Music — Year 10

 

Music Overview
Curriculum

Term 1: Area of Study 1: Instrumental Music. Bach

An introduction to basic note reading using treble clef and bass clef. Students will study note values and rhythmic understanding within simple time and complete rhythmic and melodic dictation. They will develop musical ideas in the form of composition and/or arrangements and study the Brandenburg Concerto no 5 3rd movement, Bach.

This assessment will comprise of a) one short written assessment on the topic of Brandenburg Concerto No 5, 3rd Movement. Bach. The questions are taken from the new specification Edexel sample GCSE paper. b) The completion of an eight bar melody over the course of the whole term

Harpsichord
A keyboard instrument with horizontal strings which run perpendicular to the keyboard in a long tapering case, and are plucked by points of quill, leather, or plastic operated by depressing the keys.

Baroque
Relating to or denoting a style of European architecture, music, and art of the 17th and 18th centuries that followed Mannerism and is characterized by ornate detail. Prominent composers of the time were J.S.Bach and Handel.

Bass Continuo
Basso continuo is a form of musical accompaniment used in the Baroque period. It means "continuous bass". Basso continuo, sometimes just called "continuo", and was played by a keyboard instrument and another bass instrument such as the cello.

Chamber Orchestra
A small orchestra.

Contrapuntal
Anything contrapuntal has to do with counterpoint, which is a type of music that has two melodic lines played at the same time which usually weave in and out with each other.

Figured bass
A bass line with the intended harmonies indicated by figures rather than written out as chords underneath the bassline, typical of continuo parts in baroque music.

Violin
A 4 stringed musical instrument of treble pitch, played with a horsehair bow. The classical European violin was developed in the 16th century and is the smallest of the string family.

Viola
An instrument of the violin family, larger than the violin and tuned a fifth lower. It uses the alto clef.

Cello
A bass instrument of the violin family, held upright on the floor between the legs of the seated player. This makes use of the bass and tenor clef.

Double bass
The largest and lowest-pitched instrument of the string family, providing the bass line of the orchestral string section and also later used in genres other than classical.

  • Spiritual
  • Moral
  • Social
  • Cultural

Develop the individual:
Learn how music developed and appreciate its worth and how it influences todays music.

Create a supportive community:
Tolerance of other styles and peoples opinions.

Term 2: Area of Study 2: Vocal Music. “Killer Queen” by Queen

Students will be introduced to composition using a four bar melody structure, developing to an eight bar melody. They will learn how to recognise and use a perfect and imperfect cadence within a composition and how to write for different instruments effectively. They will study vocal music with a particular emphasis on 'Killer Queen' Queen

This assessment will comprise of a) Short exam questions based on the topic of ‘Killer Queen’ by Queen. b) A solo or ensemble performance – this is a free choice on a student’s own instrument.

Melody
A sequence of single notes that is musically satisfying; a tune.

Middle 8 or bridge
The bridge is basically the part that contrasts and sounds different from the rest of the song, and can also be used to connect two parts of a song together.

Harmony
The combination of simultaneously sounded musical notes to produce a pleasing effect.

Accompaniment
A musical part that provides support for another sound or voice.

Primary chord
In music, a primary chord is one of the three triads, or three-note chords built from major or minor thirds, most important in tonal and diatonic music.

Secondary chord
A secondary chord is a dominant function chord that is not the dominant chord in the key of the piece, but is the dominant of one of the other major or minor triads in that key.

Major
Music in a major key (music whose scale contains a major third upward from its "tonic," the starting note, so that the basic tonic chord is major).

Minor
Music in a minor key (music whose scale contains a minor third upward from its "tonic," the starting note, so that the basic tonic chord is minor).

Melismatic
Melisma in music, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession.

Juke box
A machine that automatically plays a selected musical recording when a coin is inserted.

Musical
Relating to music, having a pleasant sound, melodious or tuneful, a play or film in which singing and dancing play an essential part. Musicals developed from light opera in the early 20th century.

Vaudeville
A type of entertainment popular chiefly in the US in the early 20th century, featuring a mixture of speciality acts such as burlesque comedy and song and dance.

