ABOUT THE TEACHER'S MANUAL

..."The manual provides necessary background information and activities for teachers and a hands-on, innovative way to teach students about their home and native land … in my opinion, both the manual and the production should be a mandatory component in the education of all Canadian students. On behalf of all teachers, I thank you for this wonderful program."

Naomi Ventura, Hazel McCallion Senior Public School, Peel District School Board (Milton Ontario)

It has been said that Canada is an experiment in the making, a different kind of country where people of different origins have come together to live in harmony. Since time immemorial the indigenous people believed that the invisible voice we call music could help them feel the invisible power that governs nature.

Their history was not recorded in writing, but was told in songs and stories that were passed along from generation to generation. More than ten thousand years later, the invisible voice still resonates within all of us and allows the stories of our heritage to come alive through music. Canada's music history is so rich and vast that it is impossible to give a comprehensive account of it without writing a multivolume encyclopedia.

This 71 page manual (available in both English and French) provides a unique teaching tool designed to bring our musical history to life. It offers valuable, introductory educational information on Canada's musical heritage for educators and students.

To obtain more information on upcoming performances, to purchase teachers' manuals, or related matters, please contact us.

INTRODUCTION

Canada's music history is so rich and vast that it is impossible to give a comprehensive account of it without writing a multi-volume encyclopaedia.

This manual has been created to accompany Canadian Musical Odyssey's live stage production of "A Musical Taste of Our Canadian Heritage".

Even on its own, it offers valuable, introductory educational information on Canada's musical heritage for teachers. For your convenience, suggested classroom activities that are adaptable for most grade levels have been included at the end of this manual.

Almost twenty years ago, I created Choonga Changa Productions to create and produce live theatrical musical productions for children. This evolved into the creation of unique productions for schools that blended historical themes with different musical genres.

The first major new production of this type was "What is This Thing Called Jazz?", a historical retrospective of the evolution of jazz. For this show, I also produced a 10-page teachers' manual. Aside from many school productions, this show highlighted the Ottawa International Jazz Festival's newly created family day for three years.

The detailed research necessary to create that production was an enriching personal learning experience. I became increasingly aware of, and fascinated by, the important interrelated influences of jazz on American history (e.g. its influence on the breaking down of the colour barrier) and of the influences of historical, cultural, social and technological events on the development, progress and popularity of the music.

With these things very much in mind, in 1998 I undertook the creation and production of a show entitled "A Musical Taste of Our Canadian Heritage". My aim was to show the history of music in Canada and the history of Canada through music in an entertaining way that students would find not only educational, but also appealing, moving, memorable and inspirational. Most of all, I wanted to do justice to the subject in light of our tremendous heritage both on the musical and historical side and I wanted the students to feel a deep sense of pride in their Canadian heritage with its multicultural origins.

FOREWORD

"While a few observers have perceived a declining interest in history, others have been hard at work to respond to a growing demand for imaginative and innovative ways to learn about Canada's past. The most successful of these efforts have gone well beyond the traditional focus on textbooks where students were expected to passively memorize information about certain events and individuals. In the new approach, students are invited to become active learners by engaging diverse topics designed to enhance their understanding of the complexity and richness of Canadian history.

In creative and compelling ways, Deborah Davis and her colleagues are at the forefront of such innovative efforts to support the study of Canada's past. They have shown how music can stimulate, inspire and inform students about key social and cultural transformations in the making of modern Canada. In recent years, I have had the pleasure of experiencing first-hand the excitement and engagement of students "tasting" Canada's musical heritage, and my enthusiasm for this approach is the direct result of this experience. I saw students who were obviously seeing Canadian history in new ways. They were, indeed, becoming active learners who were connecting with the past through their appreciation and wonder at the sounds and sights of our musical heritage.

Thus, we are all indebted to Deborah Davis and her team for their splendid work that has made it increasingly possible for students to learn about Canada's past in ways that are truly compelling."