The Fantastic City Of Music
Wigmore Hall, November 2016
Resource for Young People and their Families
by
Andrew J. Smith
CONTENTS:
Music in the Round & Ensemble 360………………………………………………
‘The Fantastic City Of Music’..………………………………………………………
Background - Bach, Mendelssohn & Schumann …………………………………
Quick Music Games For All The Family……………………………………………
‘Dr Smith’…………………………………………………………………………….
Trio Sonata in C minor - Composing a Theme …………………………………
Song Without Words - Composing a Song ………………………………………
Piano Quartet in Eb - Performance ……………………………………………….
Online Resources/Further Reading & Listening……………………………….
Some of the activities in this booklet are best done while listening to the music. You’ll find plenty of performances of all the music featured in this concert on YouTube, Spotify, and elsewhere online – so why not create a playlist and have fun with the activities while you listen?
In general, the booklet is suitable for children aged 5+. As you go through it, you‘ll see that some of the activities are designed for children alone, and others for children and adults together. Some of them are designed for young people who have already begun to play an instrument or learn other musical skills.
Either way, we hope you enjoy discovering some of the music and musicians from the Fantastic City of Music!
Music in the Round & Ensemble 360
Music in the Round
Music in the Round is England’s largest promoter of chamber music outside London. We take our unique, informal and informative style of performance to numerous venues around the country as well as presenting two concert series and an annual May Festival in Sheffield at our home venue, the Crucible Studio.
Excellence and access are central to all we do. Our concerts are, wherever possible, played in the round, and they feature lively spoken introductions, pre-concert talks, and post- concert opportunities to meet the musicians.
Learning & participation is at the heart of all we do. Our Music in the Community programme delivers engaging and inspiring activities for people of diverse ages and backgrounds.
Ensemble 360
Formed in 2005, Ensemble 360 came together to take up residency in South Yorkshire with Music in the Round, establishing a group of five string players, five wind players and a pianist. The group appears regularly on BBC Radio 3 and at some of the largest festivals and venues in England including, Bath International Festival, Buxton Festival, and here at Wigmore Hall. They are Ensemble in Residence at the universities of Nottingham and Huddersfield.
With Music in the Round’s award-winning Children’s Composer in Residence Paul Rissmann and narrator Polly Ives, Ensemble 360 has established a unique series of musical stories for children which combine specially written music, participation and narration, and play to sell-out audiences across England.
Outside Ensemble 360 the musicians all have highly successful careers, performing in orchestras such as the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Philharmonia, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Camerata Bern, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, London Mozart Players and Manchester Camerata. They have performed as chamber musicians and soloists at many of the top venues and festivals across the world.
Critical acclaim has greeted all of the group’s CDs to date: Mozart and Spohr (ASV Gold), Beethoven (Nimbus Alliance) and Poulenc (Nimbus Alliance).
The instruments being played by the Ensemble during the concert include:
Violin – played by Benjamin Nabarro
The violin, sometimes called the fiddle, is the smallest member of the string family. The violin began as a three-stringed instrument but in 1555, a fourth string was added by Italian violin maker Andrea Amati. However, it was another Italian, Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737) who made the art of violin making very popular. Stradivari’s violins are regarded as the finest string instruments ever built.
To play the violin, the musician would usually hold the instrument against their shoulder and under their chin, and either pluck (pizzicato) the strings with their finger, or play with the bow (arco).
A violin is made of many pieces of wood that are chosen to improve the performance of the instrument. The top is made of spruce, and the back and ribs are made of maple. The neck is made of maple and ebony, preferred because of its hardness. All of these parts are carefully carved and then glued together. After the body of the violin is assembled and varnished, the four strings, bridge and tailpiece are added. The strings of the bow are horse hair.
In 2011 at a London auction house, a Stradivarius violin called ‘The Lady Blunt Violin’ was sold for a record £9.8m!
