Berwickshire High School

Music

ListeningIntermediate I/II

ListeningAs part of your Intermediate Music exam, you are asked to listen to pieces of music and describe what you hear using musical words. You need to know a list of words, printed at the back of this booklet.

The booklet is split up into six chapters. Each chapter deals with a particular aspect of music. The chapters include explanations of the words you need to know as well as background information that will help you to remember the meaning of the words.

* Intermediate I concepts are printed in bold.

* Intermediate II concepts are in bold and underlined .

Throughout the booklet there are written tasks to help you understand and learn the musical concepts.

When you compose your own music, you should try to use the musical concepts.

At the end of the booklet, there is a list of concepts. You should write a definition of each word as you go through the course. Try to keep your definitions short and snappy so that they are easy to remember.

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Contents

1. Musical Instruments 42. Scottish Music 233. Voices 364. Musical Groups 475. Music through the Ages 556. The Structure of Music 71

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MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Musical instruments range from the very big (like the church organ) to the very small (like the piccolo flute). There are many different types of musical instrument. Some of them are very simple (e.g. a woodblock) and others are very complex (e.g. a piano).

Some instruments have been around for many thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians played instruments that were like basic oboes or clarinets. Ancient tribesmen in the Amazon rainforests

used hollow logs to make trumpet-like sounds. Other instruments have been around for only a few decades – like the electric guitar and the synthesizer.

When we think about musical instruments, we usually think of the instruments we see and hear most often. These may include guitars, drums, keyboards, fiddles, flutes, trumpets and others. It is easy to forget that people in other countries use some very different instruments. In Indonesia, for example, people play large glockenspiels and gongs together in a group called a Gamelan.

The musical instruments that are most commonly used in Western countries are divided into ‘families’:

String instruments – e.g. violin, cello, guitar, harp Woodwind instruments – e.g. clarinet, oboe, flute Brass instruments – e.g. trumpet, trombone, horn, tuba Percussion instruments – e.g. drums, cymbals, maracas,

woodblock Keyboard instruments – e.g. piano, keyboard, organ

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String Instruments – The Violin Family

Instruments in the string family have one or more strings that may be bowed, plucked or slapped to produce sound.

The most familiar string instrument is the violin (shown above). A violin has four strings and is normally played with a bow. Slightly larger is the viola, which sounds a bit lower.

In a modern orchestra, there may be more than twenty violins, as well as violas and larger members of the string family: cellos and double basses.

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The violin was invented at least four hundred years ago. Many composers have written famous pieces featuring the violin and other members of the string family. For example, in the early 1700s, J.S. Bach wrote very difficult solo pieces for violin (i.e. for one violin, played by itself) called partitas. He also wrote pieces for solo cello.

Beethoven, who wrote a lot of music at the beginning of the 1800s, wrote pieces for the violin, including his famous violin concerto. A concerto is a piece of music for a solo instrument playing along with an orchestra. The orchestra provides the musical background (called the ‘accompaniment’).

Most of the time, string instruments in the violin family are played using a bow. The word arco is used to describe this style of playing.

Sometimes, however, the players use their fingers to pluck the strings. The proper word for this is pizzicato. In jazz music, double bass players often play in this way.

String instruments are able to produce a variety of special effects. Sometimes, the players are asked to hit the strings with the wooden part of the bow. This is called “col legno” (meaning “with the wood”) and produces a light, tappy sound.

Another special effect that can be produced on a string instrument is a tremolo (or tremolando). This is when the player waggles the bow back and forward very quickly to create an exciting, nervous shaking sound.

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Members of the violin family are good at playing sustained sounds (i.e. long sounds). If the player wiggles his left hand whilst playing a sustained note, an effect called vibrato is obtained. Vibrato sounds like a wobble in the sound. Opera singers use the same effect.

Violins (or fiddles, as they are called by folk musicians) are often used in Scottish and Irish folk music. Sometimes, the fiddle is played along with an accordion and drums to form a Scottish Dance Band.

Many modern folk groups also have brass instruments and electronic

instruments to create an exciting, funky sound. One local band with this sort of sound is The Junction Pool. You may have heard of others like Wolfstone, Capercaillie or Shooglenifty.

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String Instruments - Guitars

Guitars are very popular and versatile instruments: they have been used in classical music since the middle ages. Electric guitars and bass guitars are used widely in jazz and pop music.

An acoustic guitar (like the ones we use in school) has six strings. The player can pluck the strings one at a time to play tunes or strum the strings to play more than one note at the same time. The proper name for notes played together in this way is a chord. You probably learned to play chords on the guitar in 1st and 2nd year.

In the last sixty years, electric guitars have become very popular. Like the acoustic guitar, the electric version has six strings but is plugged into an amplifier to make a louder and more exciting sound. The electric guitar is very often used in rock bands. Famous players include Eric Clapton and Jimmy Hendrix.

Rock guitarists use a variety of special effects to make their music more interesting. For example, they may add distortion – an electronic effect that makes the guitar sound scratchy and fuzzy. Another special effect is reverb. Adding reverb to an electric guitar is like adding a short echo.

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The bass guitar has only four strings. It is used in jazz and modern folk music as well as rock. Most bass guitars have frets, just like on a standard electric or acoustic guitar. Some jazz players, however, use a fretless bass (i.e. one with no frets) so that they can move their fingers more freely up and down the neck of the instrument.

Sometimes, bass guitarists play using a technique called “slapping”, where they play the strings by slapping them with their fingers. This creates a funky, aggressive sound (“woca-woca”).

Some guitarists play 12-string guitars. These are just like normal guitars, except that, instead of six strings, they have six pairs of strings (so that there is a pair of ‘E’ strings, a pair of ‘A’ strings, and so on…). The 12-string guitar creates a slightly fuller sound, although it is hard to tell the difference when you are listening to a recording!

Country and Blues guitarists sometimes use a metal tube called a slide to press down the frets and slide up and down between chords. When the guitar is played in this way, the term slide guitar is used.

Closely related to the guitar are instruments like the mandolin, banjo and lute. Not many people know that the lute was once the national instrument of Scotland (in the 1500s) before the bagpipes came on to the scene! All of these instruments are good at accompanying singers or other solo instruments.

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[NB: These pictures are not to scale!]

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Other String Instruments

Another instrument that you might hear is the harp. The harp is a very large instrument that has been used in orchestras for the last two hundred years or so. The player produces notes by plucking the strings with the fingers of both hands. A very special effect is the glissando – where

the player slides one hand up or down all of the strings to create a ‘swoosh’ effect.

A smaller version of the harp is the clarsach. This is very common in Irish and Scottish folk music. It is easier to carry than a harp but makes a very similar sound!

French Canadian Folk Band – La Bottine Souriante

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Woodwind Instruments

The most common members of the woodwind family are the flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon and saxophone. Closely related to them are recorders.

Woodwind instruments all work in the same way: the player blows into one end of the instrument and covers different keys (buttons) with his fingers to obtain different notes. Most woodwind instruments have many, many keys and appear to be very complex.

The flute is one of the oldest woodwind instruments. When it was invented, flutes were made of wood. Now, however, they are almost always made of metal. The player makes a sound by blowing over the mouthpiece hole at one end of the instrument. The effect is the same as blowing over the end of an open bottle! The flute produces a breathy, airy sound and usually sounds very gentle.

The clarinet produces a more ‘woody’ sound than the flute. The clarinet is the youngest member of the woodwind family: it was invented in the early 1700s. The sound of the clarinet is made by a reed (a small piece of thin wood), which vibrates (shakes very quickly) as the player blows air over it. You can make a similar sound by gently holding the neck of a balloon as the air escapes from it. You will see and feel (and hear!) the vibrations.

Many famous composers wrote music for the clarinet. Perhaps the most famous piece of clarinet music of all time is the ‘Clarinet Concerto in A’ by Mozart. (A concerto is a piece for a solo instrument, with an orchestra). In the 20th Century, the clarinet became a popular jazz instrument. It was played by the so-called “King of Swing”, Benny Goodman, in his big band. The film director, Woody Allen, is a respected jazz clarinettist.

The word “register” is used to describe the low, medium and high notes produced by a musical instrument. The low register of the clarinet (i.e. the lowest notes it can play) sounds very gentle and fuzzy; the medium register is woody and light; the high register is strong and a bit squeaky!

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Closely related to the clarinet is the saxophone. The saxophone was invented in about 1840 by a very clever Frenchman called Adolphe Sax. He came up with a whole family of saxophones from the very small and high-sounding soprano saxophone to the large bass saxophone. Today, the most popular kinds are the tenor and alto saxophones. They are occasionally used in orchestras but are much more common in jazz music and in wind bands.

