Working with professional conductor Barry Russell and musicians from the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, students learn to craft their own unique compositions which are ultimately performed by the orchestra.
With a focus on melody and instrumentation, this workshop enables students to understand how to orchestrate and understand instrument-specific techniques and harmony.
This short film is from the BBC series, Tips for Young Composers.
Teacher Notes
Make an extract from a standard orchestral score available to your students - one that is full of short, melodic ideas.
Students should each choose some of these fragments and learn to play and adapt them for their own instrument, or instruments played by fellow students.
They could develop a short piece combining some of these phrases.
They could also work on an accompaniment that uses some of the ideas and procedures used in the original.
Curriculum Notes
This short film will be helpful for teaching GCSE music composition. This topic appears in OCR, Edexcel, AQA, WJEC KS4/GCSE in England and Wales, CCEA GCSE in Northern Ireland and SQA National 4/5 in Scotland.
More from Tips for Young Composers:
Developing Melodic Writing - 'The Chairman Dances' by John Adams. video
A composition workshop on melody, harmony and thematic composition, inspired by 'The Chairman Dances' by John Adams.
Instrumentation - 'Fingal’s Cave' by Mendelssohn. video
A composition workshop based on creating a classical piece inspired by Mendelssohn's 'Fingal’s Cave' with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and composer Barry Russell.
Instrumentation and Melodic Writing - Monteverdi’s 'Toccata from Orfeo' video
The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra offers a masterclass to students who learn to compose an original piece of music inspired by Monteverdi’s 'Toccata from Orfeo' with a focus on melodic writing and variations.
Texture and Structure - Bach's 'Prelude in C Major' video
A composition workshop based on creating a classical piece inspired by Bach’s 'Prelude in C Major', focusing on texture, tone colour, development of musical ideas and structure.
