Freedom Songs

Idris Elba presents mi Mandela, Thank You for Freedom

We have spent the year looking at how people have fought for liberty, freedom and human rights. Influenced by philosophical ideals of the Enlightenment, people began to see their role as members of society differently: they were born with some basic rights and were willing to fight and die for them.

Consider these few examples from this year:

• Parisian women marched on Versailles to demand that King Louis solve the bread shortages in the city.
• Americans declared their independence from Britain because they didn’t feel the government was respecting their right to have a voice in government.
• Haitian slaves, led by Toussaint L’Overture, rebelled in against their owners to combat tyranny and slavery.
• Scientists and artists explored new ways of looking at the world based on the ideas of freedom of thought and creativity.
• Native people in Africa and Asia struggled with European Imperialist oppressors who stole their resources and denied basic human rights only to later abandon them to civil war and internal oppression.
• Around the globe people fought against tyrants and oppressors in two world wars.
• Poverty, disillusionment and desire for change led people in Russia, China, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia to look to answers in communist ideologies.

In this final assignment, you must create an original piece of music that presents your ideas on the desire to lead a free life. The following criteria are to be used in creating this piece:

1. You may collaborate with one other person to create the music and/or lyrics to your song NOTE: in presenting your song, you may use as many other artists as you like - musicians or singers [you & your partner must do your own lyrics]- but only two of you will be given a grade for the song.
2. Your song must have both lyrics [typed out to be turned in] and musical presentation. I will not be grading you on your artistic talent but on the effort and meaning you put into your work as well as how you follow the criteria for the assignment.
3. Each song must have a title, minimally three (3) verses, of at least 5 lines each and a chorus of some kind. The song must specifically be about some aspect of freedom (how people desire it, how they will fight for it, what they are willing to do for it, how to make sure it is not denied, etc.). You may write your song about a specific era or group of people that we have studied this year or just reference these fights for freedom.
4. Some kind of music must accompany your lyrics. It can be sophisticated (multiple musicians) or simple (one musician). No matter how simple of complex, it must be prepared in advance.
5. Your song will be due on May 19, 2015 and will be presented in class on May 19^th, 20^th or 21^th. You may use instruments or recording devices to present. The week before you will need to make a request to me if you have a specific instrument you want delivered to the room (piano, harp…). You should plan on doing a “dress rehearsal” to make sure that whatever tools you plan to use in your presentation will work. For whatever reason, not presenting your work will result in a failing grade.
6. When you present your song to the class, you must introduce it by telling us something about how you created it and what meaning the lyrics have for you. Presentations should be well planned and professionally done. We will have guests in class to see the presentations. Consequently, your work should be your very best. Winging it at the last minute will also result in an unsatisfactory grade.
7. After all work has been completed, you will be required to complete a self-reflection on the project and the work you did this year. We will do it in class during your exam bell. If you know you will not be there, you will want to take care of this in advance.
8. If you have questions, you should ask me sooner rather than later. Waiting until the weekend before the project is due to get started is a bad idea. At that point I can provide little help in getting your work completed. My email address is andream@cps-k12.org.