Saxophone players are usually good at improvising. To improvise means to make up the music as you go along. Improvisation is a very important part of jazz music.

The oboe makes a sound that is very thin, pure and ‘nasal’. It is a very difficult instrument to play – a bit like blowing into a weasel (according to comedian, Eddie Izzard)! The

oboe was very popular in the time of the composers Bach and Handel (1650-1750). It took its name from the French words “haut bois”, meaning “high wood”.

The bassoon is the lowest member of the woodwind family. It creates a deep sound that can at times be very comical or very dark and mysterious. Composers like Mozart wrote concertos for the bassoon. Like the oboe, it is a “double reed” instrument. At the top of the instrument, two very small reeds are

pressed tightly together. The player puts the double reed in his mouth and has to blow very hard to squeeze air in-between them in order to produce vibrations.

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There are one or two more members of the woodwind family that you might expect to hear in an orchestra from time to time. One is the piccolo – a half-sized version of the flute that sounds one octave higher. Listen out for an extremely high flute sound: often so high and penetrating that it is a bit sore on the ears!

At the other end of the scale are the bass clarinet and contrabassoon. These are larger, lower-sounding versions of the clarinet and bassoon. They are not used very often, but create a wonderful effect.

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Brass Instruments

Brass instruments are the most powerful in the orchestra. In a normal orchestra, you would expect to find three trumpets, three trombones, at least four French horns and a tuba.

A brass instrument is really just a long tube with a mouthpiece to blow into at one end and a funnel (called a “bell”) at the other. To play a brass instrument, you must pucker your lips together and blow a raspberry into the cup-shaped mouthpiece. The air inside the tube vibrates (i.e. shakes back and forward very quickly) and the sound waves produced are spread out by the bell. The tighter you purse your lips and the harder you blow, the higher the sound.

Brass instruments have been around for thousands of years: the ancient Romans used trumpets in their ceremonies. Trumpets and trombones are good at playing fanfares. A fanfare is a dramatic piece of music used for a special occasion – usually very short but dazzling.

Early brass instruments were very simple and could play only a few notes. In about 1200, someone decided it would be useful if brass instruments could play a wider range of notes and invented the trombone. The trombone has a slide that can be moved in and out. As the slide moves out, the tube gets longer and the sound gets lower.

The trombone is the only brass instrument that can produce a glissando. This is when the player plays a note and then moves the slide gradually in or out, so that the sound gets gradually higher or lower. The effect is often rather silly!

The trumpet is the highest sounding member of the brass family. The modern trumpet has three buttons (called “valves”) instead of a slide. By using the three valves individually or together, the player can play a large range of notes.

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Trumpets are very important members of the modern orchestra. Listen to the music from the Star Wars films to see how important they can be! They are also used in jazz and some modern folk bands. Famous players include Maurice Murphy (who played on the Star Wars soundtrack) and the American, Wynton Marsalis. Another is Maynard Ferguson, who was given the nickname “Strain-hard Ferguson” because he played so many high notes!

Closely related to the trumpet is the cornet. The instruments are really exactly the same, except that the cornet looks a bit ‘squashed’ and makes a slightly mellower sound.

The French horn is a difficult instrument to play. Horns have had valves since about 1820. Even before that, the horn was quite a useful instrument and could play a lot of notes. Mozart wrote four very famous horn concertos in the late 1700s. The horn is often used to play broad, sweeping tunes in the orchestra.

The tuba is the largest member of the brass family and produces very low, pumpy(!) sounds. It is found in brass bands and wind bands as well as in the orchestra.

As well as the orchestral brass instruments, there are others that are found only in brass bands: these include the flugelhorn, tenor horn, baritone and euphonium. Like the saxophones, these were invented by that amazing Frenchman, Adolphe Sax.

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Brass instruments are very versatile. In other words, they can play in a lot of different musical styles and produce a variety of special effects.

All brass instruments can play sustained sounds (i.e. long sounds) and this makes them very good for playing hymn tunes. Brass bands often appear on television programmes like “Songs of Praise”.

Like most instruments, brass instruments can play very short, spiky notes. This is called staccato. The opposite is legato, which means to play very smoothly.

Sometimes, brass players place a mute in the bell of their instruments. The mute makes the instrument quieter but also changes the tone, making the instrument sound metallic or muffled. String instruments can also play with mutes. The technical term for this is con sordino (an Italian term that means “with the mute”).

Finally, brass players can do something called flutter tonguing, when they roll their tongue as

they play a note. The effect is a very rude rasping noise!

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Percussion Instruments

The family of percussion instruments includes anything that is played by being struck. Some percussion instruments are played with sticks or beaters (properly called “mallets”). Others are played with the hands.

Some percussion instruments are tuned (i.e. they play a set of actual notes – notes that you could sing) like the glockenspiel and xylophone. (The glockenspiel has metal bars; the xylophone has wooden bars).

Other percussion instruments, like the drum kit, are untuned. In other words, they produce thuds and bangs with no specific pitch. You could not sing the note played by a cymbal, for example!

The most familiar percussion instrument is the drum kit. The kit usually contains a bass drum, snare (or side) drum, hi-hat, tom-toms and a few cymbals. Rock drummers often have huge kits with double bass pedals and an array of toms and cymbals.

The drum kit is a very useful accompanying instrument (i.e. it is part of the musical ‘background’). It keeps a steady rhythm and gives the music energy, especially when the drummer plays lots of drum fills. A drum fill is when the player uses the snare, tom-toms and cymbals to do something interesting in a ‘gap’ in the music.

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The tympani, or kettle drums, are also very common percussion instruments. Each of the large drums can be tuned to play actual notes. They are used in orchestras and bands. One exciting effect on the tympani is a roll – when the player strikes the drum with both sticks very quickly over and over again. Rolls can

also be played on the snare drum and are used a lot in pipe band music.

Some percussion instruments have been around for a very long time. Cymbals and drums were very popular in Turkey in the middle ages. Others are relatively new: the drum kit first became popular in the 1930s. It was not until the 1970s that a composer (called Varèse) wrote the first piece that was for percussion instruments alone.

Famous percussionists include the legendary drummer, Buddy Rich, and the deaf percussionist, Evelyn Glennie.

A special kind of percussion orchestra from Indonesia is called a Gamelan. In the Gamelan orchestra, there is a mixture of glockenspiels (or ‘metallophones’), gongs (big cymbals), drums and other metal objects. The gongs act like signals to tell the rest of the players when to play.

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Keyboard Instruments

The most common keyboard instruments used today are the piano, electronic keyboard, synthesizer and the church organ. In the 1600s and 1700s, another keyboard instrument called the harpsichord was very popular. All of these instruments have a keyboard made of black and white keys. The church organ also has a pedal-board – a set of notes that are played with the feet.

The piano is one of the most versatile instruments. It can be used to play chords (i.e. more than one note at once) and so it is a very good instrument for accompanying soloists. It is also very popular as a solo instrument. Most of the great composers have written music for the piano.

The piano was invented in about 1710 and was very popular by the middle of the 18th century. It was originally called a “fortepiano”, taking its name from the Italian words “piano” and “forte”, meaning soft and loud. The ability to play very quietly and very loudly was one of the things that made the piano so popular.

In the 1800s, every respectable family owned a piano and all young ladies were expected to practise the piano (as well as learn to do embroidery) so that they could attract a suitable husband. Having a piano was like having a car – it was a status symbol that let everyone know how rich you were!

Many famous composers have written music for the piano. Mozart and Beethoven were both piano players. Mozart wrote almost thirty concertos for piano and orchestra. Beethoven wrote five extremely difficult concertos. These concertos were designed to show off the skills of the performers. All concertos contain a section called a cadenza: where the orchestra stops playing altogether and the soloist has a chance to show off by himself. The cadenza is usually played freely, i.e. not in strict time, and contains lots of really difficult music. Both Mozart and Beethoven also wrote many solo pieces called sonatas. The most famous of these is Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”.

Chopin and Liszt were the two most famous pianists of the 19th

century. They practised the piano until they were fantastic players – so good, in fact, that some people thought they must have sold their

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souls to the devil in return for their amazing skills! Chopin and Liszt wrote very flashy music for the piano. They gave concerts all over Europe in the mid-1800s and wowed audiences with their playing. The most famous of Liszt’s compositions is the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, which has appeared in a Bugs Bunny cartoon!

Piano music often contains lots of musical ‘decorations’ (or ornaments). One of them is a trill: when the player moves very quickly between one note and the one above.

The piano more or less replaced an instrument that was popular until the middle of the 1700s, called the harpsichord. The harpsichord looked very much like a small piano but sounded a bit more like a guitar. When the player pressed down the keys on a harpsichord, a small plectrum flicked up to pluck the strings. The sound produced was quite jangly.

