology for the audio and CU-SeeMe desktop videoconferencing for the video. Immediately following the performance, students will have an interactive discussion with the musicians using desktop videoconferencing or Ichat, an Internet based real-time chat application. Different communications protocols will allow schools to participate with varying bandwidth capabilities. Click for more details on the technology.

The two events focus on different types of music:

The first event (March 13, 1997) will feature three reknown classical musicians performing an original classical contemporary composition. Kenneth Radnofsky, one of the premiere saxophonists today, Pro Musicus cellist Pamela Frame, and pianist Larry Bell will perform Mr. Bell's Mahler in Blue Light is a trio for piano, alto saxophone, and 'cello. The composition demonstrates how contemporary music reflects styles of older periods while using newer instruments and techniques. Mr. Bell will be online to discuss compositional ideas with the students. The techniques of composition and uses of creativity transfer well into other media, not just music, so this component should be viewed as an enhancement to any creative arts activity.

The second concert (May 1, 1997) will focus on the history of the blues, using the May 1 performance by Memphis students as the central performance event. Again, interactive on line sessions will play a unique role in this project. The Memphis Kids 'N Blues Project is a year-long program where elementary school students from six Co-NECT schools and high school students from a performing arts high school collaborate on creating an audio cd of original blues music detailing the history of the blues. Throughout the year, students study the many historical, social studies, language arts, as well as musical aspects of this music. On May 1, as part of that city's Memphis in May festival, members of the Kids 'N Blues project will perform. This event will be broadcast and coupled to an online curriculum as the second part of the MOTET project.

The major goal is to develop critical listening skills; students need not be music students to fully participate. They will study form, what gives music shape, what influences are and how they're used, and the like. They will understand how history and other influences can affect musical thought.

Musically advanced students will be able to complete composition-based exercises using specific components including midi-based music examples they will work with. Innovative music teachers are encouraged to participate and extend these ideas into their curriculum.

Curriculum

The curriculum for the project consists of classroom activities stressing music appreciation. The web-based curriculum can be downloaded and printed locally at any participating school. Advanced classes who may want to integrate more in-depth composition activities will access lesson plans pertinent to their interest.

There is a four-week classroom activity period for a general 8-12th grade audience where each class may utilize the curriculum to the degree they deem appropriate. To make this pilot scalable, we are not assuming musical expertise but rather interest. Teachers will determine which activities are optional, etc. It's important to note that a school can participate in the full experience whether or not they complete all the activities. To understand the impact of the events and to pose interesting questions during the teleconferences, some preparation work must be done.

World Band

The MOTET project is an extension of World Band, now in its fifth year at BBN. Since 1992, World Band has been the focus of new music and music education research projects using advanced technologies to teach music innovatively to students across the globe.

MOTET is sponsored by the National School Network (NSN) group at BBN Educational Technologies, funded by the National Science Foundation.