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.

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.

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.

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.