The harpsichord was used by composers in the Baroque era (from about 1600-1750). Bach and Handel, for example, both wrote a lot of music for the harpsichord.

The oldest of all keyboard instruments is the church organ (or pipe organ). The keyboard of the organ is attached to a set of more than

100 pipes of different length. When the keys are pressed down, air passes through the pipes and sounds are produced. The longest pipes – some as long as 32 feet! – produce the lowest sounds. The shortest pipes produce the highest sounds.

Until the twentieth century, the air supply for the organ came from bellows: two or more men had to jump up and down on the bellows to push enough air into the organ for it to work. Bach’s children used to do this job for him when he played the organ. In modern organs, the air is provided by an electric blower.

Large church organs are some of the largest instruments in the world, and they are extremely loud and powerful. They have been used for centuries to play music for religious occasions.

Electronic keyboards and synthesizers became popular in the 1970s and ‘80s. The synthesizer can be used to produce a range of weird science-fiction noises and became very popular in 1980s pop bands.

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The theme from Dr. Who uses synthesizers to create eerie, swooshy effects!

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SCOTTISH MUSIC

There is much more to Scottish music than the Highland Bagpipes! In this unit, you will learn about the rich heritage of Scottish instrumental and vocal music; about what makes music sound ‘Scottish’; and about the different instruments and musical styles that are found in Scottish traditional music.

You will learn about:

Scottish instruments and their music Scottish dances: reels, jigs, strathspeys and

waltzes Vocal music in Scotland What makes music sound Scottish? Music in Scotland today (modern folk and pop

music)

Many composers of ‘classical’ (i.e. serious) music have used their knowledge of Scottish music to write pieces that remind us of Scotland. Two of the most famous examples are “The Hebrides Overture” (by Mendelssohn) and “Four Scottish Dances” (Malcolm Arnold). By the end of this unit, you should be able to listen to these pieces and explain why they sound Scottish!

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The Musical Instruments of Scotland

Highland Bagpipes

The most famous of all Scottish instruments are the Highland Bagpipes. A bagpiper holds his pipes with the three drone pipes over his shoulder and with the chanter between his hands. He blows air into the bag, which he presses with his elbow to force air through the chanter and drones.

When you listen to the bagpipes, as well as the tune you will hear a dull, sustained sound in the background. This is called a drone. When composers write music that they want to sound Scottish, they often add a drone effect to imitate (i.e. copy) the bagpipes.

The bagpipes can play only a limited set of only 9 notes. The proper name for a particular set of notes is a scale. Different scales create different moods.

Major scales sound happyMinor scales sound sad

The bagpipes use a scale that is in-between major and minor. It is called a modal scale. Modal music (i.e. music that uses the notes of a modal scale) often sounds ‘bare’ and empty. One example is the song “What shall we do with the drunken sailor?”.

You are most likely to hear the bagpipes playing alongside drums in a pipe band. Most of the Border towns have their own pipe band. Pipe bands often play marches: tunes in 2 or 4 time like “Scotland the Brave”.

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You might hear pipers playing by themselves or with other folk musicians. There is a great tradition of piping competitions in Scotland: solo pipers compete against each other and are judged by an expert. Sometimes they play traditional Scottish dance tunes (jigs and reels for example).

At serious competitions, the best pipers play something called a Pibroch. The Pibroch is the pipes’ equivalent of ‘classical’ music. It consists of a main tune (or ‘theme’) and a set of complicated variations based on the theme. To the untrained ear, a Pibroch can sound a bit weird and untuneful!

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The Fiddle

Fiddle is the Scottish word for a violin. The Fiddle is an extremely popular instrument in Scottish folk music, especially in the Highlands and Islands (e.g. Orkney and Shetland).

The fiddle can be played as a solo instrument, perhaps accompanied by an accordion, piano or clarsach. In a Scottish Dance Band, the fiddle is joined by an accordion and snare drum. Alternatively, a group of fiddles can play together. This is sometimes called a fiddle orchestra.

The word Ceilidh Band is a more general term that describes a group of fiddles playing together with drums, a keyboard or accordion, a double bass or bass guitar and perhaps a few recorders or flutes. Many modern ceilidh bands mix traditional Scottish folk tunes with jazz chords to create a funky, high-energy sound.

The most famous fiddle player in Scotland today is Aly Bain. He usually plays with the accordion player, Phil Cunningham. They play ‘sets’ of traditional dance tunes (jigs, reels, strathspeys and waltzes) as well as beautiful slow tunes, known as airs. Many airs use a scale (i.e. a set of notes) of five notes called a pentatonic scale. Tunes like “Loch Lomond” use this scale. Listen out for a slightly bare sound and a tune with ‘gap’s.

The Accordion

The accordion is usually encountered as a solo instrument or as part of a Scottish Dance Band. The instrument is held in the lap of the player with the keyboard on the right. As the player moves the bellows in and out, air passes through a set of reeds inside the instrument and creates sound (as long as the player is pressing at least one of the keys). The fingers of the left hand operate a large number of buttons: each one of these

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gives a particular bass note or chord. Accordion players are good at adding ‘decorations’ to their tunes. They often play the same note repeatedly very quickly, or add grace notes (very quick notes squeezed in before the main ones).

The Clarsach

The clarsach is a smaller version of the harp and is common in Scottish and Irish folk music. The strings of the instrument are tuned (i.e. set to sound at a particular pitch) by hand. This means that the clarsach can play only a limited range of notes. Despite this limitation, the clarsach is a very useful instrument, especially for accompanying

voices. The clarsach sounds very effective when it plays arpeggios – i.e. it plays the notes of a chord, one after the other in quick succession.

Other instruments

Several other instruments are used widely in Scottish traditional music. Flutes, recorders and whistles are very popular. Also very common is the bodhran (pronounced “bo-ran”) – a wide, flat drum that is usually played with a short, double-headed beater.

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Scottish Dances

Most Scottish instrumental music is based on Scottish dance tunes. If you hear a ceilidh band playing at a wedding dance, they will probably play ‘sets’ of traditional dance tunes.

There are four main types of Scottish dance: reels, jigs, strathspeys and waltzes. In the descriptions below, the key features of each dance have been underlined for you.

The Waltz

The easiest of the Scottish dances to identify is the waltz. A waltz is a dance in 3 time. That means that there are three ‘beats’ in every bar. In other words, the music moves along in steady groups of three. Most waltzes are quite slow.

If you are listening to a waltz, you will be able to say “oom-cha-cha” in

time with the music and the “oom” will always feel ‘heavier’ than the “cha”s! Alternatively, try making a triangle shape with your finger: if the ‘heavy’ beat always comes with the same side of the triangle, you are listening to a waltz!

The Strathspey

The strathspey is a dance in 4 time, i.e. with four beats per bar. It usually has a medium tempo . (Tempo is the musical word for speed). Most importantly, a strathspey is full of jerky rhythms.

In fact, there is a special name for the jerky rhythm in a strathspey. It is called a “Scotch snap” and it is made up of a very short, accented note followed by a longer one. Say the word “hiccup” and you’ll have the right idea!

The Reel

A reel is a fast dance in 2 or 4 time. (You will never be asked to tell the difference!). Unlike the strathspey, it does not have jerky rhythms. A reel is full of even notes (i.e. all the same length) that flow together. A reel is in simple time: this means that the quick

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notes are grouped together in groups of two or four. Saying the word “coca-cola” over and over again will give you a good feeling for simple time.

There are many very well known reels: one of the most famous is called “The Soldier’s Joy”. (Folk musicians often give strange titles to their tunes. Some of the more bizarre titles include “Mrs Jamieson’s Favourites”, “Brucie and the Troupers” and “Alan Tait’s Funky Whippets”)!

A reel is often accompanied by a ‘vamp’ played on a piano or accordion. Vamp is the musical word for what you might describe as “oom-cha”!

The Jig

A jig is perhaps the hardest of the four dances to identify. Like a reel, it is usually very fast and it has lots of equal notes that flow together. However, the jig is in compound time. This means that each beat of the bar is divided into groups of three.

Compound time is a difficult thing to understand unless you are familiar with reading music. The best way to imagine compound time is to think of saying the word “strawberry” over and over again. If you are listening to a piece of Scottish music and you can sing “strawberry, strawberry…” along with the tune, then you are probably listening to a jig.

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The main features of the four Scottish dances are shown in the table below:

Beatsper bar Timing Temp

o Rhythm

Waltz 3 Simple time Slow -

Strathspey 4 Simple

timeMediu

mScotch snap;jerky rhythms

Reel 2 or 4 Simple time Fast Quick, even notes:

“coca-cola”

Jig 2 Compound time Fast

Quick, even notes: “strawberry, strawberry”

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The Soldier’s Joy – a typical Scottish reel

The Soldier’s Joy is a typical Scottish reel. Notice the fast, flowing tune with many even quavers; the vamp accompaniment played by the piano; and the 4/4 time signature (i.e. 4 beats per bar).

