Voyage in the Sounds of the Body

One whole School, one whole Week - with Sounds, Quiet and Unquiet, Creation and Concerts

VOYAGE IN THE SOUNDS OF THE BODY was a co-operation project between the Elling School (Primary/secondary), the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, psychologist Helle Jensen, body therapist Bjørn Winther, the organization New Music of Frederikshavn/The North Jutland young composers, and Esbjerg Music Conservatory.

In the 2000s, the small Elling School situated north of Frederikshavn, was often mentioned in the Danish public media, because this school employed methods, which some people related to religious meditation. However, the exercises used were rather harmless: a couple of minutes’ focus on breathing, or clearing your brain of thoughts. Or a walk-of-attention, where, for 4-5 minutes, the pupils would gather, but silently walk around in the close nature in order to listen to sounds. Furthermore, over some years, psychologist Helle Jensen, and body therapist Bjørn Winther, had worked at the school with both interpersonal relations and body.

For this reason, the plans of making a large project with the whole school for one whole week with a focus on listening to the body, was not a new thought. In order to gather inspiration, a course on the body, a.o. the rhythmical ventilation system (heart and lungs), the high-frequent communication in the nerve lanes, and the idea of an own frequency for the human being (a very deep tone).

Some wanted to work with the sounds of breathing, others with the heart (not only pulse, but also the more complex contraction with several ventricles of the heart), and others again became fascinated by the great gap between the very high and deep tones (nerves and own frequencies). And even if there were also children who focused on the digestion system, not one suggestion came on sounds of burping or farting …

This project was supported by the Municipality of Frederikshavn, the Esbjerg Music Conservatory and the Danish Ministry of Culture.

With considerable funds from the Group of Research under the Danish Ministry of Culture, this project was documented and made available as a guide for a possible distribution of roles between teacher and visiting artist. The small booklet is called Det glemmer jeg aldrig, “I’ll never forget that”.