1. Discuss the text of the poem. How does it reflect your understanding of how language works? 
   
   Here are some questions that could be useful in initiating discussion:

   • Is language always easily understood in conversation with others?

   • How might it be misunderstood?

   • Is language a perfect medium for understanding?

   • What assists understanding apart from the use of words/language? (facial expression, gesture, shared experience, body language)

   • What other ways can we communicate/express ourselves apart from using language? (touch, eyes, body language)

   • What makes it easy to communicate with a person?

   • What makes it hard?

   • If you don’t share the same language, how can you make yourself understood? (gesture, symbols, using an interpreter/language conversion app, charades)

Extension

2. The title of the poem Thought is Surrounded by a Halo was not Gwen Harwood’s title. It came from her philosophical hero Ludwig Wittgenstein who believed ‘the meaning of words is best understood as their use within a given language game.’ Wittgenstein gives the example of "Water!", which can be used as an exclamation, an order, a request, or an answer to a question.* The meaning of the word depends on the language-game within which it is being used.

3. Encourage students to come up with a word that can mean different things in different contexts. Share these with the class.
   

   *Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1958). Philosophical Investigations. Basil Blackwell. ISBN0-631-11900-0.

A halo is a circle of light that surrounds a bright object in the sky. It is caused by the reflection and refraction of light by ice particles in the atmosphere. A halo can appear around the sun or the moon, and is sometimes seen as a sign of holiness or glory. A halo can also be used in art to indicate sacred or heroic figures, such as saints or rulers. (Source)

1. Discuss with your students what are the features of a halo?

   • It represents some sort of reflection

   • It is usually a circular shape

   • It can change colour

2. Create a mind map of the things that have a halo (street lamps, the sun, the moon, rainbows, puddles of water with the sun on them). Students choose one of these and draw the halo effect of it.

3. Explore the idea of a ‘halo’ through movement. Group your students in different sized circles using different sized circles of elastic for them to hold. Put the smallest circle on the inside and the largest circle on the outside.  Encourage the students to move up and down in small movements.  How is this like a halo?

4. How would you express a halo musically?

Andrew O’Connor explores this concept of ‘halo’ by creating dissonance between the vocal parts – for example in Bars 7-9 the soprano and alto sing their parts a note apart which can be defined as dissonant or creating musical tension. It also creates a sense of halo or refracted light.

He says that voices distil dissonance more easily than instruments do. Vocal dissonance creates a sound that has beauty and a slight shimmering effect – as in the music of 

Eric Whitacre or Morten Lauridsen

5. Listen to examples of ’dissonant music’  Discuss 

   a. How does the music use dissonance? 

   b. Is it all clashing?

   c. How does the harmonic dissonance in this piece impact on the words or visa versa?

   d. How does the dissonance provide tension and release?

   e. Why is dissonance used in writing film music

1. Choose a language game to play with your students (you can use one of these or select your own!):

Charades
Charades is a pantomime game you can play using just your face and body. Body movements and facial expressions provide clues for players to guess what you’re trying to say. It can be a word, phrase, movie title, person’s name.

Pictionary
Pictionary is similar to charades, except clues are drawn. Write down people, places, animals, objects, and events on separate pieces of paper.

The group should be split into teams. When it’s time to play, a player on each team will get a few seconds to look at the word and begin to draw. The object is to draw the item quickly and accurately so that the players on your team can guess what you’re drawing before the other team does. 

Spaceman
This game requires at least two players. The first player thinks of a word. Then, they draw a spaceship hovering about the ground and add blank lines next to it for each letter of the selected word.

Other players guess letters, trying to figure out what word player one has chosen. Every time they get one wrong, player one draws part of a stick figure below the spaceship. First the head, then the body, an arm, a leg, etc. 

The players guess letters one by one until the puzzle is either solved or the picture of a person being taken to space is completed. If this happens, player one wins.

2. Discuss how your understanding of language and what a word means changes, or is influenced, by the game in which it is found.

3. Discuss how language 

   a. can be ‘playful’, 

   b. has rules like a game 

   c. has an element of competition about it – who can outsmart/ ‘out word’ someone else.