Like most reels and jigs, the Soldier’s Joy is in binary form. In other words, there are two sections – A and B. Each section is played twice (as indicated by the repeat bars at the end of the first line).

This reel also has an anacrusis. This is the proper name for what musicians call a ‘pick-up’ beat (i.e. an extra beat before the start of the first whole bar).

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Vocal Music in Scotland

As well as instrumental music, there is a long tradition of vocal (i.e. sung) music in Scotland. Much of this vocal music was sung by peasant workers in mills and factories or on farms. Most of these workers would have been unable to read or write. Singing songs was one of the ways that they passed down stories to younger generations. Singing was also a hobby for people in the days before television and Playstations!

Scots ballad

A ballad is simply a song that tells a story. Scots ballads tell stories of historical events and legends: of great battles, princes, kings and romance. They were usually (though not always) sung by men and often accompanied by folk instruments (e.g. a bodhran or fiddle).

Many Scots ballads are strophic. This means that every verse of the song has the same tune. The opposite of strophic is through-composed (i.e. different music for each verse).

Bothy ballad

A special type of Scots song is the bothy ballad. A ‘bothy’ was the name for a farm-worker’s lodgings on the farm. Bothy ballads were always sung by men and the words were about life on the farm. They described the terrible living conditions or recounted funny incidents from farm life.

Waulking Song

Waulking songs were always sung by women. They were made up by mill-workers as they beat lengths of woollen cloth against the table-top. Often, one woman would sing a phrase and then the rest of her work-mates would copy. It is easy to identify a waulking song if you listen for the rhythmic beating of the cloth on the table.Gaelic Psalms

Gaelic psalms are religious songs, sung unaccompanied and heard mostly in the North-west and Western Isles of Scotland. You will hear one man sing a phrase, which is then copied by the whole congregation. The overall effect sounds a bit like middle-Eastern or mediaeval music. It has even been described

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as “a group of Red Indians wailing”! The words are in Gaelic, which makes it even more bizarre.

Mouth music

Whenever there were no instruments available, men and women in rural Scotland used to mimic (i.e. copy) the sound of musical instruments using their mouths. They sang traditional dance tunes (reels, jigs, etc.) and made up nonsense words to go along with them. The result is called mouth music and often sounds quite funny!

What makes music sound Scottish?

Many composers have written pieces that sound Scottish, even though they don’t necessarily use Scottish tunes. How can music sound Scottish? The following features are common in Scottish music and are used by composers when they want to evoke a Scottish sound.

The Scotch snap This jerky rhythm reminds the listener of a

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StrathspeyModal scale Using a modal scale (neither major nor

minor) imitates the scale used by the bagpipes

Drone One of the most common techniques – to have a sustained sound in the background, like the drone of the bagpipes

Vamp The “oom-cha” accompaniment is reminiscent of a reel

Instruments Using Scottish instruments like the fiddle, flute or bodhran gives the music a Scottish flavour

Pentatonic scale Many Scots songs use a pentatonic scale – a scale with only five notes. “Loch Lomond” is one example. Listen out for the gaps in the pentatonic scale.

Grace notes Grace notes (very short notes squeezed in before the main ones) give a folky sound

Much Scottish music also has a “double-tonic”. This means that the music is based on two chords side by side (e.g. chords of C and D).

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Folk Music in Scotland Today

Modern folk bands still play traditional Scottish dance tunes. To make their music sound more contemporary (i.e. modern), they often add jazzy chords or experiment with unusual combinations of instruments.

The best example of this is a band called “The Unusual Suspects”. As well as fiddles, accordions, bagpipes and drums, the band includes trumpets, saxophones and trombones.

A local band with a similar sound is The Junction Pool. This band, led by pianist Harris Playfair from Stichill, includes a brass section, a heavy metal drummer and a rock guitarist!

The music played by these bands often sounds quite dissonant. This means that the tune ‘clashes’ with the chords underneath. The overall effect is to create music that sounds a bit less “cheesy” than traditional folk music! Dissonance is often found in jazz and modern ‘classical’ music.

Another interesting feature of modern folk music is the use of cross-rhythms. This means that there are at least two different rhythmic patterns happening at the same time: the patterns don’t fit together, creating an exciting, unsettled effect.

The best way to understand cross-rhythms is to tap groups of two with your left hand whilst at the same time tapping groups of three with your right hand!

Another very common feature of modern Scottish folk music is a pedal note. A pedal is a long, sustained, low note. The pedal note stays the same even though the chords change above it.

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VOICES

The human voice is the oldest musical instrument of all. In this unit, you will learn about how the voice is used in all kinds of music: from ancient religious chants to 21st century pop!

The human voice is extremely versatile and composers have used the voice in many different ways for hundreds of years. At different times in history, one could expect to hear some very strange effects indeed. In the time of Bach (1685-1750), for example, there was a fashion for very high male voices. Many boys (called “castrati”) were unfortunate enough to have their naughty bits cut off at a very early age so that their voices didn’t break! In the 20th century, composers like Stockhausen and Beriot used the human voice as an instrument – asking the singer to make all manner of weird and wonderful noises!

For the Intermediate course, you will learn about:

Voices high and low Voices together Operas and Oratorios (Intermediate II only) Voices in popular music

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Voices High and Low

Each one of us has a different voice. Some are low and grumbly, some are high and squeaky. Some of us have loud booming voices; others soft gentle voices.

Musicians use special words to describe high and low voices. A woman with a high voice is called a soprano. In operas, soprano singers usually play the leading female roles. Music written for sopranos is often technically demanding as well as high.

A woman with a low voice is called an alto. Many well-known pop singers (like Katie Melua) fall into this category. An alto usually sounds deeper, ‘fatter’ and less penetrating than a soprano voice.

Men, too, can have high or low voices. A man with a high voice is called a tenor. You may have heard of three of them: Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras. These three tenors were huge stars in the 1990s, performing at concerts all over the world. In the classical album charts today, the most famous tenor is a blind Italian called

Andrea Bocelli.

Men with low voices are called basses. In operas, it is usually a bass who plays the villain. The Welshman, Bryn Terfel, is a very popular singer with a bass voice.

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HIGH

Soprano

Alto

Tenor

Bass

LOW

When sopranos, altos, tenors and basses sing together in a choir, it is often called an S.A.T.B chorus. The S.A.T.B. chorus is the most common form of mixed-voice choir.

“In-between” voices (Intermediate II only)

Some voices do not fall easily into one of the normal categories. Some women, for example, can sing higher than an alto but not as high as a soprano. An ‘in-between’ voice like this is called a mezzo-soprano. (The word “mezzo” is an Italian word that means “medium”).

It can be hard to identify a mezzo-soprano voice. Listen for a voice that is higher and lighter than an alto but less shrill than a soprano!

Men, too, can have ‘in-between’ voices. A male voice in-between a tenor and a bass is called a baritone. Baritones usually have a large range (i.e. there is a large distance between their lowest and highest notes). A baritone sounds lighter than a bass but never reaches the very high notes sung by a tenor.

Finally, a few men are described as counter-tenors. A counter-tenor voice is unusually high and can sound a bit strange! Counter-tenors can sing the same notes as an alto, and it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference.

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Word-setting and Word-painting (Intermediate II only)

When a composer writes a song, the aim is to use the music to highlight the meaning of the words. A song about death, for example, would not normally sound jolly and lively! The music and the words are closely related.

Many composers, especially since the 1800s, have used the music to “paint pictures” of the words. The word “death” might be accompanied by a clashing chord (called a discord); the word “deep” might be a very low note; the words “running down” might be illustrated by a descending (i.e. downwards)

scale. Using the music to sound like the words is called word-painting.

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One trick used by composers to make one word particularly important is melisma. Melisma is when one word is stretched over many different notes. The best example is in the Christmas carol, “Ding Dong Merrily on High”. In the chorus, the word “Gloria” is stretched over more than thirty notes.

The opposite of melisma is when there is one note for every syllable that is sung. This is called syllabic word-setting. (Word-setting is simply the way in which a composer fits the words to the music).

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Voices Together

Composers often combine voices in different ways. When two voices sing together, it is called a duet; three voices make a trio; four a quartet. A large group of singers is called a choir, or chorus. (The word “chorus” is used especially in operas and musicals).

Two voices singing exactly the same notes are said to be singing in unison. The girl’s choir at school, for example, often sings in unison.

