Download Year-9-Music

Year 9 Music Revision Notes 2016
Your Year 9 Music End of Year Listening Test will take place in your music lesson, in the week beginning
16th May
Make sure you revise what you have learnt from the first four topics this term alongside listening to the
example revision tracks provided for you by your teacher.
You may or may not recognise the music in the exam, the tracks are provided to give you an idea of what
to expect and to give you a chance to listen to them when revising the information below.
1. Recapping the basics
Element
Pitch
Timbre
Texture
Duration
Dynamics
Tempo
Harmony
Definition
How high or low the music is
The tone quality of the instrument(s)
How high or thick or thin the music is (how many notes are played at once)
How long or short the notes are
How loud or quiet the music is
How fast or slow the piece is
The way the notes are put together, eg. Dissonant chords (clashy) or consonant
chords (they sound good); cadences (perfect and imperfect), diatonic harmony
(‘nice’ or ‘expected’ chords - often using the primary chords: I, IV, V)
Tonality
The key the piece is in, eg. Major/minor/pentatonic/modal
Instrumentation e.g. orchestra, brass, woodwind, strings etc
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We learnt how to describe different pieces of music using the terminology above
We learnt to compare different pieces of music using the terminology above
We learnt to hear changes in music for example, in tempo - getting faster or slower, or pitch getting higher or lower
Treble clef Pitch:
For the notes on the lines remember the following:
Every Good Boy Deserves Football
The treble clef
For the notes in the spaces remember the following:
They spell the word FACE
Bass clef pitch:
For the notes on the lines remember the following:
Good Boy Deserves Football Always
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The bass clef
For the notes in the spaces remember the following:
All Cows Eat Grass
2. Film Music
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We learnt that about the key parts of music in film:
o A ‘film score’ is the original music that is heard in a movie.
o A score is part of the ‘soundtrack’,
o The rest of the soundtrack is made from non-original music found in the film – like songs by
the pop stars you know.
o The film score makes use of leitmotifs throughout o A LEITMOTIF is a short piece of music used to describe a character, in this case, James Bond.
Whenever we hear this MOTIF we know Bond is around somewhere even if we can’t see him
on screen.
 What can music add to a film?
o It can create a mood or atmosphere. It can build up suspense during an exciting scene; or
prepare us for something about to happen.
o It can emphasise an emotion and tell us something about a character, perhaps his state of
mind, which the words and pictures might not make clear.
 How can music do this?
o The composer uses the musical elements carefully to match what is happening on screen,
including:
pitch (high and low), dynamics (loud and quiet), tempo (fast or slow), rhythm (long or short),
tonality (major or minor), timbre (instruments) even silence. The purpose of a film score is
to enhance what is happening in a movie. To make the scary bits scarier, the action more
exciting and the sad bits sadder.
 We worked out through composition, the ways of using these musical elements to create different
moods:
Suspense:
 E.g Psycho:
o Instruments: strings, synthesisers
Pitch: either extreme low or extreme high
Timbre: smooth timbre contrasting with jarring, scraping sounds
Texture: gradually builds in thickness
Melodic ideas: single suspended note, dissonance / cluster chords, stab chords
Mode/Tonality: minor key
Tempo: slow, free time - with sudden changes in tempo
Rhythm: simple, sustained, repeated rhythms
Dynamics: quiet, maybe gradually getting louder, sudden loud stabs of sound (accents)
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The score for Psycho was very unique and featured lots of dissonance. One of the most memorable
scenes was that of murder. The sound of two violins was made to sound like the slashing of a blade.
o Semitones
The psycho soundtrack is partly made successful by the use of semitones. A semitone is the
name for the smallest distance between two notes.
On a piano it is the smallest movement you can make. Usually between a white note and a
black note.
These two notes
are
Next door to
each other =
semitone =
dissonance.
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Happy: e.g. Super Man theme
o Instruments: brass, woodwind, strings, percussion
Pitch: high
Timbre: bright timbre, use of brass,
Texture: moderate, gradually getting thicker
Melodic ideas: rising melody
Harmony: diatonic
Mode/Tonality: major key
Tempo: quick or stately
Rhythm: lively rhythms, syncopation
Dynamics: loud (at moments can drop to nothing to build back up again at moments of
great excitement)
Sad e.g. Theme from Love Story
o Instruments: strings, woodwind, piano
Pitch: low
Timbre: smooth timbre e.g. flutes, strings - breathy
Texture: gradually building or thick
Melodic ideas: descending melody, mainly in step with a few awkward intervals
Mode/Tonality: minor key,
Tempo: slow
Rhythm: simple rhythms
Dynamics: fairly quiet, maybe gradually getting louder in moments of great distress
3. The Ground Bass
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We learnt to develop our listening & music notation skills; to learn how classical music is made from
the same ‘ingredients’ as other music and we listened to a range of Ground Bass Variations from
different times and places noting how the music is constructed over the repeating Ground Bass and
how the different textural layers are added and the effect this has on the music.
