Spinning existing lyrics into new songs at C.A.R.E.
Artist and musician Louise Campbell is helping adults with disabilities express themselves using lyrics from their favourite songs.
Last spring, clients at the Centre d'activités récréatives et éducatives (C.A.R.E. Centre) took part in a five-day workshop to make new songs and poems out of lyrics. Members of C.A.R.E., who number around 30 and are all over 21 with varying physical disabilities, suggested songs they liked and listened to them together. Campbell then printed out the lyrics, cut them into separate lines and scrambled the pieces of paper. The participants then placed the lyrics in a different order to create a new song. The next step was to further split the lines into segments of phrases, and, finally, into separate words.
“They made some crazy poems,” said Campbell, who has animated many artistic activities with C.A.R.E. She first met the organization's executive director, Olivia Quesnel, when she taught her how to play the clarinet.
“Our clients really enjoy activities that allow them to express themselves and their emotions,” said Quesnel. “Louise does all kinds of things to get them to express their moods and feelings...Also, they can have fun with it.”
After the first round of lyric scrambling, Campbell created a word game, where she would say the word “red,” for example. The participants would reply with words that popped into their heads, like strawberry, love or cherry.
“We picked two words and got them to put those into a sentence,” said Campbell. “By this time, we were very far away from the original song.”
Campbell has between six and 10 participants. Some C.A.R.E. clients communicate using only “yes” and “no,” and some use augmentative technology and alternative communication methods including eye gaze, Bliss Symbolics and adapted devices.
This April, Campbell took the workshop up a notch with an ambitious plan. “I hope it's going to turn into a full-fledged opera that will be designed, written, and performed by the C.A.R.E. clients,” Campbell said. “But that's a big, ambitious project, so we're taking it one step at a time.
“The lyric writing was the first step in that.”
C.A.R.E. to create opera
Phase one of an opera being created by C.A.R.E. Centre clients is underway.
The idea behind C.A.R.E. Opera libretto comes from “the conviction that everyone has a story to tell and a voice to sing it with,” said musician Louise Campbell, who is co-creator along with poet Rachel McCrum. The libretto is based on a story C.A.R.E. clients choose and will be sung in their words, voices and communication
methods. Libretto and music workshops are scheduled to take place
between April and June. Production of the opera is scheduled sometime
for the upcoming fall and winter. – K.M.
