Monument Valley Regional Middle School Art Class: All the Rowboats. Where music and Art Collide, 7th Grade

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

All the Rowboats. Where music and Art Collide, 7th Grade

Over the summer, I came up with a new unit while listening to a song by Regina Specktor. All the Rowboats is was one of the songs where you get so absorbed and so obsessed that at the end of the song, you repeat it and listen 4 more time. The song is completely visual with strong references to the visual arts. See for yourself:

"All The Rowboats"

All the rowboats in the paintings

They keep trying to row away

And the captains’ worried faces

For forever, forever and a day

Stay contorted and staring at the waves

They’ll keep hanging in their gold frames

All the rowboats in the oil paintings

They keep trying to row away, row away

Hear them whispering French and German

When no one’s looking I touch a sculpture

But the most special are the most lonely

In glass coffins they keep coughing

They’ve forgotten, forgotten how to sing, how to sing

First there’s lights out, then there’s lock up

Masterpieces serving maximum sentences

It’s their own fault for being timeless

There’s a price to pay and a consequence

Here’s your ticket, welcome to the tombs

But the most special are the most lonely

In glass coffins they keep coughing

They’ve forgotten, forgotten how to sing

They will stay there in their gold frames

Dutch, Italian, and Latin

Marble, cold and soft as satin

God, I pity the violins

All the galleries, the museums

They’re just public mausoleums

The living dead fill every room

God, I pity the violins

For forever, forever and a day

All the rowboats in the oil paintings

They keep trying to row away, row away

First there’s lights out, then there’s lock up

Masterpieces serving maximum sentences

It’s their own fault for being timeless

There’s a price to pay and a consequence

All the galleries, the museums

They will stay there forever and a day

All the rowboats in the oil paintings

They keep trying to row away, row away

All the rowboats in the oil paintings

They keep trying to row away, row away...

The song became a springboard for a unit about songs with visual arts references. Students researched songs such as Paint it Black, Axis Bold as Love and Mona Lisa. Their passion for deciphering song lyrics, evaluating what they mean on a personal level and creating art based on their findings was an all-encompassing task. Students took it full speed ahead and became engrossed with research to the point where one student discovered a Berkshire Hills School District tie to Don McLean’s Starry Starry Night. Their art projects based on their findings were unique, personal and creative.