NEW ADVENTURES KS2 & KS3 SCHOOL CONCERTS

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1 CONTENTS

The orchestra – who goes where? 2 Woodwind 3 Brass 4 Strings 5 Percussion 6 Composer timeline – Who, When, Where and What? 7 Where in the world? 11 The pieces and activities: 1. Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges L’Amant anonyme 12 2. Jörg Widmann 180 Beats Per Minute 12 3. Maurice Ravel Mother Goose Suite, Fairy Garden 12 4. Edvard Grieg Peer-Gynt Suite, In the Hall of the Mountain King 13 5. Felix Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No.1, Andante 14 6. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Petite Suite de Concert, La tarantelle frétillante 14 7. Anna Clyne This Midnight Hour 19 8. Augusta Holmès La Nuit et l’Amour 19 9. Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 7, Finale 19 Answers 21 Glossary 22

Free access to the CBSO’s Key Stage 2 and 3 digital concerts has been due to the generous support from the Birmingham Music Education Partnership, led by Services for Education. Birmingham Music Education Partnership works together to create joined-up music education provision, responding to local need as part of the National Plan for Music Education. We are also grateful to the Clive & Sylvia Richards Charity, principal supporter of the CBSO’s work with young people.

1 WHO ARE THE CBSO?

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is the flagship of musical life in Birmingham and the West Midlands, and one of the world’s great orchestras.

Based in Symphony Hall, in a typical year it gives over 150 concerts each year in Birmingham, the UK and around the world, playing music that ranges from classics to contemporary, film music and even symphonic disco.

THE ORCHESTRA WHO GOES WHERE?

Activity Follow the link and click on the sections to meet the CBSO. Where would the conductor go? What is their role? KS3 Extension Follow the link to Classic FM to see if you can put the correct instruments in the correct place in the orchestra.

2 WOODWIND

Activity: Woodwind instruments make a sound by the player blowing air through a tube, across the hole or with a (single or double) reed. The air inside the instrument vibrates creating sound waves. To change the pitch of the notes you need to cover the holes or the keys. By covering the holes, this affects the amount of air vibrating inside and makes the notes higher or lower.

Can you try to do this yourself? Two easy ways of doing this are either blowing across a bottle or into two pieces of paper, held loosely together.

KS3 Extension: Can you come up with any more ways to imitate a woodwind instrument?

Flute (and Piccolo) Oboe (and Cor Anglais)

Bassoon (and Contra Bassoon) Clarinet (Eb, Bb, A, Bass)

3 BRASS

Activity: Brass instruments make a sound by the player blowing air through an incredibly long tube although, it is not as straightforward as just blowing into the mouthpiece. In order to make a sound, a brass player’s lips must vibrate very, very quickly. When placed against the mouthpiece of the instrument the air inside begins to vibrate, forming sound waves.

To make different notes the amount of air vibrating inside the instrument must change. On a trombone, a part called the slide makes the tube of vibrating air longer or shorter, and this changes the pitch of the note from lower to higher. However, on a trumpet, French horn or tuba, valves are pressed down to change the amount of air.

Can you try to do this yourself? An easy way of doing this is to blow air down a pipe attached to a funnel.

KS3 Extension: Can you come up with any more ways to imitate a brass instrument?

French Horn Trumpet

Trombone Tuba

4 STRINGS

Activity: String instruments make a sound when the player causes the strings to rapidly vibrate under tension, with a bow or by plucking them. The wooden body of string instruments amplifies the sound as the air vibrates inside.

Can you try to do this yourself? An easy way of doing this is to stretch elastic bands around a plastic box.

KS3 Extension: How can you make the pitch go higher or lower?

Can you figure out the measurements to make notes match a scale?

If you would like to find out more about the links between music, maths and physics try watching thisTEDx Talk.

First and Second Violins Viola

Cello Double Bass

5 PERCUSSION

Activity: Percussion instruments make a sound by being struck, shaken or scraped. They are grouped into two sets – tuned and untuned. Tuned instruments play specificpitches or notes like woodwind, brass and string instruments, however untuned instruments make a sound with an unclear pitch.

Can you try to do this yourself? Two easy ways of copying untuned percussion instruments are tapping a hard surface or putting rice into a container and shaking it.

