Forms
Nina Perlove flute and Toni Sheffer, piano, live in concert at Northern Kentucky University. Fantasy on themes of Bizet's Carmen by Francois Borne arranged by Robert Stallman.
Official classification: Piano, Flute, Theme & Variation, Video, Bizet, Georges, Performance video clip
Popeye the Sailor snores while he sleeps, which disturbs Mouse, who is also trying to sleep. A war breaks out between Popeye and Mouse which Mouse eventually wins.
KS3 idea: Focus pupils' attention on the music that suggests sleep immediately after the opening credits. It's sometimes difficult to hear clearly with all the superimposed sound effects - they'll have to concentrate really hard. Ask what musical features of this suggest sleep [slow tempo, simple 3-note melodic phrases, subdued bassoon timbre, quiet dynamic, delicate accompaniment figure]. Divide the class into groups, tell them the first 3 melody notes are E, G, D, and give them 10 minutes to extend this into a really, really simple 4-phrase idea of their own to suggest sleep (the simpler the better). Give them advice about accompaniment figures as you think appropriate. After 10 minutes ask the class to vote for the group whose sleep music sounds most promising. Then give a further 10-15 minutes during which the voted group can refine their music further, while the other groups all develop an entirely new short section of very contrasting 'wake-up' music. When the time is up, get them to perform their sections as a Rondo (sleep, wakeup1, sleep, wakeup2, sleep, etc.) with each group taking its turn in the structure. This will bear some resemblance to the structure of the cartoon, where bouts of sleep are interspersed with various woken antics. So you could either play the whole cartoon through before they start, pointing this out as a model, or maybe leave it until after the creative work is finished and draw out any similarities/differences then.
Official classification: Rondo, Film & Animation, Cartoons, Video, Cartoon, Unit 10 Play It Again, Curriculum support, Musical Cliches, Unit 5. Musical cliches
This piece is in three sections: ABA. The A section is almost identical at the start
and at the end. Keep the high split notes short and harsh, as if slapping at the
mossie! Take the opportunity to practise staccato tonguing.
Notes used: C, E, G
Key: concert D minor
Learning points: new note E,crotchet rest, dynamics (f, p), high split notes
Official classification: Trombone (treble clef), Staccato, Ternary(ABA), Animals, Pieces, Forte Loud, Piano Soft, Wider opps, Resource Packs
This piece is in three sections: ABA. The A section is almost identical at the start
and at the end. Keep the high split notes short and harsh, as if slapping at the
mossie! Take the opportunity to practise staccato tonguing.
Notes used: C, E, G
Key: concert D minor
Learning points: new note E
crotchet rest
dynamics: f, p
high split notes
Official classification: Trumpet, Staccato, Ternary(ABA), Animals, Pieces, Forte Loud, Piano Soft, Wider opps, Resource Packs
Here’s an impressive performance duet. The ‘three threes’ in the title refer to the
3-bar phrases in 3/4 (think of it in 12/8). The three sections (ABA) are played
arco/pizz/arco. Section A – both times it comes – is in clear 3-bar phrases. Section B
has three 3-bar phrases, then an 8-bar phrase to lead in to the recap.
Notes used: G, D, A, E
Key: G major
Learning points: duet in 3/4
rall, a tempo
Official classification: Violin, Tempo, Ternary(ABA), Pieces, 3/4, Wider opps, Resource Packs
Track 2 from Charanga / Saydisc / Christine Richards project - 'Listen to this' for Key Stage 1. Nicoles Freres 'fortepiano' cylinder musical box (1843) from Saydisc album 'Musical Box Dances' (0'56") Main features: form, rhythm, changes in dynamics. This Victorian waltz, a type of dance, is played on a musical box. The Track Explorer has three learning tracks focusing on structure, dynamics and rhythm.
Official classification: Listening, Rhythm, Dynamics, Changes in Volume, Form & Structure, Ternary(ABA), The Romantic Period, Europe, Interactive Activities, Key Stage 1, Victorian Times, Track Explorer, Curriculum support, Waltz, Charanga, Saydisc Records, Saydisc/Charanga World Music
Recommended example to show that music, like pictures, can describe images and moods from QCA Unit 13 for KS2 Painting with Sound. Its first theme is an exchange of cuckoo calls, first for oboe, then for divided strings.
Official classification: Theme & Variation, Animals, 1900-1949, Classical Pieces, Audio, England, Unit 13 Painting With Sound , Curriculum support, Delius, Frederick
Performed on the piano in this recording. A good example for listening to short sounds (short, fast notes) as this piece was originally written for the harpsichord. Also the repetition of a ‘minor’ phrase in it’s ’major’ form.
Official classification: Piano, Binary(AB), The Baroque Era, Classical Pieces, Audio, Sonata, Long and Short Sounds, Curriculum support, Scarlatti, Domenico
From Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg's incidental music to accompany Henrik Ibsen's play.