Viola – played by Ruth Gibson
The viola is slightly bigger than the violin and therefore plays notes that are lower in pitch. In general for orchestral instruments, the bigger the instrument, the lower in pitch it can play. The viola was developed in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The shape of the viola is slightly different and a little heavier than the violin, though it is played in very much the same way. The viola rests on the shoulder and is kept in place by the musician’s chin. The left-hand fingers are placed on top of the strings and pressed down onto the fingerboard, while the right hand plucks or bows the strings.
A viola is made of the same types of wood as the violin.
Violoncello – played by Gemma Rosefield
The cello is one of the bigger instruments in the string family and therefore can play notes that are lower in pitch than the violin and viola. The strings on the cello are more than twice as long as the strings on the viola. The first known maker of the cello was Andrea Amati.
The size and weight of the cello make it too heavy for the musician to rest it on their shoulders like a violinist or viola player, so cellists sit down. Modern cellos have what’s called an ‘end pin’ that extends out from the bottom of the instrument, therefore helping the musician to support it while playing. In the 1800s the cello did not have an endpin, so cellists had to squeeze their knees together to prevent the instrument from dropping on the floor! In order to play the cello, the left-hand fingers are placed on top of the strings and pressed down onto the fingerboard, while the right hand plucks or bows the strings.
Cellos are also made of the same types of wood as violins and violas, just bigger pieces!
Flute – played by Juliette Bausor
We often group instruments into musical ‘families’. For example, the violin, viola and cello along with the double bass form the string family. The flute is a member of the woodwind family, which includes instruments such as the oboe, clarinet and bassoon. The flutes can play very high pitched notes, only the piccolo can play higher. Flutes can be seen in paintings that date back as far as the 14th century, though most flutes at that time were played like the recorder, blowing air down the instrument rather than across.
To play the flute, the musician holds the instrument horizontally while blowing in the opening, just like you blow across the top of a milk bottle to make a sound. To change notes, the flautist covers various combinations of holes down the instrument.
Flutes are traditionally made of silver, although some players prefer to have flutes made of platinum, gold or even wood. The body of the flute is a long cylinder or tube that is divided into three sections: the head joint; the body; and the foot joint. On these three sections you will find 16 holes that are covered by fingers and key pads when pressed.
Piano – played by Tim Horton
The piano is one of the most popular musical instruments in the world. It is used in many styles of music from pop to classical to jazz. The piano has the qualities of both a string instrument and a percussion instrument, so it can be confusing to decide which musical family it belongs to. When the keys are pressed, they cause a hammer to strike (like a percussion instrument) a string inside the piano. The sounds and notes that the piano makes comes from the vibration of these strings (like a string instrument). Because of this, the piano is now often known as belonging to the ‘keyboard’ family. This is because it is played in the same way as many other keyboard instruments such as the organ, harpsichord, electronic keyboards and synthesisers.
The first piano was built in 1694 and was invented by Bartolomeo Cristofori, another Italian instrument maker. The piano replaced the harpsichord as the most popular keyboard instrument of the romantic era. The piano was first called the ‘pianoforte’ which means soft (piano) and loud (forte). It was named this because, unlike the harpsichord, it allowed the pianist to control how loud or quiet they played by how hard or soft they pressed a key.
Playing the piano often involves the use of all ten fingers and sometimes both feet! To make a sound, you simply press a key down. The softer or harder and slower or faster the pianist presses a key will determine the sound quality of the note. The three pedals controlled by the pianist’s feet also change the sound quality or ‘tone’ of the piano. They are the damper pedal, the soft pedal and the sostenuto pedal. The damper pedal is the most used pedal: it enables the pianist to sustain the notes they have played without having to keep their fingers on the keys. The soft pedal lightens the intensity of the notes and the sostenuto pedal makes it possible to sustain some notes while allowing the pianist to play detached sounds on another part of the keyboard.
There are two main types of pianos: the grand piano and the upright piano. In a grand piano the strings and the main frame of the piano are horizontal. This allows for long strings and also can help with the mechanics of the piano. However, because of this, grand pianos can take up a lot of space. Upright pianos are designed to be more compact, especially for a home. The strings and the main frame a vertical.
A standard piano has about 230 strings inside it!
QUICK QUIZ!
