Lesson video

Hi there, everybody, welcome to this lesson, "Inspired by Earth Choir.

" This is from our compose and create unit, cosmic programme music.

My name's Mr. Croughan, and together we'll be exploring and taking influences from Earth Choir and creating our own piece of work.

Are we ready, let's begin.

The outcome of this lesson is to create and combine small vocal musical ideas, like we call golden bricks, based around themes to structure a vocal piece.

Let's begin then by looking at today's keywords.

We'll start with programme music, this is instrumental music that aims to represent something non-musical, such as a story, a picture, a scene, an idea, or an emotion.

A musical map, this is lines, shapes, colors, and symbols that represent the flow of the music.

A golden brick, this is Eric Whitacre's term to describe a small musical idea that's the core building block on which the whole piece is built.

Structure, the way the music is organized.

And choral, an adjective relating to music written for or performed by a choir.

We know how important it is to warm up before we begin our music lesson, we want to warm up our bodies, our voices, and our minds.

This is really useful, because if we're singing, we're gonna be singing safely.

If we're playing music, we're playing more accurately together, we're playing and singing as an ensemble, we want it neat and with good focus.

And by listening carefully, that helps us to play together and listen to new music.

I'd like you to begin by joining in with these warmups.

We'll take you through a whole body warmup, a face warmup, some breathing, a vocal warmup, and a tongue twister.

Are you ready, here comes the video.

<v ->Let's warm up all the muscles of our faces.

</v> Show me your happy face.

Show me your grumpy face.

Show me your big face.

Show me your small face.

Show me your silly face.

Show me your thinking face.

Are you ready?

<v ->Echo my singing.

</v> ♪ Nu uu uu ♪ ♪ Nu uu uu ♪ ♪ Nu uu uu uu ♪ ♪ Nay ♪ ♪ Nay ♪ ♪ Nay ♪ ♪ Meee ♪ ♪ Meee ♪ ♪ Meee ♪ ♪ Muuu ♪ ♪ Muuu ♪ ♪ Muuu ♪ ♪ Maaay ♪ ♪ Maaay ♪ ♪ Maaay ♪ <v ->Copy this tricky tongue twister.

</v> Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.

<v ->Hopefully now you are feeling ready to sing</v> and perhaps to create new music as a choir.

Jacob says, "my body feels relaxed and alert and my voice is warm, so I'm ready to sing.

" There are two learning cycles in today's lesson.

The first one where our inspiration comes from Deep Field, Earth Choir.

And then we're going to compose as a class, a choral piece using our golden bricks.

Let's begin with Deep Field, Earth Choir.

So Eric Whitacre's Deep Field, composed in 2015, is a piece of program music that takes us on a journey from earth to the far edges of the universe and back again.

And that piece has an accompanying film that shows images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

Deep Field can be divided into four movements.

The first one is called Cathedral of Reason, the second, Pillars of Creation, the third one, Impossible Magnitude, and then the fourth movement, which we'll take inspiration from today, Earth Choir Eric Whitacre describes his inspiration for each movement as the movement's 'golden brick.

' So this is one musical idea, a brick, that the whole piece is built upon.

Each movement in deep field has its own golden brick.

However, we can hear all four golden bricks.

That's one for each movement used across all four movements too.

Here's a quick check-in.

You're going to pause in a moment.

There are six words in the grid at the top, and then some gaps in this short paragraph.

It says, Deep Field, composed by Eric Whitacre, is an example of, blank.

It is a symphonic work with four, blanks.

In this piece, Whitacre starts with a small, blank and uses it as his, blank.

He calls this a, blank and uses it to help shape the, blank, of the piece.

So your job is to find which of those six words fit in which of those six spaces.

Pause here and do that together now.

Welcome back if you've got those all right.

You will say, Deep Field by Eric Whitacre, is an example of programme music.

It's a symphonic work with four movements.

In this piece, Whitacre starts with a small musical idea and uses it as his inspiration.

He calls this a golden brick and uses it to shape the structure of the peace.

Now in the introduction and in that first movement, Cathedral of Reason, Whitacre describes the golden bricks as failure as the Hubble telescope struggles and moves in and out of focus.

And here we've traveled past the planets, and now we reach the sun before leaving our solar system to seek out galaxies further away.

Now the golden brick of failure uses descending notes.

Notes going down, that's to represent failure.

You can hear that pitch going down and we're gonna have a listen in a moment.

It can be hard to hear more than two notes, and I'd like to listen closely for some overlapping sounds.

Can you hear the golden brick in this excerpt?

Pause here and have a listen.

I wonder how much you heard.

Jacob said, "there are long held notes in the foreground and in the background, and they're changing very slowly, descending, coming down in pitch.

" In the second movement in Pillars of Creation, Whitacre describes the golden brick as aspiration.

Now in this movement, Whitacre takes us across space, moving from nebula to nebula.

And the climax of this second movement is the exploration of the Bubble Nebula, which is pictured there on the screen.