Suggested in QCA Unit 13 for KS2 'Painting with Sound' as example of music that describes a scene.
Official classification: Bowed Strings, Flute, Oboe, Theme & Variation, The Romantic Period, Classical Pieces, Audio, Grieg, Edvard Hagerup, Unit 13 Painting With Sound , Curriculum support
One of modernist composer Charles Ives early works, written around the turn of the century but not published until 1949. This piece takes the tune (same as the British National Anthem) through a series of fairly standard but witty variations. It is recommended for listening as example of arrangement in QCA Unit 6 Shanty Time for KS3 and for KS4 pupils, this is one of the first pieces to use bi-tonality.
Official classification: Theme & Variation, 1900-1949, Classical Pieces, Audio, Polytonality, United States, United Kingdom, Curriculum support, Ives, Charles
Originally composed as part of Offenbach's operetta 'Orpheus in the Underworld' this piece became synonymous with the french dance 'can-can' around the turn of the century and continues to be the preferred music for the dance. Contains three themes, with variation.
KS1/2 idea; great example of music for dance, key questions for children as they listen 'what is it that makes this music so suitable for dancing?' (tempo/instrumentation) 'how does the composer create excitement? (build up of texture and dynamics before returning to main theme)
Official classification: Theme & Variation, Opera, The Romantic Period, Dance, Classical Pieces, Audio, France, Curriculum support
The Catacombs, number 8 from Pictures at an Exhibition, also known as Cum mortuis in lingua mortua or With the Dead in a Dead Language. The form of this movement is binary. Its two sections consist of a nearly static Largo with a sequence of block chords, elegiac lines adding a touch of melancholy, and a more flowing, gloomy "Andante" that introduces the "Promenade" theme into the scene.
Official classification: Binary(AB), The Romantic Period, Classical Pieces, Audio, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Unit 13 Painting With Sound , Programme Music, Curriculum support, Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich
Piece number 9 from Pictures at an Exhibition. Motives in this movement evoke the bells of a large clock and the whirlwind sounds of a chase. It is also in Ternary form.
Official classification: Ternary(ABA), The Romantic Period, Classical Pieces, Audio, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Unit 13 Painting With Sound , Programme Music, Curriculum support, Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich
Piece number 4 from Pictures at an Exhibition describes A Polish cart on enormous wheels, drawn by oxen and is in ternary form (ABA).
Official classification: Ternary(ABA), The Romantic Period, Classical Pieces, Audio, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Unit 13 Painting With Sound , Programme Music, Curriculum support, Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich
Number 5 from Pictures at an Exhibition. This movement is in ternary form (ABA) with a repeat and coda.
Official classification: Ternary(ABA), The Romantic Period, Classical Pieces, Audio, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Unit 13 Painting With Sound , Programme Music, Curriculum support, Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich
Dispute between Children at Play, number 3 from Pictures at an Exhibition. Piece describes a Hartman painting of a busy garden full of children playing and quarrelling. In ternary form.
Official classification: Ternary(ABA), The Romantic Period, Classical Pieces, Audio, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Unit 13 Painting With Sound , Programme Music, Curriculum support, Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich
Concerto by German Baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann.
Horns and other instruments 'question & answer' each other in this brisk concerto which also features ABA (ternary) stucture.
Official classification: Ternary(ABA), Concerto, The Baroque Era, Classical Pieces, Audio, Telemann, Georg Philipp, Curriculum support, Unit 14. The concerto
Darth Vader's Theme music, composed by John Williams for 'Episode V The Empire Strikes Back' released in 1980 with video footage from Episodes IV-VI. A good example of leitmotif, a recurrent theme associated with characters or events. References to the theme can also be heard in other pieces from the soundtrack to the prequel trilogy. Also interesting to listen and hear the similarities in Mars from Holst's Planet Suite.
Official classification: Theme & Variation, Space, 1980s, Film & Animation, Video, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Curriculum support, Williams, John, leitmotif
Piece for piano and orchestra, written by pianist Gershwin originally in 1924 and combining elements of both classical and jazz styles.
KS2/3 idea: pupils should be able to identify the jazz-style method of bending notes in the clarinet and trumpet lines at the beginning, followed by the rhythmically varied piano part with its improvisatory style, contrasted by the straight classical brass and string parts that play the marching theme that reoccurs with variation throughout the piece, along with sharp contrasts in instrumental texture.
Official classification: Theme & Variation, 1900-1949, Classical Pieces, Jazz, Audio, Classical, Jazz, United States, Curriculum support
Second movement from the Hary Janos Suite, features bell ringing at the beginning that introduces the theme that recurs throughout.
Official classification: Theme & Variation, 1900-1949, Theatre, Audio, Hungary, Curriculum support, Kodaly, Zoltan