Below are some of the sources I used to prepare for Anderson's performance of Homeland. Also visit the "Language Is A Virus" site created for my Honors European Literature students to use during their study of Anderson this year by clicking on the following banner: Listen: A radio interview with Laurie Anderson In this interview Anderson talks about Homeland, shares her opinions about how 9/11 influenced her as an artist, and her technological fantasy of long mechanical arms. Click here to listen to the interview. Read: An overview of the performance, HOMELAND
Homeland is a series of songs and stories that creates a poetic and political portrait of contemporary American culture. Conceived as one long piece of music, Homeland moves through many worlds- from Greek tragedy to American business models. The stories and songs that make up Homeland are marked by political urgency. They address the current climate of fear, obsession with information and security. They are also- as with all of Anderson's work- personal and utterly unique.
"Dead stars their light still trapped in time. The dark emotion that came
a great distance to reach me. The sky. The land. The sky. The land"
The music, built on the foundation of groove electronics, will feature many of the new melodic forms Anderson has been developing on the violin and in her recent work with new electronic systems and Tuvan throat singers. Anderson is joined in Homeland by several musicians skilled in improvisation so each performance is unique
Sonically, Homeland is the most sophisticated Anderson production to date. The electronic contrals are all virtual and Homeland is a tour de force of spoken word, music and technology.
"I walk accompanied by ghosts. My father with his diamond eyes.
His voice life size. He says: Follow me. Follow me.
On June 6th a group of my literature students from the Academic Magnet High School will have the privilege to meet with Laurie Anderson in a round table discussion about the creative process. After sharing this news with my students their first question to me was, "Who is Laurie Anderson?" My response was to have them carefully study one of Anderson's most popular work, "O, Superman". Instead of immediately showing them the video and asking them to analyze what they saw I instead helped them slowly discover her work by walking them through the following steps:
1. Read and Mark-upStudents read and used literary tools to analyze and mark up the text of "O Superman" with interpretive notes.
Student sample of mark up.
2. Listen Students listened to an audio recording of Anderson's performance of "O Superman". They used their lyric handouts to note where and how Anderson used music and sounds to communicate concepts in the performance.
3. Origins Exploring the origins of "O Superman" Anderson constructed the song as a cover of the aria "O Souverain, o juge, o père" (O Sovereign, O Judge, O Father) from Jules Massenet's 1885 opera Le Cid. She was moved by the opera's powerful refrain "O Sovereign, O Judge, O Father!" and identified with the huge emotions at its center. She says, "O Souverain' is basically a prayer for help. All is over, finished! My beautiful dreams of glory, my dreams of happiness, have flown away forever!" Students watched the aria and discussed its connections to "O Superman".
4. Watch Watch a video recording of Anderson's performance of "O Superman" 5. DiscussStudents shared their interpretations of the central theme of "O Superman" and explained how the textual, auditory, and visual elements in the work helped present the theme they identified.
Click on the banner below to see a full explanation of this lesson.
An immersed teacher turns the experience of attending art, music, drama, dance, and literary performances into a professional development opportunity. Through attendance, reviews, interviews, and written reflections the immersed teacher uses these art based experiences to create activities, lessons, and resources for the classroom. ............
Homeland is a series of songs and stories that creates a poetic and political portrait of contemporary American culture. Conceived as one long piece of music, Homeland moves through many worlds- from Greek tragedy to American business models. The stories and songs that make up Homeland are marked by political urgency. They address the current climate of fear, obsession with information and security. They are also- as with all of Anderson's work- personal and utterly unique.
