Edexcel GCSE Set Works: Moby, Miles Davis and Koko
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KSKS45 Edexcel GCSE set works: Moby, Miles Davis and Koko David Ashworth by David Ashworth is a freelance education consultant, specialising in music technology. He is project leader for INTRODUCTION www.teachingmusic. org.uk and he has This resource provides background and a discussion of the main characteristics of three of the set pieces from been involved at a national level in most the current Edexcel GCSE syllabus. of the major music initiatives in recent From AoS 3 Popular music in context: years. Moby: ‘Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?’ from the album Play Miles Davis: ‘All Blues’ from the album Kind of Blue From AoS 4 World music: Koko: ‘Yiri’ from the album Burkina Faso: Balafons et tambours d’Afrique Important musical features covered include structure, texture, tonality, harmony, melody, rhythm and metre. These should complement existing resources, and will provide students with some useful pointers on how to write perceptively about the music. The Edexcel specification offers this advice: Sections A and B In their responses to the questions in both sections, students will need to demonstrate an understanding of the following in relation to the set works within the Areas of Study: the musical elements (pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure) identifying how resources are used in different combinations (identifying instruments and groups of instruments) identifying key musical features identifying musical and melodic devices (ornamentation, ostinati, riffs, use of imitation, pedal point and sequence) identifying rhythmic devices (syncopation, swung rhythms, dotted rhythms and triplets) identifying and discriminating between major, minor, modal, pentatonic, chromatic and atonal tonalities relating music to the context in which it was created identifying conventions used in different times and places using appropriate musical vocabulary expressing and justifying opinions and preferences Section A Students should study the set works for each Area of Study, aurally identifying the key musical features in each work. They should understand the context within which the set works were composed and their place within the Area of Study as a whole. In this section of the examination, students will also be expected to express and justify opinions on the set work extracts and complete short musical dictation and staff notation questions. Student should be encouraged to listen to music in a discriminating way, developing their skills of aural perception. Section B In Section B, students write in more detail about the set works that they have studied and this extended response will be assessed for QWC as well as the quality of the musical information conveyed. 1 Music Teacher March 2015 Questions may concentrate on one or more set works and could ask for a comparison between two works (within the same Area of Study or from two different Areas of Study). Students should be prepared to demonstrate that they are able to write about: how the musical elements such as pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture and structure have been used by the composer how the instruments and groups of instruments are used how any other key musical features have been used in the set work(s). They could also be asked to: place the music in its musical, social and historical context express and justify opinions on the set work(s) in question Some knowledge of related works within the Area of Study will be given credit but is not required. However, students will need to know how the work fits within the context of other pieces written in similar genres around the same time. Students should be encouraged to express their ideas about the set works using correct musical vocabulary. MOBY: WHY DOES MY HEART FEEL SO BAD? Background Moby was an important figure in the dance music scene of the 1990s. He was seen as a lone figure, standing apart from most others making music in this genre. In some ways, his music was typical – he combined electronic disco-style beats with heavily processed instruments and samples from film soundtracks and pop songs. But on the album Play, he also included samples of field recordings made by Alan Lomax decades earlier of many legendary folk and jazz musicians from the first part of the 20th century. These samples help to give the tracks on this album a more expressive, soulful and ‘human’ feel, which is often missing from some of the more sterile techno tracks made during this era. On this particular song, both samples are taken from a 1950s Gospel song called ‘King Jesus Will Roll All Burdens Away’. The surface noise of the original vinyl recordings has been left on the track to give a more atmospheric and authentic feel to the vocal parts. This was a breakthrough recording for Moby, helping to make the transition from niche electronic composer to global celebrity pop star status. He was largely responsible for bringing this type of music to a much larger mainstream audience, but at the same time was criticised by many techno artists for ‘diluting’ the musical form. This track was a massive hit for Moby and has been recreated live by many artists. You can hear a version by Elton John here. Released in 1999, Play subsequently became the biggest-selling independent album in the UK for the year 2000. Music Teacher March 2015 2 Instrumentation acoustic piano sampled vocal sounds, reverb added Roland drum machine kit (plus claves) bass line – later, an extra sustained bass line during the female vocal sample a processed backing vocal added as an echo strings synth plus a vocal synth towards the end Texture As in much music in this style, texture and timbre are important elements. The musical interest is focused here rather than on the dominating features of melody, harmony and rhythm, which are central to more traditional rock and pop styles. The build-up of texture and contrasts is controlled by careful consideration of how to combine and develop the musical materials. Close attention is paid to the manipulation of timbral combinations to build up the ‘tension’ and the ‘release’ that follows. The track begins in the classic techno way, by gradually adding loops to thicken the texture. In sections 3 to 6 the texture stays thick, swapping male and female vocal samples. From section 4 onwards, the bass and synth parts are thickened by the adding of long, sustained notes. The backing vocal in section 6 is a heavily processed echo of the sampled vocal line. Section 7 is a short gap, although the reverb/echo on some parts allows them to ‘bleed’ through initially. There is a sense of symmetry with the final three sections – a dense section 9, sandwiched between quieter sections involving solo sampled voice plus sustained synth parts. Here is a chart showing how the texture develops over time: section 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 piano gap vocal male female male female male sample drum m/c ‘bass’ more ‘strings’ more backing vocal synth pad The sampled vocals are interesting. Both seem to have copious amounts of reverb added. On the male singer sample, the original recording backing can be heard, particularly at the very end of the sample. The sounds here clash in a interesting way with the contemporary accompaniment provided by Moby. 3 Music Teacher March 2015 Melody As we noted in the previous section, there is not a great deal of melodic interest in this piece. The two vocal samples can be thought of as a call and response. The call consists of two fragments, where the notes rise and fall in alternating 3rds. The long sustained note in the middle of this phrase is in fact sung melismatically. Although transcribed here a long sustained note of A, the singer subtly adds notes above and below this pitch. The response covers a slightly wider range. Again, in the first fragments the intervals between consecutive notes are 3rds, whereas the second fragment is built on a falling second interval. The female vocal sample is a single phrase, looped against a changing harmonic accompaniment. It is a short series of notes that fall over an interval of a 6th. Both vocal parts use notes from the home key of A minor. The female phrase uses just pentatonic notes from this scale. Tonality and harmony This song essentially consists of two sections: the male vocal section and the female vocal section. We will refer to these as sections A and B respectively. The track begins with a solo piano playing the section A chords in a simple, reported pattern. There are slight variations, but the basic pattern is this: The chords for the A section are: Am Em G D These imply an A natural minor scale (ie with no G sharp). The notes sung by the vocalist sit well with this accompaniment, but there are some faint background sounds on the recorded sample that indicate the original backing may have had a very different harmony. A heavy reverb has been added to this sample which gives the timbre of the sample a quite ethereal feel in this new context. Music Teacher March 2015 4 The female vocal sample is ‘cleaner’, so there are no harmonic ambiguities. There is a move towards the relative major (C major) in the way that Moby harmonises this sample, which gives the song a more uplifting quality during these sections: C Am C Am F C F C These chords all share the notes A and C, which feature predominantly in the first bar of the vocal sample. The Am and C chords share the notes A and E, which feature predominantly in the second bar of the vocal sample.