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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 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 The bass clef For the notes in the spaces remember the following: All Cows Eat Grass 2. Film Music 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) 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. 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 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. 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 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 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: 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: 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. 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 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 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. 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’