Using the middle verse of the Gwen Harwood poem explore the use of dynamics and tempo

1. Sit the students in a circle and recite the verse of the poem together

Language is not a perfect game,
and if it were, how could we play?

The world's more than the sum of things
like moon, sky, centre, body, bed,

as all the singing masters know.

2. Starting at one side of the circle say the first two lines of the poem softly – increasing the dynamic as you go around and more students join in. 

3. Going in the other direction with the next two lines of the poem - start quickly and slow down for the last line. 

4. Say the last line of the poem ‘all the singing masters know’ in unison

5. Discuss with the students how this affects the meaning of the words.

6. Introduce some (or all) of these markings that indicate different dynamics and tempo.

7. Encourage the students to discuss which words or phrases of the poem could be given more emphasis by changing the dynamics or the tempo to make the meaning more evident. Allocate the symbols to the words in the verse that you want to emphasize.

8. Perform, discuss and revise.

9. Find the sections of the piece that have dynamic or tempo markings, for e.g. 

   • Bar 4 – rit – means ritardando – slowing down.

   • Bars 5-9 – there is a crescendo – gradually increasing the volume of the singing from moderately loud (mf) to loud (f)

   • Bars 10-15 – the phrase ‘of this is so’ is sung softly (mf) and then softer again (p).

   • Bars 15-18 – get gradually louder (poco crescendo)

   • Bar 22 – the dynamics swells on the word truth

   • Bars 36-35 – the words ‘the world’s more than the sum of things’ are sung softly to illustrate the seriousness of them.

   • Bars 51-53 – as all four voices join to sing ‘all the singing masters know’ – they get faster and louder.

   • Bars 71 – 77 – the words ‘in the wild halo’ get gradually louder (and wilder)

   • Bars 80-82 - the piece finishes on a new chord – softly and thoughtfully as the poem finishes.

10. Discuss how the use of these dynamic and tempo changes enhances the composition and understanding of the text.

    Composition Activity

    11. Choose a phrase below or create a phrase of your own:

    • “moon, sky, centre, body, bed,”

    • “sum of things”

    • “how could we play?”

    11. Encourage students to read the phrase out loud in as many different ways – consider the ways they can vary the phrase using their voice.

    12. ‘Take some time out’...on their own in a quiet space, students improvise, create and sing a melody that matches the phrase. If they like it, record or notate the melody – you never want to forget a good idea!

    13. Share the variations of phrases (whether spoken or melodic) through call and response with other class members. Form a circle where one person ‘performs’ a variation which the class then imitates. Repeat this with every class member sharing a different performance of the phrase each time. 

Andrew O’Connor says that he took the poem at face value and feels it is searching for meaning in a fragmented world. Language is not perfect and you can never be fully understood in what you say – there are all sorts of ways of expressing yourself – especially to someone you know well and love. The piece is very much drawn from the text of the poem.

1. How does the composer emphasize the text of the poem? Discuss the following examples:

• Repetition – Bars 30-35

  • Andrew uses repetition to make the text clear. In the phrase ‘how could we  play? The word play is sung over a number of notes – thus making it sound ‘playful’. This is also an example of melisma - e.g. ‘Play’ is emphasized with an angular melody over three notes.  

• Rhythmic Unison 

  • is a way of emphasising certain words – all parts singing the word ‘light’ together in rhythmic unison in Bar 9. There is also rhythm unison in Bars 11 - 14 on words “of this is so, of this is so” - these words are emphasized by the use of rhythmic unison.

• Word painting - Bars 37-40

  • ‘The sum of things’ –the 4 parts all come together on the word ‘things’ in Bar 40. This is also an example of a ‘call and response’ using the same rhythmic material centred around a D Minor tonality.

• Solos – Letter E

  • The soprano and alto sing ‘as all the singing masters know’ as solos and all 4 parts come together on the 4th repetition of the phrase, illustrating the sum is greater than the parts.

