Programme Music
Orchestral performance of piece number 10 from Pictures at an Exhibition.
Official classification: The Romantic Period, Classical Pieces, Audio, Unit 13 Painting With Sound , Programme Music, Curriculum support, Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich
Descriptive piece from Carnival of the Animals by French Romantic composer Camille Saint-Saens.
KS1 idea: focus listening on the contrast between short sounds in the piano accompaniment with longer sounds in the cello solo.
Official classification: Unit 3. The long and the short of it - Exploring duration, The Romantic Period, Classical Pieces, Audio, Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2, Saint Saens, Charles Camille, Unit 9 Animal Magic, Programme Music, Curriculum support
Orchestral piece from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera 'The Tale of Tsar Saltan' written in 1900.
An excellent example of descriptive music (for KS1-KS2 listening).
Official classification: The Romantic Period, Classical Pieces, Audio, Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai Andreyevich, Russia, Programme Music, Curriculum support
Symphonic poem by the French composer Paul Dukas, written in 1897. In 1940 Walt Disney used this as soundtrack for the animated dialogue-free film Fantasia and once again in the sequel Fantasia 2000.
KS1 idea: Focus listening to explore use of quiet, slow, loud and fast at various times in the story.
Official classification: Dynamics, Tempo, The Romantic Period, Classical Pieces, Audio, Programme Music, Curriculum support, Dukas, Paul
From Carnival of the Animals.
KS1/2 idea: example for listening with particular focus on descriptive low melody on the double bass.
Official classification: The Romantic Period, Classical Pieces, Audio, Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2, Saint Saens, Charles Camille, Unit 9 Animal Magic, Programme Music, Curriculum support
Music video of Carnival of Animals.
Marian Lapsansky & Peter Toperczer, pianos
'The Aquarium' from "Carnival of Animals"
Music by Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921)
Czechoslovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Ondrej Lenard, conductor
Official classification: Animals, The Romantic Period, Classical Pieces, Video, Saint Saens, Charles Camille, Unit 9 Animal Magic, Programme Music, Curriculum support
Track 2 from Charanga / Saydisc / Christine Richards project - 'Listen to this' for Key Stage 2. Chinese music for solo pi-pa from Saydisc album 'Like Waves against the Sand' (2'27")
Main features: pitch, tempo, structure.
This traditional Chinese piece is played by a pi-pa (a Chinese lute). The Track Explorer has three tracks focusing on instrumentation, descriptions of the different sections of the music and structure.
Official classification: Listening, Interactive Activities, Key Stage 2, Pentatonic Scales, China, Far East, Unit 12 Dragon Scales , Programme Music, Pi-pa, Track Explorer, 4a Listening, and applying knowledge and understanding - aural memory, 4b Listening, and applying knowledge and understanding - elements and devices, Saydisc Records, Saydisc/Charanga World Music
Track 20 from Saydisc "Percussion Around the World" - notes from Maureen Hanke.
'Demon Dance' features a large drum kit cosisting of 7 roto toms, 4 cymbals, 2 floor toms, a foot bass drum and a wind gong.
Drums are among the oldest instruments and there are thousands throughout the world. It was just after the Second World War that the Western world incorporated them into popular music, a trend that continued throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
The drum kit line up became more sophisticated as the musical ideas developed and drum machines took over where creativity needed more speed and complexity.
This composition demands, perhaps one of the most sophisticated collection of drums to date.
Demon Dance tells how when the Demon dances the earth trembles and the mountain begins to erupt.
Music that creates a picture or evokes a mood is called programme music.
Official classification: Percussion, Drum Kit, Timbre, Audio, Key Stage 3, Programme Music, Windgong, Saydisc Records, Saydisc/Charanga World Music
Track 32 from Charanga / Saydisc / Christine Richards project - 'Listen to this' for Key Stage 2. Chinese music with solo di-zi from Saydisc album 'Like Waves against the Sand' (3'35")
Main features: structure, timbre, pentatonic scale.
This Chinese music is played on a di-zi (a bamboo flute) and yang qin (a Chinese dulcimer). The Track Explorer has three learning tracks focusing on instrumentation, structure and claves.
Official classification: Listening, Example Instruments, Ternary(ABA), Animals, Interactive Activities, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Pentatonic Scales, China, Far East, Unit 12 Dragon Scales , Claves, Programme Music, Di-zi, Yang-qin, Trills, Track Explorer, 4a Listening, and applying knowledge and understanding - aural memory, 4b Listening, and applying knowledge and understanding - elements and devices, Saydisc Records, Saydisc/Charanga World Music
Also known as Two Polish Jews, One Rich, One Poor.
