16:30 - 17:30
Sean Rafferty presents a selection of music and guests from the arts world.
 | ||
 Workshop notes for teachers This section has four schemes of work designed by London Sinfonietta Creative Director Fraser Trainer for teachers to use to initiate composition in the classroom. It is based on Gavin Bryars' new work "From Egil's Saga". It should be seen as a guide to approaching the process of developing the composition of a piece of music inspired by text and is set out in the form of a practical classroom project intended for Key Stage 3 pupils of mixed ability. It is expected that teachers will adapt the work suggested to suit the particular needs and abilities of their own pupils and that teachers of younger children will also be able to build work around the key compositional elements of the project. It assumes that the class size is somewhere between 15 and 40 and that four or five substantial teaching sessions are available to develop the work. You can find downloadable MIDI files and sections of the score from From Egil's Saga here: From Egil's Saga samples and scores Aims
Workshop 1 From Text to Rhythm One of the great things about composing with pre-existing text is that it can already give you the structure of the music you need to write. In fact, if you want to represent the text faithfully in the music, you will need to follow the way the words are put together in order to put across their meaning clearly. For this first workshop you could choose to use the very same text that Gavin Bryars has been using to create part of "From Egil's Saga" (in an English translation from Icelandic), or you could apply this process to any piece of text that you or your pupils wish to set to music. You can find examples of the text that Gavin Bryars has worked with on other pages of this website, along with excerpts of notation, sound samples, downloadable midi files and lots of information on the creation of the new piece. 1.1 Once the text for music has been chosen, one or two decisions need to be made quickly. Are you going to set the whole text? Is it to be set in chronological order or in a new order? Is there a structure within the text that can be echoed in the music, i.e. verse - chorus? Does any of the text need to be repeated? How will you divide the text-setting workload between the pupils? 1.2 With the class, write down and highlight the key parts of the text that will influence the music: Who is the narrator? What is the dramatic shape of the story or poem? When and where is the action taking place? What is the atmosphere and the key words that describe it? Where would purely musical punctuation work best? Should the music always express exactly the same sentiments as the text or is there another underlying emotion or story to be revealed? The answers to these questions should all serve to give a clear structure to work to. It may change, but it's a plan from which to begin. 1.3 Divide the text to be set into small working groups. Ask each group to set a vocal rhythm for the text. This should be done by speaking the text through and adhering to its meaning as well as the stresses and punctuation of the language. It may be helpful to do this over a steady pulse to ensure rhythmic accuracy, although the pulse may not necessarily stay at the same tempo throughout. (Notice that it works to lengthen the rhythm of the delivery in some places but not in others). 1.4 Each group should perform a rhythmically spoken delivery of their part of the text to the whole group. Discuss and refine to highlight meaning and dramatic musical effect. 1.5 Perform again. Before setting a sung melody line to the spoken rhythms, follow workshop 2 to make a harmonic guide that will from a template for the melody. Workshop 2 Rhythm and Modes to Harmony This particular procedure of leading through a series of compositional steps to a vocal melody is one based on the precise working methods of Gavin Bryars in "From Egil's Saga". There are, of course, many ways of achieving this, but this one in particular leads to melody as the final, almost inevitable conclusion of what's gone before. 2.1 Learn the notes of the Aeolian Mode with the whole class. Two ways of doing this are to think of it as A-A using the white notes only, or C- C using Eb, Ab and Bb. 2.2 Allow each person to play freely with the mode on their instruments (or with the voice) in order to get used to playing it over a range of more than one octave. Try setting up a simple ostinato accompaniment, over which other players can improvise solos. 2.3 Find out how many different major and minor triads can be used within this mode. Play or sing through them in their root position to establish the harmony from within the mode. Try giving one of the three notes as a starting note and encouraging the rest of the class to sing or play the other two. 2.4 Talk about inversions of triads and explain that the sound, colour and range of a triad can be changed by inverting the position of the notes in the triad. Try some of these new inversions out and notice how they increase the richness, scope and expressive possibilities of the harmony. 2.5 Working in small groups, use triads in root position and their inversions to work out a pattern or slow progression of chords based on the Aeolian Mode. See how many of the major and minor triads identified in the mode (Ex.2.3) can be used whilst still establishing a smooth progression. Be daring with the number of chords that make up this pattern. Try for 10 or more. 2.6 Try and put this new chord pattern together with the rhythmically spoken text from Workshop 1. Adjustments will certainly need to be made and the length of the pattern will need to fit the length of the text, but try to mould the harmonic progressions around the flow of the text so that the two react to each other. You might also want to vary the rhythmic pacing of the chord progressions so they don't just move at the same rate of change throughout. Let them react to the words. 