Start Workshop
Start Workshop Music of the Plants with Christian MICHAEL and Elisabeth Traunbauer
IMAGE Farmhouse
We drive through hilly landscapes with uniquely designed houses, many Swiss flags, and arrive in front of a building that strongly reminds us of Pippi Longstocking's Villa Villekulla with its colourful bunting around the veranda:
The headmistress, Mrs Marianne Wey, warmly welcomes us along with her dog "Shany" and shows us around the beautifully designed school building. We are allowed to look at the creative classrooms and find artistically designed blackboard pictures by the educators to prepare the students for our workshop:
Afterwards, she shows us the room for the workshop, under the roof of the outbuilding.
In the attic, which otherwise serves as a eurythmy hall, we encounter about 30 children aged 10-12 years (4th-6th grade) in a circle of chairs:
8.30-9.00 Christian MICHAEL, equipped with 2 larch wood discs and visual materials, conveys the latest research findings on the carnivorous Venus flytrap, chameleon vines, and the life of trees together in the forest in Swiss German. We learn that the communication of plants even works with the world of fungi. Then it’s time for the children to research:
9.05-9.25 Research Group "ei´s"
Each research group of 7 or 8 children experiments with the newly developed TreeMuse device from Friendship with Nature and the Human Research Institute from Styria (Weiz, Austria). Each participant can try it out alone for a few minutes, while the others are remarkably present: listening, observing, and holding the space for the interaction between the plant's music and the researching child or adolescent in their midst.
9.25-9.45 Research Group "zwoi"
Meanwhile, the other research groups processed their experiences and impressions on the floor below. A plant music device plays there at a houseplant while the children/adolescents paint their impressions or write poems about their experiences.
9.50-10.10 Break (Swiss: "z'Nüni")
Lively exchange between the workshop leader and the educators.
The children run around in the yard, swing under the beech tree, or play on their own sports field. In the schoolyard, upper school students sell homemade rosemary bread and spinach puff pastries.
10.15-10.35 Research Group "drü"
10.35-10.55 Research Group "via"
 | After some initial scepticism about whether it was just pre-recorded music programmes, the children were enthusiastic about researching and each child had about 3 minutes of contact with the plant. Singing, speaking, clapping, drumming, making music in interaction with the music of the living beings in the flower pots. Spontaneously created improvisations, rhythmic variations, and funny "interjections" from the two orchid plants, as well as the aloe vera that an educator brought from a class, also convinced the last sceptic. |
During the experimentation phase, the adolescents came up with ideas:
To tear the head off the orchid To stroke the plant
To tear off a leaf from the plant To give the plant water
To insult the plant To say loving words to it
To express feelings of rejection To play music for it with instruments
Intervention by Christian M.: "Tearing off a flower or leaf is not possible. But you can imagine it very clearly, think about it, go into the feelings, and observe how the orchid reacts."
One adolescent wanted to insult the plant, and it fell silent again.
Thoughts of harming the plant, as well as spoken insults associated with destructive intent, caused it to fall silent abruptly. In contrast, honest and truly communicated loving feelings for the plant brought it back to sound.
This deeply impressed the adolescents and also the observers in the room.
The communication with the plant as a reflection of the interactions in the human world, in school life, with classmates was clearly experienced several times during the workshop.
11.00–11.45 Joint Conclusion *Listening to the music of the beech tree in the school garden *The educators hug the tree, we observe a change in the music, through deeper tones. 1. Attempt to achieve a closed circuit between the children and the school beech tree: The children stand holding hands in a circle around the 200-year-old beech tree in the school garden. 2. Attempt in the classroom: On the dry wooden floor, back under the roof, it became clear that as soon as one child let go of another's hand, the circuit was interrupted and the plant fell silent. Experiment successful! *Each child was allowed to say a final word about the workshop: From "moderate" to "exciting" to "Wow!" everything was included. |
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2 beech saplings from the 200-year-old beech tree in the schoolyard as a thank you from the Rudolf Steiner School Langnau for the Start Workshop from Friendship with Nature.