See following link for use in KS2 (Unit 8 Ongoing Skills) www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/music/mus08/08q7?view=get
See following link for use in years 5,6 and 7 www.philharmonia.co.uk/_downloads/0-91C86B.pdf
Official classification: Classical Pieces, Audio, Key Stage 1, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Key Stage 4, To sing in unison, Unit 8 Ongoing Skills, Programme Music, Curriculum support, Naxos , Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich
Also known as Fingal's Cave inspired by a cavern known as Fingal's Cave on Staffa, an island in the Hebrides. Good example of Orchestral, descriptive music from the Romantic era.
Official classification: Overture, The Romantic Period, Orchestras, Classical Pieces, Audio, Mendelssohn, Felix, Scotland, Programme Music, Curriculum support, Unit 11. The overture
The Catacombs, number 8 from Pictures at an Exhibition, also known as Cum mortuis in lingua mortua or With the Dead in a Dead Language. The form of this movement is binary. Its two sections consist of a nearly static Largo with a sequence of block chords, elegiac lines adding a touch of melancholy, and a more flowing, gloomy "Andante" that introduces the "Promenade" theme into the scene.
Official classification: Binary(AB), The Romantic Period, Classical Pieces, Audio, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Unit 13 Painting With Sound , Programme Music, Curriculum support, Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich
The Gnome, number 1 from Pictures at an Exhibition depicts a little gnome, clumsily running with crooked legs and features contrasting tempos with frequent stops and starts.
Official classification: Tempo, Silence, The Romantic Period, Classical Pieces, Audio, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Unit 13 Painting With Sound , Programme Music, Curriculum support, Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich
Number 2 from Pictures at an Exhibition, this movement is thought to be based on a watercolor depiction of an Italian castle.
Official classification: The Romantic Period, Classical Pieces, Audio, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Unit 13 Painting With Sound , Programme Music, Curriculum support, Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich
Piece number 9 from Pictures at an Exhibition. Motives in this movement evoke the bells of a large clock and the whirlwind sounds of a chase. It is also in Ternary form.
Official classification: Ternary(ABA), The Romantic Period, Classical Pieces, Audio, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Unit 13 Painting With Sound , Programme Music, Curriculum support, Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich
Piece number 4 from Pictures at an Exhibition describes A Polish cart on enormous wheels, drawn by oxen and is in ternary form (ABA).
Official classification: Ternary(ABA), The Romantic Period, Classical Pieces, Audio, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Unit 13 Painting With Sound , Programme Music, Curriculum support, Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich
Number 5 from Pictures at an Exhibition. This movement is in ternary form (ABA) with a repeat and coda.
Official classification: Ternary(ABA), The Romantic Period, Classical Pieces, Audio, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Unit 13 Painting With Sound , Programme Music, Curriculum support, Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich
Dispute between Children at Play, number 3 from Pictures at an Exhibition. Piece describes a Hartman painting of a busy garden full of children playing and quarrelling. In ternary form.
Official classification: Ternary(ABA), The Romantic Period, Classical Pieces, Audio, Key Stage 2, Key Stage 3, Unit 13 Painting With Sound , Programme Music, Curriculum support, Mussorgsky, Modest Petrovich
'O trenzinho do Caipira' by 20th century Brazilian composer is brilliantly descriptive piece, can pupils identify what part of the train each group of instruments represents? Also notice the changes in timbre and tempo.
KS1/2 idea: Play from beginning and ask ch to make a 'train' action, with hands by their sides, in time with the music. Why is it so difficult to keep in time at first? The tempo is unsteady and keeps changing until finally settling into a steady beat when the melody begins.
Official classification: Expressive & Descriptive Sounds, Tempo, Timbre, Unit 2. Sounds interesting - Exploring sounds, 1900-1949, Classical Pieces, Audio, Programme Music, Curriculum support, Transport, Villa-Lobos, Heitor
First movement of Concerto No. 3 in F major from The Four Seasons, Op. 8, RV 293, "L'autunno" (Autumn)
KS1/2 idea - provide pupils with a large piece of paper divided into four sections and playing Vivaldi's music in the background, ask pupils to paint or draw a picture, depicting the textures they hear. Subsequently, review and discuss how appropriate the music and drawings created are to the seasons and associated weather.
Official classification: Concerto, The Baroque Era, Classical Pieces, Audio, Weather, Vivaldi, Antonio Lucio, Italy, Programme Music, Curriculum support