• Drawing out the inherent colour of the words - Section D

  • moon, - the major 2nd chord is sung roughly the same each time. This word ‘moon’ represents something stable and large. This is also reinforced by dissonant harmonies sung in rhythmic unison. 

  • sky and centre – again much the same each time but slightly more dissonant – depicting refracted light

  • body – is illustrated through striking close dissonance (minor 2nds), rhythmic unison and slowing tempi.

  • bed – resolves and comes to rest

• Historical references - Section E

  • In the lines referring to the ‘singing masters‘ the melody begins as a kind of plain chant as was sung in the medieval church. The phrase begins using a single simple melody in the soprano, developing into a new solo melody by the alto.  This evolves into the words being sung by all four parts in dissonant harmony, illustrating how music has evolved.

• Pairing - Section F

  • This section illustrates the way lovers interact using two pairs of voices that come together in a tender way.  There is dissonance but it is lyrical and it resolves at the end to hold the real and imagined world together in a wild halo of thought (and sound).

  2. Choose a poem for the class to use and allocate a line to each student or group of students.

  3. Encourage students to choose one of the devices explored to develop their line of the text of the poem musically. For example, they could use

     • Word painting

     • Repetition of a motif or musical idea

     • Employing rhythmic unison if composing more than one part

     • Emphasising particular words with an accent or change of dynamics or tempi.

4. Students perform for the class in order of the lines of the poem.

5. Discuss which devices worked best for which lines.
   

1. Discuss with the students the following advice Andrew O’Connor offers about composing:

   • Every performance of a piece is inherently different as it is performed by different people. In that way composition is a living thing.

   • It is useful (and important) to get valuable, practical advice about your composition from the performers. 

   • Write for class members or available instrumentalists/vocalists in your class and take every opportunity to workshop it with them.  This way you can examine your intention and if it works or not.  It is an essential part of the process.

2. Take a Haiku poem and discuss with the class what the main ideas behind the poem are. Examples of Haiku poems can be found here.

   • Discuss what the poem conveys in terms of meaning and expression

   • Pick out words that have some sort of associated sound for e.g.  bursting, singing, rattle

   • Choose sound effects that could be used to depict these words.

   • Accompany the reading of the poems with the chosen sound effects.  

   • Record and revise

   • Students are encouraged to choose instrumentalists or vocalists, from amongst their classmates, to depict these sound effects. Discuss with them how they could reproduce the sounds the student is looking for.

   • Record and revise

   • Students perform compositions for the class and discuss

     • What worked well? 

     • What would you do differently if given the opportunity to repeat the activity?

   A note on Haiku Poems:

   This ancient form of poem writing is renowned for its small size as well as the precise punctuation and syllables needed on its three lines. It is of ancient Japanese origin. It contains 17 syllables in 3 lines of five, seven, five. Haiku poems are typically about nature and usually about a specific season. Source

   Extension activity:

   1. Use the words from a Haiku poem as the lyric for a composition

   2. Analyse the lyric

   3. Consider the following in your analysis:

   • repetition of one word and repetition of a whole phrase,

   •  rhyming words, length of phrases and flow of a phrase, 

   •  commas/pauses

   •  metaphorical language,

   •  describing words/adjectives,

   •  imagery, 

   • climactic point in the text, 

   • contrasting images or ideas or words, 

   • are there words that should be emphasised?

   4. Use your analysis to devise a short composition that uses some of these ideas

   5. Record and revise your composition

   6. Share them with the class and discuss. See if they can identify which ideas/devices you have used in your composition. 

1. Use the words from a Haiku poem as the lyric for a composition

2. Analyse the lyric

3. Consider the following in your analysis:

• repetition of one word and repetition of a whole phrase,

• rhyming words, length of phrases and flow of a phrase,

• commas/pauses

• metaphorical language,

• describing words/adjectives,

• imagery,

• climactic point in the text,

• contrasting images or ideas or words,

• are there words that should be emphasised?

4. Use your analysis to devise a short composition that uses some of these ideas

5. Record and revise your composition

6. Share them with the class and discuss. See if they can identify which ideas/devices

you have used in your composition.