If a man and a woman sing the same song (e.g. if they join in with “Flower of Scotland” at a rugby match) they will be singing in octaves. In other words, they will both sing the same note-names, but the man’s voice will sound an octave lower than that of the woman. (An octave is the distance from any note on the piano up or down to the next note with the same name, e.g. C to C; D to D, etc.).

When two or more voices sing together, they sometimes sing in unison (or in octaves). It is more common for them to sing different notes that fit together well. When two or more voices sing different parts at the same time, it is called harmony.

In an S.A.T.B. chorus, for example, there are normally four different parts. The sopranos sing the highest part; the basses sing the lowest part; and the tenors and altos are in-between.

An S.A.T.B. chorus may be accompanied (e.g. by a piano or an orchestra) or unaccompanied (i.e. with no backing instruments).

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Unaccompanied part-singing is called a cappella. Australian pop trio, The Bee Gees, made a name for themselves by singing in an a cappella style.

If you were to hear a good church choir singing a hymn, you would notice that all the singers change from one note to the next at the same time. You would be able to hear the words clearly because all the singers would pronounce them at the same time. This sort of singing, where all the parts move together, is called homophony (“homo” = same; “phony” = sound).

The opposite of homophony is polyphony (“poly” = “many”). In a polyphonic piece of music, the different parts move at different times. Some parts may be slow, with lots of long notes; others may be very fast, with lots of very short notes! This creates a complex texture.

The difference between homophony and polyphony can be shown in diagrams like the ones below:

Homophony Polyphony

The diagrams show the four parts (soprano, alto, tenor and bass). Notice that in homophonic music, all the parts move together. In the polyphonic music, the parts are very different from each other. At the start, for example, the soprano part goes up and down wildly while the alto part stays on the same note for a long time.

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Oratorios and Operas (Intermediate II only)

Over the centuries, composers have used choirs in different musical contexts. In the 1600s and 1700s, a very popular kind of music was the oratorio. The most famous example is Handel’s “Messiah”.

An oratorio is a large-scale religious work for choir and orchestra. The songs in an oratorio tell a story from the Bible. Handel’s Messiah, for example, tells the story of Christ.

Within an oratorio, there are three types of music: aria, recitative and choruses.

Aria is just a posh word for a song! An aria usually has a recognisable tune that comes back again and again. Almost always, an aria is sung by one person (i.e. a solo voice).

Recitative means “story-telling”. In recitative, the performer sings a lot of words very quickly. The accompaniment is very bare – usually just a few chords here and there. There is no real tune – it is more like ‘sung speech’.

A chorus in an oratorio is a piece of music sung by the whole choir. (Just to confuse matters, the word “chorus” can be used to describe both the group of singers and the song that they are singing). In a chorus, you will hear a group of singers accompanied by the orchestra. The music might be homophonic or polyphonic.

A Passion is a special kind of oratorio that tells the Easter story. Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” is the most famous example.

A cantata is very similar to an oratorio, only smaller! Cantatas were written to be performed in church every week. Bach wrote more than two-hundred of them, each lasting about half an hour! Each of his cantatas was based on a German hymn tune (called a chorale). At the end of the cantata, the choir would sing the chorale in four parts (S.A.T.B.).

Arias, recitative and choruses are also found in operas. An opera is simply a (non-religious) story set to music. Operas were very popular from the 1700s to the late 1800s and often involved very

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expensive and elaborate costumes and scenery. The singers in an opera also have to act, whereas an oratorio is always staged without acting. Mozart wrote many famous operas, including “The Marriage of Figaro”, “Don Giovanni” and “All Women are Fickle” (Cosi fan tutti).

In the twentieth century, musicals became very popular. A musical is like an opera but has slightly lighter music and usually some spoken dialogue (i.e. the main characters speak instead of singing all the time as they do in an opera). Some of the best known musicals are “Grease”, “The Phantom of the Opera”, “Mary Poppins”, “Les Miserables” and “My Fair Lady”. Many of them have been made into films.

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Voices in Popular Music

If you turn on the radio, it won’t take you long to find someone singing. Singing is an essential part of pop music.

Many pop bands have one singer who sings the tune most of the time. He or she is called the lead singer or lead vocalist. For example, in the band Oasis, Liam Gallagher is the lead vocalist. He stands at the front of the band and sings the tune most of the time. Jarvis Cocker is the lead singer with Pulp; Tom Yorke is the lead singer with Radiohead, etc.

Some pop bands also have backing vocalists. These are singers who are in the background. They often sing in harmony to provide an accompaniment for the lead singer. Usually, backing vocals are not present all the way through a song; they might be used in the chorus but not in the verse, for example.

Many of the most successful rock and pop bands have two or more singers who can act as the lead vocalist. In The Beatles, for example, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr were all able to act as the lead singer.

The rock group, Queen, often sang in four parts, sometimes in an a cappella style. (A cappella means unaccompanied singing in parts). Their biggest hit, “Bohemian Rhapsody”, is full of very complex singing in parts.

In the world of jazz music, there have been many famous singers. You may have heard of Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone or Jamie Cullum. All of these singers sing in a jazzy style – they usually use a lot of syncopation (i.e. they don’t sing exactly with the beat of the music). Sometime, jazz singers use a technique called scat singing. This is where they improvise (i.e. make up the tune as they go along) using nonsense words (like “mm-doo-be-dat-mm-dah”).

You may have seen films like “Grease”, “Mary Poppins” and “Chicago”. These are examples of musicals. A musical is basically a play with songs. Most musicals begin life as stage productions (e.g. on Broadway in New York), before being made into films.

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An opera is very similar to a musical. There are two main differences between them: (1) there is no speaking in an opera (the music continues all the way through the story), and (2) the music in an opera is usually sung in Italian and is more ‘serious’ than in a musical.

Famous operas include “The Magic Flute”, “The Marriage of Figaro”, “Carmen” and “Madame Butterfly”.

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MUSICAL GROUPS

Whilst it is fun to play a musical instrument by yourself, it is more interesting if you play together with other people. Most people who enjoy music as a hobby are members of local bands or other musical groups.

In this unit, you will learn about a variety of different musical groups (or ‘ensembles’, if you want to be posh)! Some of these will be very familiar to you (like a pipe band). Others, like the Gamelan, are less well known in this country but are very popular overseas.

The unit is divided into four short sections:

Orchestras Bands Chamber groups World music

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Orchestras

When musicians talk about an orchestra, they normally mean a symphony orchestra.

A symphony orchestra contains a large number of instruments from each ‘family’: strings, woodwind, brass and percussion. (They sometimes have keyboard instruments too).

If you go to see a symphony orchestra, you will see a very large number of string players: perhaps more than thirty violins, a dozen violas, eight or more cellos and a handful of double basses.

As well as the strings, you would normally expect to see

woodwind instruments: clarinets, flutes, oboes + bassoons

brass instruments: trumpets, trombones, horns + tuba

percussion instruments: drums, tympani, cymbals and tuned

percussion (glockenspiels etc.)

Symphony orchestras are given that name because they often play pieces of music called ‘symphonies’. A symphony is a long piece of music for orchestra, normally written in four sections called movements. You must have heard the opening of

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Beethoven’s 5th Symphony (Da-da-da-daaaa), and you probably know the main theme from Dvorak’s 9th Symphony (the Largo from the Hovis Bread advert)!

Another type of work often played by an orchestra is a concerto. A concerto is different from a symphony in two ways:

1. a concerto is for a solo instrument with the orchestra (e.g. a solo piano or violin), and

2. a concerto has only three movements and a symphony has four.

If you need to decide whether you are listening to a symphony or a concerto, you should try to work out if there is a solo instrument. Is there one particular instrument that plays most of the tune and perhaps gets to play by itself from time to time? If so, you are listening to a concerto.

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Sometimes, composers write music for smaller orchestras: a string orchestra contains only string instruments (violins, violas, cellos and double basses); a chamber orchestra is a small orchestra, perhaps with about twenty string instruments and a few woodwinds.

The modern symphony orchestra is very different from the orchestras known by composers like Bach (1685-1750) or Mozart (1759-1796). Bach’s orchestra had no clarinets – because they weren’t invented until long after Bach was born! Mozart never had a harp or valved-trumpet in his orchestras – they weren’t invented until the early 1800s.

Bands

The word ‘band’ is used to describe a number of different musical groups. Perhaps the best known in Scotland is the pipe band.

Pipe Bands

A pipe band includes a mixture of Highland bagpipes and drums. Three main types of drum are used: a bass drum, tenor drums and snare drums. Pipe bands usually play Scottish marches, airs or jigs. The very best pipe bands also play fast reels.

The Highland bagpipes can play only a limited number of notes. Because of this, pipe bands usually play in unison (i.e. everyone plays the same thing). Only occasionally do the pipes play in harmony (i.e. two or more different parts at the same time).