1. Circle the correct answer. What family of instruments do the violin, viola and cello belong to?
Woodwind Percussion String Brass
2. Draw a picture of the animal the hair from a violin bow comes from:
3. Circle the correct answer. How many keys does a full-size piano have?
72 88 110 141
4. Circle the correct answer. What is Juliette’s flute made of?
Wood Gold Platinum Silver
5. What is your favourite instrument and why?
6. Do you have a question for one of the musicians in Ensemble 360?
‘The Fantastic City of Music’
There are many ‘fantastic cities of music’ throughout the world: Vienna in Austria, New York in the USA, and right here in London. However one city, Leipzig, has a very strong musical tradition because it is the place where some of the world’s most influential and important musicians and composers lived and worked, including: Johann Sebastian Bach, Felix Mendelssohn, and Robert Schumann.
Leipzig is a city in the east of Germany. Today, the city celebrates its musical heritage through museums and festivals, and visitors are even able to explore the former homes of some of these great musicians!
Leipzig’s musical heritage goes all the way back to 1212, when the St Thomas Boys’ choir was formed. Bach himself was their choir master for 27 years and their weekly performances of motets and cantatas are still enjoyed by music lovers from all over the world today.
Leipzig is also home to one of Germany’s oldest and most famous orchestras, the impressive ‘Gewandhaus Orchestra’, which was established in 1743. The orchestra first played in the ‘Clothmaker’s Guild House’, hence the name ‘Gewand’ which means ‘cloth’. Felix Mendelssohn was their musical director between 1835 and 1847.
HELP THE MUSICIAN FIND HIS WAY TO LEIPZIG!
Background - Bach, Mendelssohn & Schumann
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany in 1685 and died in Leipzig in 1750. He came from a very musical family: as a child his father taught him to play the violin and the harpsichord (an early version of the piano). His uncles were all musicians, mainly playing for the church, and one of them, Johann Christoph Bach, taught him how to play the organ.
Bach became a dazzling organist and church musician. He composed all kinds of original pieces for church services including pieces for choir, organ, harpsichord and orchestra. In fact, Bach composed over one thousand pieces of music throughout his life time! Some of Bach’s most famous works (try Googling them) include the Brandenburg Concertos, St Matthew Passion, Air on a G String and perhaps the most popular organ piece ever written, Toccata & Fugue in D minor.
Life wasn’t all plain sailing for Bach: he once had to spend a month in prison because he tried to quit composing and playing for one of his employers. During that month in prison, he wrote forty-six pieces of music, many of which are still performed today. Bach didn’t only produce lots of music: he had twenty children too! Five were named Johann, two Johanna; and four became composers.
One of Bach’s many skills was that he was an accomplished improviser. This means he was able to make the music up on the spot! Unbelievably, his musical genius wasn’t appreciated in his own musical lifetime, and it wasn’t until a hundred years after his death that another Leipzig composer, Mendelssohn, revived Bach’s music and brought it back to public attention.
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Felix Mendelssohn was a child prodigy. Born in Hamburg, Germany, Mendelssohn gave his first piano recital at the age of 9 and soon after he began composing much longer pieces of music for many instruments. By the time he left secondary school, he had already composed twelve string symphonies!
Mendelssohn is credited with reviving the music of J.S. Bach, which had largely been forgotten by the beginning of the 19th century. In 1829 Mendelssohn conducted a performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, a piece for orchestra and choir. The performance was such a success that Bach was soon recognised as one of the greatest composers of all time.
Mendelssohn was also a fantastic composer himself. Some of his famous pieces (which you can find plenty of YouTube recordings of) include: ‘The Overture To A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘The Hebrides Overture’.
In 1843, Mendelssohn founded a major music school, the Leipzig Conservatoire. While there, he concentrated on developing the musical life of Leipzig, working with the orchestra, the opera house and the St Thomas Church Boys’ Choir. Sadly, Mendelssohn suffered from bad health and died at the young age of 38. However, he will forever be remembered as one of the best loved composers of the Romantic era of music.