2.7 Refine and revise before performing the two sections of work together to the whole class. 2.8 Once the pacing of the words with the harmonic pattern is fixed try to invent more interesting ways of playing the triads than just as block chords. Try them in streams sounding one note at a time and using instruments that are agile and have the range to play 2 or 3 notes from the chord. Think of what the instruments in each group do best. An interesting texture will be achieved if the instruments within a small group are not all doing exactly the same thing. 2.9 Perform each group's orchestrated chord progressions with rhythmically spoken text. Workshop 3 Rhythms and Harmony to Melody The exercises in Workshop 2 have given a template or a harmonic guide for writing melodies. Follow the exercises below to develop different ways of inventing melody. This could be done in order to sing words as melodies or as a purely instrumental melody inspired by words which are then taken away (as in "a song without words"). 3.1 Revise Ex. 2.2 to get reacquainted with the Aeolian Mode. Develop the groups' skills in melody making by asking players to improvise over a simple accompaniment. First, select 3 notes only from the mode to be used in the melody improvisation. This allows the pupils to think more rhythmically and in terms of phrase shapes and line. Then increase the number of allowed pitches to 5 and give a word to influence the emotional quality and character of the melody. 3.2 In small groups, ask each group to compose their own melody to fit the chord progressions and spoken text music composed in Workshop 1&2. (This can be done for the voice and/or a group of melody instruments.) The rhythms of the words will give you the rhythm for the melody. The patterns of the triads will give a guide to the pitches of the melody, but try to encourage the use of notes outside the triad to give independent shape and life to the melody line. Some notes outside the chord will create tension between the melody and the harmony and others will feel secure and more at home embedded inside the triads. 3.3 Try to write the melody lines down in some form, so that they can be passed to another group of players or singers to orchestrate and perform alongside the harmonic accompaniment. 3.4 Perform the new melody (with accompaniment) sung as well as in an instrumental form. 3.5 As an experiment, try performing the melodies to the "wrong" set of chords (i.e. one groups' chord sequence to another groups' melody line). As we have used a mode, it's quite likely that the two could still work together and might just reveal some interesting surprises along the way. If adjustments need to be made then make them, but use this process to show how two independent ideas can lead to interesting territory that you wouldn't necessarily explore through following the logical development of just one of your own ideas. 3.6 As an alternative, invent a melody as a class by getting each member of the group to invent a short phrase, one after another and joining them up. You could try this independently of the accompaniment (knowing roughly how long it should be) or with some of the class playing a skeletal accompaniment and the rest inventing and learning the new melody by relay and repetition. (This is also a great way of developing aural skills). Do this both with sung text and as a purely instrumental exercise. 3.7 Perform all the possible combinations of melody/sung text with harmonic accompaniment and discuss the results. As in the final piece you may not want to use all these possible combinations, you could take a class vote on which are the most successful. Workshop 4 Concluding Now all the main sections of the piece have been made, it's again time to take an overview of the piece and think structurally. It will be useful to return to some of the questions asked at the start of Workshop1 in relation to how text and music work together. 4.1 Perform all the music made from all the groups so far and decide on an order for it all. 4.2 Performing it in its new order may well tell you that there are still some bits missing. For example, you may feel a purely musical introduction is needed or that in between verses of the poem there should be a musical interlude. Maybe just some linking sections are needed to ensure a smooth progression from one section of the music or text to the next? Decide what is needed and how best to achieve the tasks with the group. 4.3 Finally, perform and record your work and set aside time at a later date to listen to it and discuss it with the group. It might be appropriate to talk about what lessons can be learnt from the compositional process and think about other ways that music with words can be created? Listen to Gavin Bryars' piece "From Egil's Saga" and compare his solutions to working with text with those of your own group. Teachers notes written by Fraser Trainer. | | Introduction Interviews Bryars answers your questions Technical realisation Work in progress Educational projects Samples and notation Teachers notes Related Links on radio 3 on bbc.co.uk on the web The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites. |
| | |
Print
BBC iD
BBC iDBBC navigation
BBC links
BBC © 2014The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