Glam Rock
Glam rock (also known as glitter rock) is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup, and hairstyles.

Multi track
Relating to or made by the mixing of several separately recorded tracks of sound.

Anthem
A rousing or uplifting song identified with a particular group, body, or cause, a musical setting of a religious text to be sung by a choir during a church service, especially in Anglican or Protestant Churches.

Outro
The concluding section of a piece of music or a radio or television programme.

Scalic
Of or related to a musical scale - scalic patterns.

Extended chord
In music, extended chords are tertian chords (built from thirds) or triads with notes extended, or added, beyond the seventh. Ninth, eleventh, and thirteenth chords are extended chords.

Over dubbing
Record (additional sounds) on an existing recording.

Syncopation
Displace the beats or accents in (music or a rhythm) so that strong beats become weak and vice versa.

  • Spiritual
  • Moral
  • Social
  • Cultural

Develop the individual:
Learn how each instrument adds to overall effect with none being more important than another.Appreciate different qualities.

Create a supportive community:
More effective working together on collaborative songs appreciating each others skills.

Term 3: Area of Study 3: Music for Stage and Screen “Defying Gravity” from Wicked. Schwartz

Students will learn how to recognise and use Binary Form within a composition (notated or otherwise). They will learn how to recognise cadences and how to develop musical ideas within chosen forms and structures. Their area of study will be music for stage and screen with particular emphasis on 'Defying Gravity' from Wicked. Students will compare and contrast one set work with an unknown piece. One lesson per week will be spent on composition coursework.

Short exam questions, taken from CGP Student Revision Guide either p130 or p160. Teamed with Listening test also from Revision Guide p120-p121.

Solo
In music, a solo (from the Italian: solo, meaning alone) is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer. Performing a solo is "to solo", and the performer is known as a soloist.

Glissando
In music, a glissando is a glide from one pitch to another. (on the piano, it can be sweeping the notes all the way from high to low) It is an Italianized musical term derived from the French glisser, to glide.

Crescendo
The use of the term 'crescendo' comes from its Italian definition, which is to grow, or become louder, and at its most basic, a crescendo, is a gradual increase in the volume of a passage of music, over time.

Tempo
The word tempo came into English by way of Italian, tracing all the way back to the Latin word tempus, meaning time. It is used to describe the timing of music, or the speed at which a piece of music is played.

Rubato
Rubato (Italian for: stolen time) is a musical term referring to expressive and rhythmic freedom by a slight speeding up and then slowing down of the tempo of a piece at the discretion of the soloist or the conductor.

Time signature
An indication of rhythm following a clef, generally expressed like a fraction with the denominator defining the beat as a division of a semibreve and the numerator giving the number of beats in each bar.

Climax
When something — like a movie or piece of music — reaches its most important or exciting part, that's the climax. A climax is a high point.

Cadence
In Western musical theory, a cadence is "a melodic or harmonic configuration that creates a sense of resolution [finality or pause]. This is like punctuation in writing.

Leit motif
A leitmotif is a "short, constantly recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea. It is closely related to the musical concepts of idée fixe or motto-theme.

Motif
A motif or motive is a short musical idea, a salient recurring figure, musical fragment or succession of notes that has some special importance in or is characteristic of a composition

Augmented chord
In music, an augmented triad is a triad, or chord, consisting of two major thirds (an augmented fifth). The term augmented triad arises from an augmented triad being considered a major chord whose top note (fifth) is raised, or augmented.

Tremolando
In music, tremolo is a trembling effect. There are two types of tremolo.

Colla voice
An indication to an accompanist carefully to take his tempos and rhythm from the soloist.

Bare fifth
Examples of perfect fifth intervals. In music theory, a perfect fifth is the musical interval corresponding to a pair of pitches with a frequency ratio of 3:2, or very nearly so.

Polytonal
The musical use of more than one key simultaneously.

Vocalisation
A musical composition consisting of the singing of melody with vowel sounds or nonsense syllables rather than text.