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Robert Schumann was born in Zwikau, Germany in 1810, and died in Bonn in 1856. Unlike Bach and Mendelssohn, Schumann didn’t come from a musical family; in fact despite wanting to be a musician, his mother wanted him to be a lawyer and persuaded him to go to law school in Leipzig. Schumann hated it and dropped out. However, while in Leipzig, Schumann took piano lessons with a teacher called Friedrich Wieck, whose star pupil was his daughter, Clara. Robert and Clara fell in love but Frederich would not give them permission to marry each other, so they went to court to get legal permission!
The whole year following their wedding, Schumann was so in love, he couldn’t stop composing songs, 150 songs in fact! That became known as Schumann’s ‘Year of Song’. Schumann tended to focus on composing for a single genre of music over a period of time. In 1841 he worked on three of his four symphonies, and the following year was his year for chamber music, pieces written for small groups of instruments, such as his Piano Quartet in Eb major.
Even though a hand injury prevented Schumann from being a concert pianist, his wife Clara toured the world and gave the first performance of many of his pieces.
Schumann was an intensely hard worker and suffered a nervous breakdown in 1844. After many attacks of depression and exhaustion, he asked to be sent to a mental health asylum outside the city of Bonn, where he died in 1856. Like Mendelssohn, Schumann is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the romantic era of music.
WORDSEARCH! Find all the answers to the questions in the grid (some might run diagonally!)
1. The ‘fantastic city of music’.
2. Somebody who creates music.
3. String instrument, slightly bigger than the violin.
4. Italian term meaning ‘loud’ in music.
5. Composer obsessed with writing songs.
6. Word in music to describe whether a sound is high or low.
7. Composer born in 1685, wrote Toccata & Fugue in D minor.
8. Italian term meaning ‘quiet’ in music.
9. Family of instruments the piano belongs to.
10. Composer who made the music of Bach popular again.
Quick Music Games for All the Family
Musical Detectives Aim: To use sounds to direct the detective to a hidden object. Players: 2+
How to play: Each player has a musical instrument (or you can use your voice/body to make sound) and agree on an object that will be hidden, for example the remote control. One person is the detective and leaves the room. Out of the remaining ensemble, one person hides the object.
The aim of the game is for the detective to find the hidden object, while being helped by their ensemble of musical policemen. The ensemble help by playing loudly when the detective is close to the object, and quietly if he/she is far away.
Easy as 1,2,3… Aim: To mix verbal and visual communication while maintaining a steady pulse. Players: 2
How to play: You and a partner face each other. Count to 3 repeatedly, taking it in turns to say one number each and trying to keep a steady pulse, which doesn’t speed up or get slower. For example:
Player 1 Player 2 “One” “Two” “Three” “One” “Two” “Three”
Now replace the number one with a non-verbal action – for example patting your head – and repeat the exercise. (Pat your head for number one, but still say numbers two and three.) Then, replace the number two with an action as well, for example a wave. (Pat on the head for number one, a wave for number two, and still say number three.) Finally, replace the number three with an action as well so that all three numbers are now action-based, without words, and have another go!
Mexican Clap Aim: To keep a steady pulse while passing sounds from one player to the next. Players: 3+
How to play: All participants ought to sit in a circle and take it in turns to clap once, one after another going clockwise – like a ‘Mexican wave’ but with a clap. After a couple of attempts, suggest that you are all listening to the same imaginary piece of music to which you have to clap the pulse (the beat), but taking it in turns to perform one clap each, like before.
To make things harder, and depending on how many players you have, try sending 2, 3 or even 4 claps round and see if your ensemble can co-ordinate themselves! For example, to have 2 claps circulating simultaneously, set the first one off and when that reaches roughly
half way round the circle, send another, but the first has to keep going so that 2 waves are circulating. Try also passing different sounds, so not always a clap to make sure your ensemble are alert! Remember, the aim of the game is to maintain a steady pulse.
Now distribute your instruments and repeat the game but with the added challenge of controlling their instrument also.
