Discovering Music: early 20th century

www.bl.uk/20th-century-music

Teaching Notes by Anthony Payne and Daniel M. Grimley

Subject: Music – 20th-Century Music Theme: Composition: Learning from Delius and Elgar Curriculum: UK Level: Ages 16-18

Rationale

Delius and Elgar composed in different styles, and with different working methods. Despite these differences, their sketches show both faced similar compositional challenges. These include setting a text to music, harmonising a melody, and changing musical ideas rhythmically, harmonically or melodically over the course of a larger movement or work.

This Teaching Pack suggests reading and digitised materials that students can access, and provides a range of activities enabling them to use Delius’s and Elgar’s music to develop their own compositional skills.

Key questions

1. What can composers’ sketches tell us about how they created their music? 2. How can we improve our own skills and create new works by trying to find solutions to the compositional challenges they faced?

Content

People: Frederick Delius Edward Elgar Percy Grainger Eric Fenby

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Works: Delius, Brigg Fair Elgar, Symphony No. 3

Articles: ‘Delius’s workshop’ by Daniel Grimley ‘Music and the creative process: Elgar’s Third Symphony’ by Anthony Payne

Collection items: Sketch for Elgar’s Third Symphony Sketch for Brigg Fair Early pencil score of Brigg Fair Image of Frederick Delius and Percy Grainger with Eric Fenby

Recordings: Brigg Fair, conducted by Beecham (excerpt) ‘Brigg Fair’ sung by Joseph Taylor

Activities

A: Exploring sketches

• Read the articles by Grimley and Payne and look at the sketches for Elgar’s Third Symphony and Brigg Fair here, here and here. Having listened to Joseph Taylor’s performance and looked at the melody in Section B below, can you pick out the ‘Brigg Fair’ melody in the sketches and pencil score? • Listen to the excerpt of Delius’s Brigg Fair. What are the differences between this version and the original folksong?

B: Delius, Brigg Fair

1. Look closely at the theme; play it over several times, and think about what makes it so distinctive and memorable. Things you might want to think about include:

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The contour and shape of the melody (high points and low points)

Motivic structure (are there any figures that are particularly important?)

Rhythm

Phrasing (the way it breaks down into smaller chunks)

Tempo

2. How many ways can you harmonise the theme? Is it in a familiar key? Are there any bars that are particularly difficult to harmonise? Which harmonisations are more successful (and why)?

3. Try writing three simple variations on the theme, using your own harmonisations. Things you might like to try include:

Varying the melodic design, e.g. by reversing the direction of some of the phrases or changing individual pitches

Extracting some of the motivic shapes and using them as the basis for your own tune: what ideas does it stimulate in your own mind?

Changing some of the rhythms: does this make a big difference to the tune?

Slowing down or speeding up the tune: how does the affect the melody?

Changing the harmonic setting

4. See if you can set one version of the tune against another (i.e. writing contrapuntally).

5. The tune was originally a song, with the following words:

It was on the fifth of August The weather fine and fair Unto Brigg Fair I did repair For love I was inclined.

Does it matter if the words are sung or not? How might they change your view of the tune?

C: Elgar, Third Symphony

1. Look at the following bar of music from Elgar’s sketches, which gives only melody and bass lines. Can you continue the melody and bass to complete either four or eight bars? Can you fill in the rest of the harmony?

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Extension activity: Write a short piece in ABA form using the eight bars you have created from Elgar’s opening. You can create the ‘B’ section by writing an original melody, or by using techniques like inversion to vary Elgar’s tune.

2. In this exercise, the first two bars of Elgar’s sketch are complete, and then the oboe melody is missing. Can you complete it?

Note to teachers:

Elgar’s solutions for these exercises can be found at the end of this resource.

Students can complete the exercises in class or as homework, and then look at Elgar’s solutions as a whole-class activity. 4

3. In this sketch, Elgar provided only the melody and bass line. Can you fill in the rest of the harmony?

4. In this sketch, the bass line is omitted. Can you fill it in?

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5. Extension activity. Look at the sketch below with the tempo indication ‘Adagio’. Here Elgar has completed the section in short score. Can you fill in the missing bars?

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Solutions

Elgar Exercise 2: Elgar’s solution

Elgar Exercise 3: Elgar/Payne’s solution

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Elgar Exercise 4: Elgar’s solution

Elgar Exercise 5: Elgar’s solution

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