Brass Bands

Another type of band that is common in Britain is the brass band. A brass band is made up of several kinds of brass instruments: cornets, tenor horns, baritones, euphoniums, trombones, tubas and percussion.

Brass bands are particularly associated with Yorkshire. Some towns in Yorkshire have

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five or more brass bands! Brass bands play a range of music, some of it very modern and dissonant (i.e. full of clashing sounds). Because all of the instruments in a brass band sound very alike, a brass band is very good at playing hymns.

Wind/Military Bands

A wind band (sometimes called a military band) has a mixture of brass and woodwind instruments. A typical wind band might contain at least a dozen clarinets and flutes, several saxophones, a few oboes and bassoons, cornets, trumpets, French horns, trombones and a tuba.

You will see military bands if you go to the Edinburgh Tattoo. Some of you may have heard the Borders schools wind band. Wind bands often play marches or arrangements of popular music or traditional folk melodies.

Big Bands/Swing Bands

From about 1920-1960, Big Bands were very popular. Sometimes called swing bands, they normally contain trumpets, trombones, saxophones, clarinets, a bass guitar or double bass, drums and a piano.

The most famous big band of all time was led by the American trombonist, Glen Miller. He died during the 2nd World War. His band played well-known tunes like “In the Mood”, “Little Brown Jug” and

“Moonlight Serenade”. Another great bandleader was the clarinet player, Benny Goodman, otherwise known as the “King of Swing”.

Big Band music is called “swing” music because it is usually accompanied by a swing rhythm played on the drums (i.e. the ‘Am-ster-dam’ rhythm). When listening to a swing band, you will often hear

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improvisation (i.e. where one player makes up a solo as the band plays chords underneath).

The bass player in a big band often plays a walking bass-line. This is when the bass part wanders about in a steady rhythm – often moving by step or leaping from one note of the chord to another.

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Chamber Music

Chamber music is music played by small groups. Chamber music was especially popular in the 1800s, when very rich people thought it was the height of fashion to employ musicians to play in their drawing rooms. Amateur players often asked their friends to come round to join them in a string quartet or wind ensemble.

The most common chamber group is the string quartet, made up of two violins, a viola and a cello. All of the greatest composers wrote string quartets. The quartets of Haydn and Beethoven are particularly famous.

Sometimes, composers added a woodwind instrument to the string quartet. At the end of the 1800s, the German composer Johannes Brahms wrote a piece for string quartet with a clarinet. This sort of work is known as a clarinet quintet.

Another kind of chamber group is the piano trio. This normally includes a piano, violin and cello. This combination is very flexible: each instrument can play the tune; the piano is very good at accompanying the other instruments; and the cello can provide a solid bass line or play a counter-melody (i.e. another tune that goes against the main tune).

In the twentieth century, jazz ensembles became very popular. Jazz groups usually contain a piano, double bass and drums, often with a solo instrument (e.g. saxophone or trumpet). One famous example is the Dave Brubeck quartet. Dave Brubeck was an American pianist who wrote jazz music with very unusual timing (e.g. the very famous tune “Take Five”, which has five beats in each bar).

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World Music

Brass bands and wind bands are very popular in this country. Across the world, different kinds of ensemble are common.

In Jamaica, for example, steel bands are very popular. These bands contain a dozen or more steel drums: large metal drums that can play a range of notes. Each of the different ‘hollows’ on the surface of the drum is tuned to produce a particular note. The sound of a steel band reminds us of the Caribbean. The drummers often use rolls to make the sounds longer and to provide a soft, mellow accompaniment.

In South America, Samba and Salsa music are very popular. Samba music is heard every year at the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Samba bands are made up of different sized drums, tambourines, claves and whistles. They usually play music in 2/4 time (i.e. 2 beats per bar).

Another kind of Latin American ensemble is the salsa band. Salsa music also has a lot of percussion instruments, including drums called timbales (a bit like bongos). There are also flutes and clarinets. Based on Cuban music, salsa is very jazzy and exciting to listen to.

A Ghanaian Drum Ensemble is a group of drums, shakers and bells, from the West African country of Ghana. The music played by this sort of group sounds

much less jazzy than the Latin American groups.

Finally, the Gamelan is very popular in Indonesia. A Gamelan is a mixture of gongs and metallophones. The music is built up in layers of repeating patterns. The overall effect is quite hypnotic.

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MUSIC THROUGH THE AGES

In this unit, you will learn how music has changed over many hundreds of years. Even though you might not like to listen to “classical” music, try to keep an open mind and enjoy listening to the music of some of the most famous composers.

When musicians talk about the history of music, they normally talk about different “periods” of time. Roughly speaking, there are five important periods that you need to know about:

Early music (pre-1600) Musical instruments included recorders, lutes, cornetts and serpents! People began to write down music for the first time.

Baroque (1600-1750) Composers like Bach and Handel wrote

very clever music, including some very

important works for choir and orchestra.

New instruments like the oboe,harpsichord and violin became

popular.

Classical (1750-1800) Mozart and Haydn wrote symphonies,

concertos and a lot of chamber music.

The clarinet and piano were invented.

Romantic (1800-1900) Music became all about “expression”.

Composers like Schubert and Wagnerwrote very emotional music, often forvery large orchestras with a whole

rangeof new instruments (like valved brass).

Modern (1900-today) Composers turned away from tonalharmony and instead wrote very dissonant music – very hard to listen

to!New styles of jazz and popular musicdeveloped.

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Early Music

Before about 1600, music was very unlike what we know today. Many of the instruments that we are familiar with (e.g. the piano, guitar, violin, clarinet) were not yet invented.

Some early musicians played and sang music in church; others travelled round the country entertaining people with songs and dances.

In church, most early music was sung in latin. There was not much of a tune! Instead, the singers would chant the holy words, giving special emphasis to the most important ones (called “plainchant”). The singers usually sang without any accompaniment. This is where the word a capella came from. It means “in the church style” and is used today to describe unaccompanied singing in parts.

Roving musicians in this period were called “troubadors” or “trouvieres”. They went from town to town with their lutes and recorders and performed simple folk-songs (sometimes called airs).

Some towns had a town band, made up of instruments like the cornett, serpent and sackbut! Also popular was a family of string instruments known as viols. Unlike the modern string family, these were all played in a vertical position.

Early music did not use the same “rules” as more modern music. For example, it was not usually major (happy) or minor (sad). Instead, early music was modal (somewhere in-between major and minor) and it often sounds quite “bare”.

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The Baroque Period – c.1600-1750

In the Baroque period, composers like Bach and Handel invented a new style of music. They placed particular importance on how different lines of music fitted together. A lot of Baroque music is polyphonic (i.e. there are lots of different musical ideas at once). Complex polyphonic music is often described as contrapuntal, which literally means that there are different parts moving against each other.

The harpsichord and the organ were the most popular keyboard instruments in the Baroque period. The harpsichord looked like a small piano but makes a sound a bit more like a guitar. When the harpsichord keys are pressed, a lever plucks a string inside the case.

Bach loved the harpsichord. He wrote many pieces for solo harpsichord and also used it in his

oratorios and cantatas (see below). For example, he wrote a set of 48 Preludes and Fugues (2 in each major and minor key) for the harpsichord. These are very difficult to play and sound very ‘clever’.

Other instruments that were common in the Baroque period were the oboe and the recorder. Simple brass instruments like the natural trumpet and horn were also popular.

Johann Sebastien Bach (1685-1750)

You have probably heard of Johann Sebastien Bach. He was one of the greatest composers of the Baroque period, although his genius was not recognised until long after his death.

During his lifetime, Bach was famous as one of the greatest organists in Germany. He and his wife had seventeen children, many of whom went on to become world-famous composers themselves (e.g. C.P.E. Bach, J.C. Bach and W.F. Bach).

Bach’s music was very clever – he was able to combine musical ideas in

new and exciting ways. He was also very good at developing a simple idea into something wonderful and complex. He made his music modulate much more than any earlier composers. Modulation is when the music

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moves from one key to another. It might happen gradually or all of a sudden.

Bach added further interest to his music by using devices like a pedal note. A pedal (not to be confused with something on a bike, or on a piano!) is a long low note. The note is held for a long time while the musical ideas change above it. This creates an exciting build-up in the music.

The opposite of a pedal is an inverted pedal, where the high note is at the top rather than the bottom of the music.

Bach sometimes ended his pieces with a Tierce de Picardie. This means that he would finish a minor piece with a major chord, creating a satisfying, “sunny” ending.

Another effect used by Bach was the suspension. This is when a note from one chord is held over when the chord changes. The note clashes against the new chord, creating a dissonance. The dissonance disappears when the note changes.