Forbidden Rhythm Aim: To compose/copy/recognise different rhythms. Players: 2+
How to play: Select one person to be the leader. This person claps a variety of short, simple rhythms and the remaining ensemble copy them straight away. Try and keep a steady pulse as you go from one rhythm to the next. Now, the leader will choose one rhythm that will be a ‘forbidden rhythm’ and when the leader plays that, the ensemble do nothing, like in the game ‘Simon Says’. If a member of the ensemble plays the forbidden rhythm by mistake, they are out.
Again, after a few rounds clapping, try using different parts of the body to create rhythms or transfer onto instruments.
‘DR SMITH’
When listening, analysing, performing or composing music, it is important to consider the elements of music. Use the ‘Dr Smith’ acronym to remember what these are:
D Dynamics - The volume of the music, for example: forte (loud), piano (quiet), crescendo (getting louder), diminuendo (getting quieter).
R Rhythm - The overall sound created when arranging a variety of notes with different durations. For example: syncopation (notes played on the weaker beats) or polyrhythm (when two or more rhythms with different pulses are heard).
S Structure - The way in which musical sections are put together. For example, ternary form (ABA), verse/chorus or rondo (ABACAD).
M Melody - A collection of pitches to create one phrase. For example: stepwise (moving to pitches next to each other), chromatic (use of sharps & flats rather than just pitches from a particular key).
I Instrumentation The combination of instruments that are used in a particular piece, for example: string quartet (two violins, viola and violoncello) or SATB choir (sopranos, altos, tenors, basses).
T Texture - The way in which the instruments use the harmonic, rhythmic and melodic ideas in the piece, for example: monophonic (music consisting of one single melodic line), polyphonic (music with two or more melodic lines with equal importance), homophonic (a main melody with other instruments providing the accompanying harmony).
H Harmony - The sound created when two or more pitches are played simultaneously. Pitches are often combined to create chords that relate to the melody, for example: consonance (notes that belong to a particular key or chord) and dissonance (notes combined that don’t fall in a particular key and create ‘discord’).
Trio Sonata in C minor - Composing a Theme
During today’s performance, not all the instruments play in every piece. Can you colour in the instruments that are played in Bach’s Trio Sonata in C minor? Choose colours or patterns inspired by the sounds you hear!
Violin Viola
Cello
Flute
Piano
Bach’s Trio Sonata in C minor is based on a theme composed for him by Frederick the Great, King of Prussia. Bach, having been summoned to meet King Frederick, was challenged to improvise a fugue based on the theme given to him. “Improvise” means to make the music up on the spot, without any time to rehearse – and a fugue is a very complicated style of music! The public thought this was just a nasty attempt to make fun of Bach, but Bach, being the fantastic musician he was, improvised for the King! Bach decided that he would need to work on composing the music at home and would return with the finished composition another time. Two months later, Bach published a set of pieces based on this theme, the ‘thema regina’ (theme of the King), which we know now as ‘The Musical Offering’.
What is a theme? A theme is a recognisable melody (tune), upon which part or all of a composition is based.
From classical symphonies to contemporary video-game music, many great instrumental pieces are driven by a powerful theme. A good theme can make people instantly recognise a franchise or company, associate a character in a film with good or evil, and provide inspiration for an entire composition. See the further reading and listening page for more examples of musical themes that I’m sure you will all recognise.
How to compose a theme? Firstly, let’s take a look at two of the themes from the ‘further reading and listening’ section. Don’t worry if you can’t read music; we’re just looking at the shape of the notes for now. Here is the music for the theme from Star Wars:
This is the theme from the fourth movement of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, which you may know as the anthem of Europe, ’Ode to Joy’:
Try drawing a line, or collection of lines below, that represent the shape of the melodies, rather like a musical dot to dot. Tip: You may wish to use tracing paper!
It may look something like this:
Star Wars:
Beethoven:
Now try drawing the shape of melodies to other themes, perhaps from the further reading and listening page, ones you heard in the concert or ones you know yourself:
Next, write some words to describe the shape of the lines you have drawn. For example, for my ‘Beethoven’ line I may write curved, flowing and wavy. These words are important for when we come to compose our own melodies because they help us to think how they might sound. For example, if we have described a line as being ‘curved’, that will imply the notes change.
