The Youth Sector Of The Société De Musique Contemporaine Du Québec Presents Maélie Et Le Dragon: An Interactive Audio Story

The Youth Sector of the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ) is expanding its programme with its latest innovation: Maélie et le dragon. Children are invited to create the soundtrack for a tale that will be available for free access as of Monday, March 7, 2022.

This new project is the result of Denis Gougeon's immediate admiration of the tale told by Marianne Gagnon, a nine-year-old girl. "I was immediately touched by this story where music becomes the peaceful weapon of a young girl facing a dragon," explains the seasoned composer.

That's all it took for the SMCQ to turn this into an innovative project. "Children like to invent stories, but now we're offering them the chance to set a tale to music. It's interesting to see them slip into the shoes of a film composer, especially in this world of legends that they love," says Claire Cavanagh, director of the SMCQ Youth Sector.

To this end, the SMCQ has developed an interactive web application with a graphic universe that illustrates Maélie et le dragon scene by scene. Participants will be able to upload their own soundtracks, which will be combined with the images. They will also be able to discover their friends' soundtracks ... like so many variations on the same theme!

In addition to sound creation, this musical project also focuses on musical interpretation. "Participants can learn the Chanson de Maélie from the scores and karaoke available on our platform and record themselves," adds Ms. Cavanagh. The children are then invited to upload their respective recordings to be part of the story's final virtual chorus.

This project was developed in collaboration with Hélène Lévesque, music education advisor, within the partnership with the CSSDM, and is being offered to the various school boards across Canada which the SMCQ works with regularly, in addition to being freely available to all families. The activity develops various skills while enabling children to reconnect with the pleasures of creating, singing ... and sharing all these musical discoveries!

REGISTRATION

Interactive audio story : Maélie et le dragon

Teachers and families can register at any time.

Pedagogical material available at: Plateforme SMCQ Education.

Credits

Maélie et le dragon by Marianne Gagnon, 9 yrs old

"Chanson de Maélie" by Denis Gougeon

Illustrations by Geneviève Bigué

Web design by Vincent Poirier-Ruel

Pedagogical guide by Claire Cavanagh and Hélène Lévesque, music education advisor, CSSDM

Based on an original idea by Claire Cavanagh

An SMCQ Jeunesse 2022 Production

The SMCQ has been at the core of music creation for over 50 years and is dedicated to promoting the work of composers. Throughout the years, the organization established itself on the cultural scene by the quality and the scope of its concerts and activities which stand out for their unifying aspect. For more information about SMCQ projects, subscribe to the newsletter: http://www.smcq.qc.ca/smcq/fr/apropos/liste/.

This initiative is an extension of the SMCQ's youth program, which already reaches over 200 schools and 40,000 students across the country through workshops, concerts and activities. Bringing together artists and educators, over the years the SMCQ has developed over the years a wide range of projects and more than 300 educational resources to discover today's composers and musical creation. Presented in the form of thematic "teaching kits", these tools are offered free of charge to teachers on the smcqeducation.ca platform.

To post a comment, you must register and login.