And here the golden brick rises in pitch and then falls lower to the lowest note we hear in that golden brick musical idea.

I'd like you to pause and see if you can hear the golden brick maybe following the pitch on the screen in this excerpt.

Off you go.

So this time Aisha says, "here the golden brick is strong and bold with faster moving notes, and it celebrates reaching Bubble Nebula.

" So that idea of celebration also affects the tempo.

It's played a bit quicker, perhaps feels more celebratory, aspiring, aspiration.

In the third movement, Impossible Magnitude, Whitacre describes the golden brick as struggle.

In this movement, we reach the Deep Field with the Hubble Telescope at last with a dramatic, musical climax.

And this golden brick has four ascending notes.

One each pitch higher than the last going up.

And we call it struggle.

You can imagine struggle climbing up a hill.

I would like you to pause here and see if you can hear the golden brick in this excerpt.

Off you go.

Izzy says, and I hope you heard it too.

"We hear the golden brick ascend slowly and then quickly in the strings, whilst it also rises in the brass instruments.

" So if you heard that golden brick, maybe slowly and quickly on the strings and also in the brass, you are listening very well.

In the final movement, Earth Choir, Whitacre describes the golden brick as catharsis.

Now Laura helps us understand this word.

She says, "catharsis means releasing big emotions and feelings in a safe way.

" Jun says, "for example, making music, perhaps singing might help us release our emotions and feel calm and safe.

So in this movement, all the big emotions that have been building up along the way are released and we can feel calm and relieved.

In this movement, as part of the journey, we leave the enormity, the impossible magnitude of space behind, and we hear the beauty of planet Earth through the human voice coming together as one.

Now, Whitacre planned a golden brick for this movement with three descending notes, a bit similar to the one in the first movement, and this is called catharsis.

So I'd like you to pause here and see if you can hear that golden brick.

There's three descending notes in this excerpt, off you go.

Jun says, "we hear every voice sing this golden brick together, echoed gently by the orchestra.

" Hope you heard it too.

Now interestingly, we can hear all of the golden bricks from throughout Deep Field in order in the final movement, Earth Choir.

So a recap, they are failure, the first movement, aspiration in the second, struggle in the third, and then catharsis in the fourth movement.

Andeep says it's like all the tension is being released when the golden bricks are sung gently by the choir.

Now in this excerpt, I'd like you to listen to how many times you hear the struggle four note ascending golden brick.

So look at struggle, the third one along on the screen, the four ascending notes.

I'd like you to pause, listen to the clip and hear how many times does struggle at golden brick up here?

Off you go.

I wonder if you got it.

It did actually appear three times.

We can listen to Earth Choir and we can use a musical map to create a journey of the movement, hopefully identifying those golden bricks.

Now, a musical map that can often include lines and shapes and symbols that follow the shape and journey of the music that the listener creates as their listening.

So you are going to listen to Earth Choir until the beginning of the two note descending phrases begin to fade the music away.

And you're going to create a musical map as you listen by mapping out or listing the golden bricks as you hear them.

To make things easier for you, I would only like you to listen to the vocal journey, the sung part.

Don't need to pay too much focus to the orchestral journey.

So ways you can do it.

You could draw lines to show the pitch ascending, going up or down, or you could write the letter of the golden brick shape that you hear, and they're there, A, B, and C are on the screen.

So you might have an order of, oh, that was A, that was B, that was C.

Or you might just draw those descending as you hear the notes going down and up.

Maybe that's your way of creating your musical map.

Pause here and do that where you are.

Great stuff, so perhaps your musical map looks something like this.

It has those descending and ascending pitches drawn as lines to represent those golden bricks.

We've heard one, and I've heard another one repeated a few times.

It might look a bit like that and perhaps maybe you felt like using thicker lines.

If the section was louder or fuller, that's fine too.

Or you may have listed the letters.

So each time you heard a different breakthrough, oh yes, that's that pitch, I'll write it down.

You're welcome to have a look, have a check to see if you used a, b, c, c, c, A, B, B, c, c, c.

And one idea that was suggested here is capital letters were written or maybe slightly bigger letters up to you because it was louder or fuller.

Maybe there's a way of just showing that as well.

Really well done.

It's time to look at the second part of our learning for today, which is composing.

We're going to compose a choral piece using golden bricks.

Now you can be inspired by the fourth movement, Earth Choir to create your own vocal movement as a class.

Here's how we'll do it.

You are gonna compose four different golden bricks and then combine them.

And that's gonna make an Earth Choir inspired vocal piece.

So firstly, as a class, you're going to generate some ideas for the name of your movement.

Will you keep the same one?

Would it be catharsis, release of emotion, or do you have another theme that you'd like to explore?

And then you're gonna share your ideas for your movement's theme and explain why you think yes, that's a powerful word that we're going to use.

So pause and have a quick discussion about that.

Marvelous, well done, really good names.