Choose one of the lines you drew earlier and place between 7 and 14 crosses or ‘hit points’ at certain places on it. These crosses will represent when a note will be sounded. The duration, or space, between one cross and the next will determine the rhythm of the theme. For example, if the crosses are placed close together, the durations of notes will be short and so produce a quick rhythm, whereas if there are long gaps between crosses, that implies the notes are of longer duration and therefore a slower rhythm. I have chosen 14 crosses because Bach himself was fond of incorporating the numbers 14 and 41 into his musical works. Here is an example of how your graphic score may look at this stage:
If you play a musical instrument, practise one of your scales, going up and coming back down over a steady pulse. If you don’t know how to play a musical instrument you can still complete this next task by using a keyboard or tuned percussion such as a xylophone or glockenspiel. If you are a beginner, try playing the notes of a C major scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. Practice going up the scale and coming back down over a steady pulse.
Using the hit points as a guide, experiment with composing melodies, using any combination of notes from the scale you have just been practising. The aim of this activity is to match the crosses with pitches on your instrument. For example, if the crosses are low, the pitch will be low, and so on. If it helps, write the note letter you want to play under each cross. There is no wrong answer with this; you are interpreting the shape of the line to determine the sequence of pitches. Practise playing your new melodies over a steady pulse to make them feel more rhythmic.
How can a theme inspire a whole composition? Assuming you have composed your theme, you can now use lots of simple composition techniques in order to create a much larger composition. Using the drawing above, I have composed the following theme and notated it in 2 different ways, one in conventional music notation, and one using note letters and lines to represent the length of the notes:
GA / C E F F / E— A G /
E A G— / E D C—
Playing this on its own would make for a very short piece, but there are some little tricks you can do to extend this into a much larger composition. For example: play the melody backwards (this composition technique is called ‘retrograde motion’); invert the melody, literally turn it upside down (like in symmetry, place the ‘mirror’ on the middle line of the stave); change some of the rhythms and or pitches slightly. Even if you do just the above suggestions, you now have a piece four times as long as its original melody!
You could now add more instrumental parts to accompany your melodies, perhaps some rhythmic percussion or parts that fill out the harmony (see following chapter).
Song Without Words - Composing a Song
Like before, can you colour in the instruments that are played during Mendelssohn’s ‘Song Without Words’? Maybe the music suggests using different colours this time?
Violin Viola
Cello
Flute
Piano
Harmony Chords or harmony are created when two or more notes are played at the same time. A triad is a chord consisting of three notes and the two main types of triad are major and minor. Some people describe major chords as sounding ‘happy’ and minor chords as sounding ‘sad’. Look at the image below of the notes of a C major scale: these are all the white notes on a piano:
To create a triad, you must stack the notes up in thirds. This means playing one note, missing one, playing the next, missing one and playing the next. If you are playing in a group, have someone play a chord while the listeners say whether the chord is major (happy) or minor (sad). Below is a table of triads in the key of C:
I II III IV V VI VII (tonic) (super-tonic) (mediant) (sub-dominant) (dominant) (sub-mediant) (sub-tonic)
C-E-G D-E-F E-G-B F-A-C G-B-D A-C-E B-D-F C major D minor E minor F major G major A minor B dim 7th
If you play an instrument that can only sound one note at a time (ie. not a chord), you can practise playing each note from a chord individually. These are called broken chords. If you are playing in an ensemble, try playing the chords together with one person playing the first note (the root), one playing the middle note (the third) and one playing the last note (the fifth).
Creating a Chord Sequence To compose a chord sequence, simply move from one triad to another. You can change chord every bar or you may decide to have two chords in a particular bar to shift the harmony of the music quicker. Many pop songs use the chord sequence I, V, VI, IV. That is one bar each of C major, G major, A minor and F major.
Another famous chord sequence is the 12-bar blues: C /C /C /C / F /F /C /C / G /F /C /C /
Try performing the chord sequences above. Experiment by playing the notes all at the same time (maybe giving each chord a rhythm), or one after another in a ‘broken chord’ style.