KS3 Extension: Can you come up with any more ways to imitate a percussion instrument?

List as many percussion instruments as possible and group them into tuned and untuned.

Percussion

6 COMPOSER TIMELINE WHO, WHEN, WHERE AND WHAT

Piece number: 1 Name: Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges Nationality: French (born in Baillf, a commune of Guadalupe in the Caribbean, but moved to Paris). Interesting facts: • His parents were George Bologne de Saint-George, a wealthy married plantation owner, and Nanon, his wife’s 16-year-old African slave, of Senegalese origin. • Guadalupe was a French colony. • At the age of seven he moved to France and went to boarding school. • He went on to became a classical composer, virtuoso violinist and conductor of leading symphony orchestra Le Concert des Amaleurs. Born: 1745 • He was one of the first black colonels in the French army and a renowned Died: 1799 champion fencer. (age 54) ? What do you think it would have been like to move across the world to go to school?

? How do you think he felt, being so successful at music and sport?

Piece number: 9 Name: Ludwig van Beethoven Nationality: German (born in Bonn, moved to Vienna) Interesting facts: • He was from a musical family and his talent was obvious from a young age. • He had music lessons and did many hours of practice from a young age. • At the age of 11, he began work as a professional musician. • He is famous as a piano player and composer. • In his late twenties, he tragically began to go deaf. Eventually he could hear nothing at all but he continued to write wonderful music. Born: 1710 Died: 1827 (age 56) ? Do you think you could (or could have) left school at age 11 to get a job?

? How do you think he carried on writing music when he could not hear?

7 COMPOSER TIMELINE

Piece number: 5 Name: Felix Mendelssohn (Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy) Nationality: German (born in Hamburg, moved to Berlin). Interesting facts: • His father was a banker and he was from a wealthy family. • He began learning piano at the age of 6 and his first composition written by the time he was 13. • He was a frequent visitor to England and was well known by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

• He toured around Europe, playing and composing along the way. Born: 1809 Died: 1847 ? If you could go on tour, where would you go? (age 38) Compare the idea of touring to your favourite musician/band today and think of other ? ways composers could share their music, both then and now?

Piece number: 4 Name: Edvard Hagerup Grieg Nationality: Norwegian (born in Bergen) Interesting facts: • He is one of Norway’s most well known composers. • He wrote in a Nationalist style, weaving extracts from Norwegian folk music into his compositions. • His compositions are inspired by the scenery and legends of Norway. • The Norwegian musician, Ole Bull, encouraged his parents to send him to study at the Leipzig Conservatoire in Germany, after hearing him play the piano when he was 15. • As an adult, he spent the Spring and Summer at home, writing music, and the Autumn and Winter, travelling across Europe, playing and conducting his music. • On one of his tours, Kind Edward VII of Great Britain talked so loudly in one of Grieg’s Born: 1843 concerts, that he had to stop playing-twice! Died: 1907 (age 64) ? How could you weave sounds of where you live into your own music?

Where would you choose to spend your Spring and Summer working and ? what would your hobby be?

8 COMPOSER TIMELINE

Piece number: 8 Name: Augusta Mary Anne Holmès Nationality: French (born in Paris) Interesting facts: • Her father was Irish and her mother was French. • She played the piano as well as composing, however was only able to take music lessons after her mother had died, as she discouraged it. • She knew the famous composers Liszt and Franck, who was her teacher. • Working in a male dominated profession, she became known as a composer of programme music, often with a political meaning.

• In 1899, she was commissioned to write a piece to celebrate the centenary of the Born: 1847 French Revolution. She wrote the Ode triomphale for the Exposition Universelle. Died: 1903 The piece needed roughly 1,200 musicians. (age 55) ? How would you fit 1,200 together to perform a piece? Do you think this is more or less than the CBSO?

? If you were to create a piece of art about politics (e.g., visual/dramatic/musical), what would it be about?

Piece number: 6 Name: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Nationality: English (born in Croydon, London) Interesting facts: • His parents were Alice Hare Martin and Dr. Daniel Peter Hughes Taylor, from Sierra Leone, who was studying in London and moved home before Samuel was born. Alice lived with her father and step mother. • He was named after the famous poet. • His mother’s family was musical and his grandfather started to teach him the violin. He had an obvious ability and his grandfather paid for him to receive further lessons. • He studied at The Royal College of music from the age of 15.