And now it's time to decide on the themes of your golden bricks.

Remember, there's going to be four.

Now in Deep Field, the overall structure follows the themes of failure, aspiration, struggle, catharsis.

Now this tells the story of their difficulties with the Hubble telescope, which you will eventually overcome, and the results of these incredible, these extraordinary images of the Deep Field in space.

And then we also hear the larger structure in Earth Choir, that final movement where every golden brick is played in turn.

So as a class, what you're going to do is decide, would you like to follow Whitacre's themes, his thematic structure.

He's got Deep Field/Earth Choir, and then they're following those four golden bricks that are heard throughout, failure, aspiration, struggle, phew, catharsis.

Or would you like to create a storyline of your own?

So the name that you give, so your vocal movement, whichever name you came up with.

And then four words to describe the journey.

Pause here to create your own cosmic journey now, off you go.

Brilliant creativity happening.

Now it's time to compose each golden brick in turn.

Now for each of these, you could take some ideas from the compositions your classes have composed for each movement so far.

You could use a similar shape to those of Whitacre's choosing notes, maybe on pitched percussion that you like.

And make sure, 'cause we're not using those instruments in this biscuits of voice that everyone can sing those to an open 'ahh' sound.

And you might borrow some of these golden bricks that I'm gonna play for you now and maybe make them your own.

Have a listen to this for some inspiration.

♪ Ahh, ahh, ahh ♪ ♪ Ahh, ahh, ahh ♪ ♪ Ahh, ahh, ahh ♪ ♪ Ahh, ahh, ahh ♪ ♪ Ahh, ahh, ahh ♪ ♪ Ahh, ahh, ahh ♪ ♪ Ahh, ahh, ahh ♪ ♪ Ahh, ahh, ahh ♪ It's time for you to rehearse each golden brick separately.

So make sure that you've decided on your tune for each one that everyone can sing it, and that each one has that clear theme.

So if it is aspiration, does it sound like that?

And when you sing it, are you happy with that sound?

As you sing each one, you're trying to create one choral sound as a class so that your voice is blend.

So no one's being particularly louder than anyone else trying to get an even sound.

And remember, you are thinking about your theme as you think, as you think as you sing, channel your theme and we can hear that then coming through your voice, if it is hope or it is determination, we want to hear that in your voice.

And when you are ready, we'll create your piece.

So each brick separately, off you go.

Well done, four wonderfully creative golden bricks.

So it's time now to turn those four golden bricks into one piece of music.

Here's how you're going to do it, number one, decide on the structure.

What order should those bricks go in?

And each time, how many times will you sing each one?

Three times, five times, four times, once, entirely up to you?

And then once you've got that structure with how many times each brick repeats, do you repeat that melody?

Then you're going to think about your dynamic changes.

It's not all sung at the same volume.

We're thinking about that climax point.

Will your piece start quiet or loud?

And where will that climax or loudest part be?

Does it always happen near the golden ratio just about two thirds of the way through?

And will it fade away quietly at the end?

And then you get to rehearse and perform your vocal movement.

So reminder, put those bricks in order.

How many times will they repeat?

Does the whole thing repeat and changing your dynamics to build to a climactic point or using your voice?

Pause here and do that where you are.

Absolutely brilliant.

So if you are ready for a challenge, you can add your fantastic vocal movement back into your smaller ensembles and you could use that as the final movement for your cosmic program music.

That might be something you do in this lesson or perhaps then next.

Here's an example vocal movement.

I'd like you to listen out for each golden brick that's been composed and the climax at that golden ratio moment.

how does it compare to yours?

It'll be great for you to record your piece and to listen back to it.

Here comes the example.

♪ Ahh, ahh, ahh ♪ ♪ Ahh, ahh, ahh ♪ ♪ Ahh, ahh, ahh ♪ ♪ Ahh, ahh, ahh ♪ ♪ Ahh, ahh, ahh ♪ ♪ Ahh, ahh, ahh ♪ ♪ Ahh, ahh, ♪ ♪ Ahh ♪ ♪ Ahh ahh ♪ ♪ Ahh ♪ And there we have it, really well done everyone.

You are all great composers.

Now, if you do have time, either in this lesson or next time, put your four pieces together in your smaller ensembles, then you've created your full symphonic program music, using each of those four movements with a golden brick from each one.

And then that final, that vocal one with four golden bricks together, really finishing off your piece beautifully.

Really well done.

It's all we have time for.

So let's look at our learning.

Today we focused on program music as music that's been inspired by something non-musical.

That could be a story or a piece of artwork or even space.

Deep Field composed by Eric Whitacre is a symphonic work in four movements.

And that's an example of program music.

A piece of music can be inspired and built from one small musical idea.

Eric Whitacre calls this a golden brick.

And music can be mapped out as we listen, and that can help us make sense of the musical journey and its structure.

Really well done everybody.

I hope you feel super proud of yourselves, and I will see you again soon.

All the best, bye for now.