Once you’ve mastered that, try composing your own 8-bar chord sequence by placing one or two chords in each of the empty boxes (each box represents a bar of music). Note, not every box has to have a different chord to the previous one.
1) 2) 3) 4)
5) 6) 7) 8)
1) 2) 3) 4)
C major C major F major A minor G major
5) 6) 7) 8)
D minor D minor A minor Eminor G major C major
Practise playing your new chord progression until you can move from one chord to the next without any hesitation. For pianists, try adding a left-hand bass part by playing the root note at the lower register of the piano while the right hand plays the chord.
Lyric Writing Lyric writing is a great way of expressing yourself and boosting your literacy skills at the same time! Here’s one method of writing lyrics:
List as many words and phrases as you can associated with your theme. This could be an event in history, a moment in a well-known story, an emotional subject or mood, objects such as paintings or famous architecture, a piece of music, etc. Think of nouns, adjectives, colours, memories, emotions, things you see, hear, smell, taste, memories it conjures up etc. For example if my theme is the planet Mars, words I might list are:
red planet strong war bumpy world life
orbit craters space stars misty dusty alien
spaceship earth lonely paradise confused journey zoom
• To extend this list further, play the following word/rhyme association game: Choose one word from the list, for example ‘war’, and come up with as many new words as you can that are associated rhyme with ‘war’:
saw battering shots flashing booming scared lie
more bombs crashing murky cold lights
adore ignore galore store door death victory
Have another ‘pool’ of words such as ‘and’, ‘to’, ‘for’, ‘with’, that can connect words listed above. Now create a short sentence of no more than 7 words, using only the words from the two lists. ‘Play’ with the words by putting words together that create: interesting rhythm and rhyme combinations, alliteration, interesting metaphors. For example:
A bumpy world where craters lie, A lonely planet, a misty paradise. Stars zoom, confused, flashing lights, A lonely planet, a misty paradise.
Try composing some lyrics inspired by Ensemble 360’s performance of Mendelssohn’s ‘Song Without Words’. Simply repeat the above exercises in the space given below, but this time your theme is this beautiful piece of music:
Word list:
Word/Rhyme associations:
Sentences (can use connectives but remember, no more than 9 words):
Compose a Melody for your Lyrics Revisit the chord sequence you composed earlier and while playing this repeatedly, try and speak the lyrics you have composed in rhythm over the top, in a similar way to rap. The classical music term for speaking in rhythm is ‘sprechstimme’.
Once you have a rhythm for your lyrics that fits nicely with your accompanying chord progression, try singing a melody to the rhythm of the words. You will be singing the same rhythm to your lyrics as in the previous exercise, but now adding pitches to them.
Try using your hand to ‘paint the pitch’ or demonstrate the shape of the melody (ie. whether the sequence of notes are getting higher or lower or staying the same). Remember composition is all about experimenting and sharing ideas, the skill is choosing the right ones and being flexible enough to edit and change them!
Piano Quartet in Eb - Listening & Performance
Can you colour the instruments that are played during Schumann’s ‘Piano Quartet in Eb’?
Violin Viola
Cello
Flute
Piano
Schumann’s Piano Quartet is one long piece of music split into 4 sections, which in music we call movements. Each movement has a different musical feel, mood and character. When listening to the Ensemble perform this piece, see if you can draw a line to match the four movements with the four descriptions given below:
Movement 1 Movement 2 Movement 3 Movement 4
• Romantic. • Has a slow • Very fast. • Very quick & playful. • Song like. introduction with lots • Lively and dramatic. • Lots of staccato of long notes. • The main melody is • Lots of imitation (detatched/short) first heard in the • Quite fast. (when an instrument notes. cello, and then passed • Theme of 3 short repeats a • Interrupted by a short to the violin. notes followed by one melody/tune that has trio section with longer note. just been played by longer notes. another instrument).
From www.musicintheround.co.uk, you can download the score and parts for an arrangement of two of the main musical ideas from the Schumann Piano Quartet. There is also a backing track of the arrangement available for download.