The use of a ground bass was another popular device used by Baroque composers. A ground bass is when the same pattern is heard in the bass (i.e. at the bottom of the music) with different musical ideas above it. The most famous example is the Canon by Pachalbel, which is often played at weddings today.

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Cantatas, Oratorios and Passions

Bach wrote an amazing amount of music. In his job as a church organist, he was required to write a new piece for the church choir almost every week. He wrote almost three hundred cantatas.

A cantata is a piece for choir and small orchestra. Usually, it is made up of five or six movements. The last one is usually a version of a chorale: the German name for a hymn tune. The chorale was usually sung in harmony.

The other movements of a cantata would have been either:

Aria - a solo song, often with a decorativeinstrumental part up above, called an obbligato.

Recitative - story-telling, i.e. where a singer would tell a bit

of the story, accompanied by the harpsichord or

organ.

Chorus - where the whole choir would sing together.

Sometimes, Bach wrote longer cantatas – for a bigger orchestra and a large choir, and with perhaps as many as twenty movements. These works were called Oratorios. (You have probably heard of the “Messiah” by the other great Baroque composer, Handel). An oratorio tells a story from the Bible.

A special kind of oratorio that told the Easter story was called a Passion. The most famous example is Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion”, which tells the Easter story based on the Gospel of Matthew.

A cantata, oratorio and passion are all very similar. Cantatas would have been performed each week as part of a normal church service, whereas oratorios and passions were kept for special occasions.

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George Frederic Handel (1685-1759)

Along with J.S. Bach, the other ‘big name’ in the Baroque period was G. F. Handel. Handel was born in Germany but travelled around Europe and eventually settled in England. Some of his vocal music is, therefore, written in English (like the oratorio, “Messiah”) but he also wrote in German, Latin and Italian!

Two of Handel’s most famous pieces are his “Water Music” and the “Music for the Royal Fireworks”. He wrote the second of these for the

King’s fireworks display. The music is for a small orchestra featuring natural trumpets, horns and tympani.

Handel was one of the first composers to write a lot of operas. He wrote these in England in the early 1700s, but most of them were written in Italian. This was because Italian music was seen as the height of fashion at the time. Some of the music from Handel’s operas has become very famous. The “Arrival of the Queen of Sheba” (from the opera, Solomon) is one of the most popular pieces at weddings.

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The Classical Period (c.1750-1800)

The word “classical” is sometimes used to describe all “serious” music. However, musicians use the word “Classical” to describe the period from about 1750-1800.

During this period, composers like Mozart and Haydn developed a new form called the symphony. Operas were very popular and new instruments like the piano and the clarinet came into use.

Classical composers moved away from the idea of lots of different musical lines. Instead, they liked to write music with a distinct melody and accompaniment. In his piano music, for example, Mozart often used a left-hand pattern called an Alberti Bass. This is when the notes of a chord are played one-by-one in the order bottom-top-middle-top.

The Symphony and Concerto

Perhaps the most important development in the Classical period was the symphony. Mozart wrote at least forty symphonies and Haydn wrote almost 120!

A symphony is a long piece for orchestra. In the Classical period, this included strings, woodwinds (flute, clarinet, oboe and bassoon), some brass (natural trumpet and horn) and perhaps some percussion (e.g. drums and cymbals).

At the start of the Classical period, a symphony often had three movements – two fast outer movements with a slow movement in the middle. Soon, however, it became normal practice to have four movements, one of which was a lively dance in triple time called a scherzo.

In the Classical period, an average symphony might have lasted between ten and twenty-five minutes. They were sometimes performed at private functions for the aristocracy. Increasingly, however, they were played at public concerts. Concerts were a new idea in the Classical period, and they were often held to raise money for poor composers: Mozart, for example, often used to write new music and play it at a concert if he was a bit strapped for cash!

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Another very common form in the Classical period was the concerto. A concerto is a piece of music for orchestra that features a soloist. For example, Mozart wrote more than twenty piano concertos, in which he would play the solo piano part, accompanied by an orchestra.

A concerto normally has three movements – fast, slow, fast. Both symphonies and concertos remain popular to this day.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Mozart is one of the most famous composers of all time. He was a child prodigy and performed for the King at the age of four. He amazed audiences by playing whilst blindfolded or lying on his back on the piano stool.

As an adult, Mozart became a famous composer of operas. Some of these were written in Italian and some

in German. Many of them involve magic, folk-lore and the supernatural, as well as the usual themes of love, relationships and war.

One of Mozart’s operas is “The Magic Flute”. It tells the story of a bird-catcher called Papageno, who helps Prince Tamino to rescue a Princess from the evil Queen of the Night. Papageno, who is really a bit of an idiot, also manages to find a girlfriend by the end of the story.

The Magic Flute includes some very beautiful (and also some very funny) music. The Queen of the Night’s Aria is one of the most difficult songs ever written for the soprano. The duet sung by Papageno and his girlfriend is very comical.

Other Mozart operas include The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi Fan Tutti (which means “Women are fickle” and tells the story of two men who bet they can make their girlfriends fall in love with the wrong man because women are so stupid).

As well as operas, Mozart wrote more than twenty piano concertos and more than forty symphonies. He also wrote a lot of chamber

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music (e.g. string quartets) and music for solo piano (e.g. his many piano sonatas). Mozart’s clarinet concerto is also very famous.

You might know one of Mozart’s piano pieces. It is a “theme and variations” based on the nursery rhyme, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. The tune is played once in a simple way, then again and again in increasingly complicated versions (e.g. with lots of fast notes swirling around the tune).

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The Romantic Period (1800-1900)

The Romantic Period began with the famous German composer, Ludwig van Beethoven.

In his early twenties, Beethoven discovered that he was going deaf. This was a terrible blow for the man who was already regarded as the greatest pianist and composer in the world!

Beethoven became deeply depressed but decided that he should pour all of his frustration into his music. After that, his music became much more emotional. He began to use new and exciting harmony; he used larger orchestras; he wrote amazingly difficult piano music that pushed the instrument to its limit; his music became much longer and broke the “rules” that had been used by composers since the days of Bach and Handel.

The German composer, Gustav Mahler, would later write, “Ever since Beethoven, music has had its inner programme”. In other words, Beethoven’s music was more than just sound – it tried to express emotions or make an argument.

Beethoven is most famous for his nine symphonies. All of these are masterpieces. Symphony No.3 was nicknamed “The Heroic Symphony” after the French dictator Napoleon. Beethoven’s last symphony, No.9, was written for a massive orchestra and a choir. It was so modern and unusual that the audience laughed when they heard it. They couldn’t understand the strange new sounds.

Throughout the 1800s, composers followed Beethoven’s example and wrote music that was full of emotion. A whole range of new instruments was invented (like brass instruments with valves) and composers used huge orchestras and exciting harmony to give their music new colours that had not been possible before.

Franz Schubert was another German composer. He lived in the early 1800s and is famous for writing songs (called “Leider” in German). He wrote very fancy piano accompaniments to go with the words. Often, the words themselves would be reflected in the music. This is called “word-painting”. For example, a song about a waterfall might have lots of falling arpeggios; a song about death might have lots of minor chords.

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Liszt and Chopin lived in France in the first part of the 19th century. They both wrote a lot of music for the piano. Both gave solo concerts across Europe, where they were treated a bit like modern pop stars. The crowds cheered when they played their most famous pieces; ladies fainted because they were so manly; and their competitors paid people to throw tomatoes at them as they played!

Impressionism

At the end of the Romantic period, composers like Debussy and Ravel started to write a new kind of music. They took their inspiration from the impressionist painters like Monet. Instead of writing tunes, they used music to create vague “sound-pictures”. Famous examples include Debussy’s piano piece “Clair-de-lune”

(“Moonlight”) and the “Gymnopedie” by Erik Satie. This new kind of music was called Impressionism.

Impressionist composers often used a set of notes called the “whole-tone scale” (C, D, E, F#, G#, A#, C). This scale gave their music an eerie, atmospheric quality.

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Music in the Twentieth Century

In the twentieth century, music developed in two ways: ‘serious’ music became very dissonant and hard to listen to; popular music branched out into various styles of jazz, folk and rock. For the first time, the United States of America became an important centre for new music.

“Serious” music in the early 1900s

The start of the 20th Century was a confusing time for many people. They found it difficult to cope with the many technological advances of the age, and there were international conflicts like the Boer War and then the First World War.

In the early 1900s, composers wrote music that reflected the confusion and fear felt by ordinary people. Instead of writing music with tunes and chords, they wrote atonal

music. In other words, they wrote music that wasn’t in a particular key.

Atonal music has no real tune and no pleasant chords. To our ears, it sounds very dissonant and strange.