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We learnt that a ground bass can be defined as:
o A repeated musical pattern in the bass part upon which chords and melodies can be
performed and varied. This variety often gets more complex as the piece proceeds
o A unifying feature in much music of the Baroque period and popular songs.
o This makes Ground Bass a particular type of variation form
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It is used in composition for the following reasons:
o It gives a piece of music an obvious structure
o A bass line suggests certain chords and chords create harmony
o Creates an interesting polyphonic texture
o The idea has been around since at least the 16th century. It is still used in all kinds of music,
including pop music.
o Ground Bass is both a way of composing and a type of composition.
The ground bass can be developed in a variety of ways:
o AUGMENTATION – The process of doubling the note values of a theme as a means of
variation - the duration of the notes get longer
o COUNTER MELODY – A melody that is played or sung at the same time as the main melody.
o DIMINUTION – The process of halving the note values of a theme as a means of variation the duration of notes get shorter
o HARMONY – The effect produced by two or more pitched notes sounding at the same time.
A chord creates harmony.
o PASSING NOTES - Notes that fit in between an interval of a third to create a step, where
there was a leap
3. Structure in Music
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We were introduced to different musical structures of the Western Classical Tradition, specifically
Ternary form, and we learnt the key characteristics of a Classical Waltz through analysis and
composition.
Features of a Waltz:
o ¾ Time Signature
o Accent on beat 1 = um-cha-cha effect
o Moderately fast tempo
o Simple harmony and slow changing chords
o Homophonic accompaniment
o Usually performed by an orchestra
Features of the dance:
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Features of the dance:
o Danced as a couple
o Dance for the upper classes reflected in outfits – DJ and long dress
o Graceful and elegant
o 3-step sequence repeated over and over round the dance floor
o Spins and twirls
We understood and applied chords to our composition:
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We understood and applied cadences to our composition:
A perfect cadence is like a full
stop – it sounds finished. It
uses chords V – I.
We use a perfect cadence at
the end of a piece or a
section.
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Imperfect cadences sound unfinished.
They come at the end of a phrase and are
normally answered by a perfect cadence.
An imperfect cadence is any chord – V.
We learnt to identify the four main structures of classical music:
Ternary
Rondo
Binary
Theme and Variation
Three-part form where the first section (A) is repeated after the
second section (B) ends
Section A is repeated several times with new sections presented
between each repetition.
Two parts; sometimes directly repeated.
A usually simple harmonised melody presented first in its
original form then repeated several or many times with varied
treatment, whilst retaining it’s original character
ABA
ABABAC
AABB or AB
A, A1, A2, A3
etc
4. A cappella
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We learnt that a cappella is not a genre but a style of musical performance: any music performed
by voices alone (or, to be a bit more inclusive if a bit less precise, by the human voice, vocal
apparatus, and sometimes body alone)
There are 4 main vocal groups: SATB: Soprano (high female), Alto (low female), Tenor (high male),
Bass (low male)
We learnt the main characteristics of several sub-genres of a cappella, including:
Spirituals:
o Religious (generally Christian) songs that were created by enslaved African people in the
United States.
o Spirituals were originally an oral tradition that imparted Christian values while also
describing the hardships of slavery.
o Although spirituals were originally unaccompanied monophonic (unison) songs, they are
best known today in harmonized choral arrangements.
Barbershop:
o (1930s–present)
o Each of the four parts has its own role: generally, the lead sings the melody
o The tenor harmonizes above the melody
o The bass sings the lowest harmonizing notes
o The baritone completes the chord, usually below the lead.
o Generally all-male
Doo-wap
o “Top and bottom" format which featured a high tenor singing the lead and a bass singer
reciting the lyrics in the middle of the song.
o Also features vocal group harmony, nonsense syllables, a simple beat and simple music and
lyrics
o This version does have instruments in, but concentrate on the vocals
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Close-harmony Jazz
o Close harmony singing was popular in the 1940s with Pop and R&B groups using the
technique quite frequently
o Grew very popular during and after WW2
o Jazz influences
Pop Music
o Popular Music Covers
o Many different groups singing in many different styles
o Often with a beat-boxer
o Use of body percussion
o Not even necessarily a group of singers – new technology
o A take on a well-known song
o Sometimes merged with other styles
We learnt to describe and apply different types of texture in vocal music:
TEXTURE
DEFINITION
Monophonic
Music with a single "part”
Polyphonic
'Different sounds or voices'.
Polyphonic music has parts that
weave in and out of each other
Homophonic
Homophonic music is played in
block chords. (parts move
together at the same time) One
melody stands out
Heterophonic
Performance of the same
melodic line, with slight
individual variations, by two or
more performers.
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We learnt to give opinions using musical vocabulary as to whether we liked the music style or not.
For example:
o ‘I dislike barbershop as I do not like how the dynamics change so dramatically in each
phrase’
o ‘I like the harmonies used in African spirituals and the simple texture of having one voice
stand out whilst the others accompany with quiet vocalisations’