• As well as being a composer, he was a professional musician, a Born: 1875 professor at the Crystal Palace School of Music and conducted the Died: 1912 orchestra at the Croydon Conservatoire. (age 37) • He was helped by Edward Elgar (a famous composer and former conductor of the CBSO Orchestra), who recommended one his compositions to The Three Choirs Festival.

9 COMPOSER TIMELINE

Piece number: 3 Name: Joseph Maurice Ravel Nationality: French (born in the Basque region, and moved to Paris.) Interesting facts: • He was from a family of engineers and his father and brothers invented a vehicle that could somersault! • He shared his family’s interest in machines but his talents lay in music. • He studied at the Paris Conservatoire. • In around 1900, he was part of an informal group of musicians, artists, poets and critics called Les Apaches (The Hooligans).

Born: 1875 • His career ended in 1932, when he hit his head in a car accident and he composed very little Died: 1937 after that. (age 62) ? If you were part of a group of musicians and artists, what would you call it?

? Ravel was a composer but was interested in cars. If you became a composer, what hobby would you have?

Piece number: 2 Name: Jörg Widmann Nationality: German (born in Munich). Interesting facts: • He is a very successful clarinettist, composer and conductor. • He has also worked as a teacher and professor. • He studied at The University of Music and Performing Arts, Munich and The Juilliard School in New York. • His music mixes the use of noise, electronics and unusual sounds with more traditional instruments. • He was the ‘Artist in Residence’ at The CBSO from 2017-2018.

Born: 1973 ? What do you think and artist in residence does? Current age: 47 ? What unusual sounds, that are not made by musical instruments, could you weave into a piece of music?

10 COMPOSER TIMELINE

Piece number: 7 Name: Anna Clyne Nationality: English (born in London, moved to America) Interesting facts: • She started composing when she was 7, but didn’t have her first composition lesson until she was 20. • She studied at The University of Edinburgh and The Manhattan School of Music. • She has worked as a director, composer and composer in residence. • She is among the 50 most performed living composers in the world (according to Bachtrack’s “Classical Music in 2019” study)

Born: 1980 Current age: ? Do you think you would like to be a composer? 41

WHERE IN THE WORLD? Try using Google Earth to find where the composers came from and lived.

11 THE PIECES AND ACTIVITIES

1. Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges L’Amant anonyme

Activity: o Whilst you are watching the orchestra, really focus on the violins. Can you describe and explain what the players are doing with their bows? Hint: when do they go up and when do they go down? Do they each do what they want to do or do they work as a team? Try deciding on your own up and down bow pattern and doing this as a class. You do not need an instrument and can use your own invisible ‘air violin’.

KS3 Extension: o Find out more about the composer. He is often compared with Mozart. Why do you think this might be? Try listening to Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Some suggest that Mozart, fuelled by jealous rivalry, based the villainous character Monostatos on him. Do you think this is fair?

2. Jörg Widmann 180 Beats Per Minute

Activity: o Can you tap in time with the pulse? This is the main beat, not the actual rhythm, ticking like a clock. o How would you describe the tempo?

Slow Walking pace Medium Fast Really fast

KS3 Extension: o Listen again to the opening, before the main melody comes in. Can you add an accent, which looks like this >, above the notes that are played more heavily and stick out? The first one has been done for you as an example.

o Try looking up the Italian terms for the possible tempos. o At the beginning of the piece, the composer states for the players to perform ‘Feroce, agitato’. Can you find an English translation of this Italian term?

3. Maurice Ravel Mother Goose Suite, Fairy Garden

Activity: o This is an example of programme music, where the composer tries to paint a picture inside your head. Notice how the pitch gets higher, perhaps like a fairy flying. Whilst you are listening to the music, create agraphic score, showing the changes in pitch. o Try creating you own short melody that sounds like a fairy flying, you can use any instrument, including your voice. Try writing it down in a way that makes sense to you, or record it using software. o An example of an alternative interpretation can be found here. o Further listening: try listening to Ravel’s Bolero. What picture do you think this is trying to paint in your mind?