The most famous composer of atonal music was a German man called Schoenberg. His music is not very popular today because it is so hard to listen to! Instead of chords, he used clusters (i.e. groups of clashing notes).

Minimalism

Towards the middle of the 1900s, composers turned their back on the dissonant music of Schoenberg. They started to use normal chords again, but often added extra “jazzy” notes to the chords to make them sound more modern.

A new style of music called minimalism developed in the second half of the century. Minimalist composers used simple repeated ideas over and over again to create exciting, rhythmic music.

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Composers of minimalist music include Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Their music is quite mesmerising.

In some modern music, composers left the performer to decide exactly what to play. In aleatoric music, the composer would give the performer a few notes to use and the performer would be expected to make the music up using the given notes. When you listen to aleatoric music, it sounds very random!

Popular music in the twentieth century

Throughout the twentieth century, new styles of music became popular all over the world.

Ragtime, Dixieland and Swing music

Ragtime music was a style of music that developed in the first few decades of the 20th century. The most famous composer of ragtime music was a black American called Scott Joplin. You have probably heard his pieces “The Entertainer” and “The Maple Leaf Rag”.

Ragtime music was almost always played at the piano. Ragtime melodies are full of syncopation (i.e. lots of off-beat notes) whilst the left hand plays a vamp (oom-cha) accompaniment.

Another American style of music that became popular in the early 20th

century was Dixieland. Dixieland music comes from the southern USA and usually involves the clarinet, trombone, trumpet and percussion. You may have heard “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” or “Oh When the Saints” played by a Dixieland band. It is common to hear the clarinet improvising over the tune whilst the trombone often uses the glissando effect.

In the 1930s and ‘40s, swing bands became popular. These bands included trumpets, trombones, saxophones and percussion. They played music like “In the Mood” and “Little Brown Jug”. Most of it was accompanied by a swing rhythm (“Am-ster-dam!”) played at the drum kit.

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Many swing bands (also called “Big Bands”) were led by a flamboyant leader, like the trombone player Glen Miller or the clarinettist, Benny Goodman.

Other forms of jazz

A range of other styles of jazz music became popular in the 20th

century. Many of them were based on the blues. Blues music was the music of black Americans at the start of the century. It uses a particular set of notes called the Blues scale, which includes some notes that really clash against the chords underneath.

Blues music was often very slow and the words were usually about bad things. Imagine an old black American singing about all his troubles – his dead wife, his house sinking into the marsh, etc. – and you’ll get the idea!

Soul music developed later in the century. The “Godfather of Soul” was a man called James Brown, who died in 2006. He was famous for his energetic performances that included dances like the “funky chicken” and the “monkey”.

Boogie Woogie is a style of piano jazz in which the left hand plays a characteristic Boogie-woogie bass line (see below). Your teacher will play you an example.

In most jazz music, the performers are expected to improvise. In other words, they don’t just play the notes on the page – they make it up as they go along. Usually, they use a particular scale (like the blues scale) to help them.

Singers too can improvise. Sometimes, rather than using words, they use sounds like “doo-wop-be-doo-wah!”. This is called scat singing. Good examples are found in the film, “The Aristocats”.

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THE STRUCTURE OF MUSIC

In this short unit, you shall look at how music is built. The unit starts with a look at how melodies are made. After that, you shall learn about different musical forms.

How melodies are made

Melodies (i.e. tunes) may sound complicated but most tunes can be broken down into simple ideas.

If you listen to any tune, you will hear that the notes move either by step or by leap. A good example of a tune that moves by step is the theme from Eastenders:

The music from “Superman” opens with lots of leaps:

Many tunes use repetition. In other words, the same musical idea is played more than once. Look at the beginning of “Frere Jacques”:

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If the repeated pattern moves up or down a bit, it is called a sequence. Look at this example from a famous Christmas carol. Notice that the second bar is the same pattern as the first bar, but down one step:

Sequence and repetition are two very important musical concepts. You should think about them when you compose your own tunes.

Sometimes a melody appears to be in two parts. The first part seems to ask a question and the second part provides the answer. The theme from “Wallace and Gromit” is a good example:

Melodies are not very exciting by themselves. Chords are usually added to provide an accompaniment. Often, the chords are very simple. Look at many of your favourite pop songs and you will notice that they usually contain only five or six chords. Songs like “Millennium” (by Robbie Williams) have only two chords!

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How musical ideas are put together

Having a melody with chords is just the first stage of building a piece of music. The composer must give the piece a structure (or “form”) by putting melodies together in a particular way. Some examples are given below:

Canon/Round: In a canon (or “round”) the same musical idea is

played or song by everyone in a group. They all

play/sing the same music but start one afterthe other. The song “Frere Jacques” is oftensung as a round.

Binary (AB) form: In Binary form, there are two different musical

ideas, one after the other. The first idea, A, is

followed by a different idea, B.

Many traditional Scottish reels are in binaryform.

Ternary (ABA) form: Ternary form is similar to binary form, except

that the “A” section is played at the start and

at the end of the piece.

Ternary form is like a musical sandwich – a layer of bread, then a filling, then anotherlayer of bread.

Rondo (ABACA) form:In Rondo form, the same musical idea (A) comes

back again and again, with contrasting ideasin-between (B, C, D, E, etc.).

Theme and Variations: In this form, a melody is played once and then

there are a number of “variations” based on the

melody. For example, one variation might have

the tune in a minor key; another might have lots

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of quick notes swirling around the melody, etc.

Often, a composer adds a little bit of extra music at the end of a piece to finish it off. This is called a coda.

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Scales, keys and chords

Most of the music that you listen to is said to be “in a key”. For example, Mozart’s clarinet concerto is “in A”; Bach’s famous Toccata is “in D minor”; the theme from the Teletubbies is often played “in C”.

What does it mean when musicians talk about a piece being “in a key”?

Basically, when a piece of music is “in” a particular key, it uses a particular set of notes (or “scale”) associated with that key. This might sound complicated, so here is an example:

If we play the theme from “Teletubbies” in the key of C major, the melody will use the notes of the C major scale. The C major scale is printed below. Underneath it is the theme from the Teletubbies. You will see that all of the notes in the music come from the scale:

If we were to play this music in a different key, we would use a different set of notes. For example, if we played the theme in the key of D major, we would use D, E, F#, G, A, B, C# and D.

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As well as melodies, chords are made up using the notes of a particular scale. In the key of C, for example, the most common chords are built using the notes of the C major scale.

Chord no. 1 (I) is based on the note, C, together with an E and a G.

Chord no. 2 (II) is based on the note D, together with a F and an A.

Chord no. 3 (III) is based on the note E, together with a G and a B.

All the basic chords that you are likely to find in the key of C major are shown below. These chords are sometimes called “triads”:

In a different key, the chords would be built up in the same way using the notes of the right scale.

Chords I, IV and V

In any key, the most important chords are always I, IV and V (one, four and five). Almost all tunes that you know will sound OK if you stick to these three chords!

In the key of C… Chord I is a chord of CChord IV is a chord of FChord V is a chord of G

At the end of a piece of music, it is very common to have chord V and then chord I. This combination of chords is known as a perfect cadence. (A cadence is just a posh way of describing a “stopping point” in the music).

A perfect cadence sounds finished. A well-known example comes at the end of The Teletubbies!A different kind of cadence is an imperfect cadence. An imperfect cadence is really the opposite of a perfect cadence. An imperfect cadence is chord I followed by chord V.

An imperfect cadence sounds unfinished or “half-finished”. It is sometimes called a “half-close”. A good example comes half-way through the Teletubbies!

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The Teletubbies – a very useful piece to know!

The theme from “The Teletubbies” is a great example of how a simple piece of music is built.

The music is in two lines (a question and answer).

The melody moves mainly by small leaps.

In bars two and three, there is a simple example of a sequence.

Only three chords are used: C (I), F (IV) and G (V).

At the end of the first line, there is an imperfect cadence (chord I followed by chord V).

At the end of the second line, there is a perfect cadence (chord V followed by chord I).

Pieces like the Teletubbies are very simple. It would be very boring if all pieces of music used only the notes of one particular key.

To make their music more interesting, composers usually try to use modulation. That is when they visit other keys (and, therefore, use notes from a different scale). A piece might start in C major and then visit G major (with some F#s) and then F major (with some B-flats) before coming back to C at the end.

Sometimes, composers use a different kind of scale to create a particular mood. Here are some examples you should know:

Major - Happy!

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Minor - Sad

Modal - Sounds a bit empty; used a lot in folk and mediaeval

music.

Pentatonic - A scale with only five notes; has lots of “gaps” in it.

Whole-tone - An eerie scale used to create a mysteriousatmosphere.

Blues - The blues scale has some clashing notes; used in jazz.

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