The opening 12 bars of this arrangement are inspired by the quartet’s introduction, heard at the very beginning of the first movement. In the original, the introduction is a short question and answer section between the piano and strings. Following this is a version of the scherzo: a light and playful piece of music, which focusses on imitation (the repetition of a melody through various instruments).
I hope you enjoy rehearsing this with the backing track and playing it to/with family and friends.
Online Resources/Further Reading & Listening
Film Themes • Harry Potter by John Williams www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCNHVMIYqiA • Star Wars by John Williams www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjMNNpIksaI • James Bond by John Barry www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii1tc493bZM • Chariots of Fire by Vangelis www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY3XiM7oGj0 • Jurassic Park by John Williams www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8zlUUrFK-M
Classical Music Themes • William Tell Overture by Gioachino Rossini www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7O91GDWGPU • Symphony No. 9 by Ludwig Van Beethoven www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-WF0PVi2FA • Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini www.youtube.com/watch?v=c33q87s03h4 • Spring from the Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-dYNttdgl0
Leipzig Repertoire Online
• Trio Sonata by J.S. Bach www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE_5xzsvnXA • Song Without Words by Felix Mendelssohn www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7qi7mqtKSk • A Spotify playlist of all today’s repertoire tinyurl.com/leipzigrepertoire
This pack was written by Andrew J. Smith as part of Music in the Round’s Wigmore Hall 2016 family concert, ‘The Fantastic City Of Music’.
Andrew J. Smith MA, BA (Hons) is a Manchester-based composer, animateur and musical director who specialises in working for education and community & outreach settings.
Significant compositions include: BACH’S TOCCATA & SOUTH YORKSHIRE’S FUGUE (Music For Youth 2016); AN OPEN BOOK (Manchester Camerata 2016); FLAME: A GUIDE TO THE ORCHESTRA (Orchestras Live 2016); FATAL DISTRACTION (Cheshire Fire Service 2016); BBC TEN PIECES SECONDARY (BBC 2015/16); ON CHESTER ON (Manchester Camerata/Chester University 2015); RIGHT UP OUR STREET (Darts 2015); BBC TEN PIECES PRIMARY (BBC 2014/15); HONOUR (Quays Culture 2014); AN ENGLISH JOROPO (In Harmony 2013); TINDERBOX (Manchester Camerata 2013); TIME IS ON OUR SIDE (Opera North 2012); ARARAT ROAD (Chester Mystery Plays 2011); BUSTED (Music & the Deaf 2010); LEAR (English Touring Opera 2010); THE SWORD IN THE STONE (The Hallé 2010); THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE (Manchester International Festival 2009); JACK & THE BEANSTALK (Wakefield Youth Orchestra 2008); MARIONNETTE (London Sinfonietta 2006); CONSTELLATIONS (The Goldberg Ensemble 2006).
Presented concert credits include: ‘DISCOVERING MUSICAL LEIPZIG’ (The Crucible Theatre, Sheffield 2016); ‘A CLASSICAL NIGHT OUT’ (Barrow Forum Theatre, 2016); ‘THE HOLBERG SUITE’ (Coronation Hall, Ulverston 2016); ‘EXTRAFFORDGANZA - BBC TEN PIECES’ (Event City, Trafford 2015); ‘DEATH & THE MAIDEN’, SCHUBERT (Coronation Hall, Ulverston 2014); ‘TRAUER’, SYMPHONY NO.44, HAYDN (The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester & Civic Theatre, Doncaster 2013); ‘THE HUNT’, CONCERTO NO.4, MOZART (Coronation Hall, Ulverston 2013); and ‘SURPRISE’, SYMPHONY NO.92, HAYDN (The Bridgewater Hall, Manchester 2012).
Andrew is dedicated to working in music education and outreach. He is currently composer and musical director of the ‘El Sistema’ inspired STOKE & TELFORD IN HARMONY ORCHESTRA, a project that seeks to inspire the lives of young people and their communities through the power of music-making. Other notable successes include projects with Manchester Camerata, Opera North, Royal Exchange Theatre, Northern Chamber Orchestra, Chester University, and Jessie’s Fund. www.ajsmusic.co.uk
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