12 KS3 Extension: o The final section is full ofglissandos and repeated, oscillating notes. Can you recreate this effect, using musical software or instruments of your own? o Create a table, summarising how the elements of the music create the story of a fairy garden. Here is an example blank table for you (start with the elements with a star next to them and move onto the others if you can):

Element Meaning How does is link to the story? *Melody Tune Harmony How the notes sound together *Tonality Major or minor? (Bright or dark?) Structure Sections of the piece *Sonority Instrument sounds Texture Layers Tempo, Metre, Speed, beats in a bar, the pattern Rhythm of beats Dynamics and Volume and how the notes are Articulation played (smooth or detached)

4. Edvard Grieg Peer-Gynt Suite, In the Hall of the Mountain King

Activity: o Do you recognise the melody? Where do you recognise it from? o The notes of the melody repeat. Can you hear the dynamics increase? Show this by starting with your hands low and raising them gradually higher as they get louder. o There is an accelerando and the texture increases. What effect does this create? Can you re-create this by marching in time with the pulse and gradually increasing the texture. The teacher or one of the class can be the conductor, showing people when to join in. Can you also make the dynamics of your steps increase? o Towards the end of the piece, try conducting in time with the performance. You can do a simple version of this by waving your arms in time with the beat. o Using any tuned percussion or concert pitch instruments try to create your own performance link.

KS3 Extension: o Could you be a conductor in the making? This piece has four beats in a bar. Start by find the strong beat, counting out loud to four repeatedly and clapping on beat one. This is the down beat. This follow this pattern with your right hand (even if you are left-handed). Your left hand is used to show expression and entries (e.g., when to changedynamics or when a section of instruments should come in.)

1. Start high and move your hand straight down, in line with your 4 right-hand side.

2. Move your hand across, in front of your body, right to left.

3. Move your hand across to the side of your body, in front of your body, left to right.

4. Move your hand diagonally back to the start point. 1 2 3

13 5. Felix Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No.1, Andante

Activity: o Create a graphic score. You will need a big piece of paper and lots of colours. Show the following three layers and focus on the opening: 1. The flowing melody, by putting your pen or crayon on the paper and creating a continuous line, showing how the pitch go up and down. 2. The pizzicato strings, using a dot, showing how they go up, in groups of three 3. The pulsing, repeated quavers at a low pitch.

KS3 Extension: o Create a poster or presentation on the piano and include at least five facts. You might include: 1. The layout of the keyboard and its notes. 2. What happens inside when a key is pressed, in order to make a note. 3. The keyboard instruments that came before the invention of the piano. 4. What the pedals do. 5. How to change the dynamics.

o If you have a real, acoustic piano, you could try (carefully, with the help of an adult) taking the instrument apart and seeing how it works. Be very careful, as you do not want to damage it.

6. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Petite Suite de Concert, La tarantelle frétillante

Activity: o Go back to the “The orchestra who goes where?” and see if you can point to the instruments playing as the main melody passes through the orchestra. o Create a list of all of the percussion instruments that you can see and hear.

KS3 Extension: o Can you draw a story board to show the structure of this piece of music? The sections are very contrasting. Give each section a letter, starting with A and move through the alphabet. If a section returns, give it the same letter as before. o Can you come up with an adjective to go with each section? o Try following it on this score (see next page) to help you.

14 15 16 17 18 7. Anna Clyne This Midnight Hour

Activity: o The tempo of this piece of music changes. Can you move in time to the pulse of the music? o Create a tempo line, tracking how it changes. o Try humming along to the long, sustained notes in the woodwind section. Can you make your breath last as long as them? This is just one of the reasons why musicians need to keep fit. o How does the fortissimo timpani note at the end make you feel? Why do you think the composer did this?

KS3 Extension: o Try to re-create the effect of the opening, creating a short pattern of notes that is ascending and conjunct. Play or sing these repeatedly, rapidly changing the dynamics, using a crescendo. This is a bit like quickly turning the volume up and down on your music. You can record this or create it using musical software.

8. Augusta Holmès La Nuit et l’Amour

Activity: o Focus on the cellos when they have the main melody and try to create a graphic score of this melody by forming a continuous line on a piece of paper, showing how the pitch goes up and down.

KS3 Extension: o What is the metre of this piece? o What dance is this like? Look up the meaning of the title (French to English) and think how the two are connected. o Can you find any other examples?

9. Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 7, Finale

Activity: o Try marching in time with the pulse. This piece has quite a fast tempo. Try to play along with the timpani player, by using your hands on your lap or on the table but be gentle! The Timpani player is in the percussion section and is using mallets to hit a big, round drum that looks similar to this.

o As well as this, listen out for the strings and the woodwind instruments. Can you describe what they are doing? o One of his most famous extracts is ‘Ode to Joy’, from Symphony No. 9. Follow this link for an adaptation for Boomwhaker and tuned percussion. Try creating your own performance.

KS3 Extension: o Look up the precise meaning of the tempo marking Allegretto. o As well as the Boomwhaker arrangement of ‘Ode to Joy’, you could try singing it to ‘la’ (or humming) a simplified version of the chorus. You can find the score on the next page. If you have an instrument of your own, you can try playing it at home or performing it on music software. Let your imagination run wild!

19 20 ANSWERS Below are some useful answers to the questions posed.

o Where would the conductor go? At the front of the orchestra o What is their role? To direct and rehearse the ensemble. To keep the orchestra in time and show expression and entry points. o Can you come up with anymore percussion instruments? This is just a starting point... Tuned Untuned Celesta Agogo Bells Glockenspiel Bass drum Metallophone Bell tree Timpani Bodhrán Vibraphone Bongo drums Xylophone Cabasa Cajón Castanets Claves Cowbell Cymbals Dhol Djembe Drum kit Gong Maracas Rain stick Sleigh bells Snare drum Tabla Tambourine Thunder machine Triangle Vibraslap Whistle Wood block

o Can you figure out how to make the string pitch go higher or lower?Change the length or tension of the string: high is shorter and tighter, low is looser and lower. o Accent pattern

o Allegretto means at a fairly brisk pace or quite fast.

21 GLOSSARY

Words appearing in the glossary are indicated in bold each time they appear.

Accelerando Gradually growing faster Melody A musical ‘sentence’ that makes sense played or sung on its own. Accent An emphasis, or stronger attack on a particular note Metre The different groupings of beats, most commonly occurring in 2, 3 and 4 time. Amplify To make a sound louder Orchestra An ensemble of instruments, usually Ascending Moving upwards combining string, woodwind, brass and percussion.

Baton A thin stick used by a conductor to direct an Pitch How high or low a note is. orchestra or choir Pizzicato Plucking the string on a violin, viola, cello or Beat/Pulse A basic unit of time marking out the speed at double bass. which the music is played Programme music Music that conjures a scene or idea CBSO City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Quaver A note worth half a beat (half a crotchet), Classroom percussion Untuned and tuned percussion represented by a solid dot, a stem and a tail. instruments specifically designed for use in the classroom (e.g. boomwhackers) Rhythm Variable sound patterns that fit over a steady or beat: in songs, rhythms are dictated by the arrangement Composer The person who has written the music of syllables.

Conductor The person who leads the performance Sound waves These are vibrations that travel through air and are detected by the ear drum. Conjunct Joined or united together Structure How a piece is organised. Crescendo Gradually getting louder Sustain pedal The right foot pedal on a piano, which Decrescendo Gradually getting quieter sustains the sound produced longer than the physical action of playing a note. Downbeat The first beat of a bar or downward gesture by the conductor’s baton Tempo/tempi The speed or pace of music (fast/slow, faster/slower). Dynamics Volume: o very soft (pianissimo) Texture The overall effect of how melody, harmony and o soft (piano) rhythm are combined in a piece of music. o moderately soft (mezzo-piano) o moderately loud (mezzo-forte) Tuned instruments Percussion and orchestral o loud (forte) instruments that can produce different notes e.g. o very loud (fortissimo) xylophone, chime bars, glockenspiel, hand bells; violin, trumpet, flute, cello, piano, etc. Glissando A slide from one note to another Untuned instruments Percussion that makes a Graphic notation, symbols or scores Images or a mark unpitched sound when hit, shaken or scraped, e.g. that can signify a particular musical action. woodblock, maracas, guiro, cymbal, drum.

Harmony A musical effect created by combining two or Valve A mechanism that controls the flow of air. more notes played or sung simultaneously.

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