  • Spiritual
  • Moral
  • Social
  • Cultural

Develop the individual:
How important music is in creating or adding to mood. How music has the power to make us feel a certain way.

Create a supportive community:
more awareness of different emotions and how they might affect those around them.

Term 4: Area of Study 4: Fusion “Release” Afro Celtic Sound System

Students will learn how to recognise and use Ternary Form within a composition. They will notate or create a composition within the given form and study Alberti Bass alongside other accompaniment structures. They will work to a brief ensuring technical control and coherence. Their area of study will be Fusion with an emphasis on 'Release' (Afro Celtic Sound System).

The assessment will comprise of one written essay which compares a known and an unknown piece. This is an examination question and will be completed in class time under examination condition. There will also be a listening or dictation assessment.

Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan, in the United States during the mid-to-late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno in reference to a specific genre of music was in 1988.

Groove
In music, groove is the sense of propulsive rhythmic "feel" or sense of "swing". In jazz, it can be felt as a persistently repeated pattern.

Fusion
Fusion is where types of music are combined together.

Pad
Something that is used to fill in the space of a piece usually with chords.

Drone
In music, a drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece.

Meter
Meter can be categorized as simple, compound, or complex. These three categories can explain all rhythmic patterns in Western music.

Sample
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a sound recording in a different song or piece.

Loop
In electro acoustic music, a loop is a repeating section of sound material. Short sections of material can be repeated to create ostinato patterns.

Coda
Coda is a term used in music primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece (or a movement) to an end.

Static harmony
Static harmony is a harmony made from roughly one chord (most often the tonic of the dominant), and the prolongation of this chord.

Riff
The definition of a riff is a short rhythm phrase used in music, that is often played when a soloist is performing or when chords and harmonies are changing. It is a repeated phrase.

  • Spiritual
  • Moral
  • Social
  • Cultural

Develop the individual:
Understand how different cultures or backgrounds can work effectively together.

Create a supportive community:
Tolerance of others and their beliefs.

Term 5: Area of Study 1 Instrumental Music Piano Sonata No 8 in C Minor Beethoven

Students will use compositional devices: sequences and motifs, ornamentation, augmentation, retrograde and inversion. They will study three significant sections within the form and focus on relevant keys. Students will learn how to create and develop melodic ideas. Their area of study will be instrumental music with a particular emphasis on Piano Sonata No 8 in C Minor, Beethoven.

This assessment will focus on Section A of the GCSE examination which is concerned with the skeleton score of an unfamiliar piece. This will be a 20 minute task. Students will also have to perform a solo or ensemble piece - they will be advised on appropriate pieces to perform

Romanticism
Romantic music is a term that denotes an era of Western classical music that began in the late 18th or early 19th century.

Exposition
In musical form and analysis, exposition is the initial presentation of the thematic material of a musical composition, movement, or section. The use of the term generally implies that the material will be developed or varied.

Development
This refers to the transformation and restatement of initial material heard previously in the exposition.

Recapitulation
The recapitulation (recap) occurs after the movement's development section, and typically presents once more the musical themes from the movement's exposition with changes to finish in the tonic key.

Sonata form
This is a musical form that consists basically of an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation and that is used especially for the first movement of a sonata.

Chromatic scale
The chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone above or below another.

Fortissimo
Fortissimo is a dynamic marking that indicates a VERY LOUD volume.

Pianissimo
A part of a composition played very softly or quietly.

Ornamentation
Ornamentation is when extra quick notes are added to the main melody to decorate it. There are many different types.

Subito
This means suddenly eg when in a loud passage, suddenly a soft part is played.

  • Spiritual
  • Moral
  • Social
  • Cultural

Develop the individual:
Deeper understanding of a different era and how it has impacted current music. Cooperation with others.

Create a supportive community:
More ideas to offer to the group. Working well with others will give better outcomes.

Term 6: Area of Study 2: Vocal Music “Music for a While” Purcell

Students will explore song structure, from word painting to popular music. They will take a brief look at Blues-Pop, ways to accompany the voice and harmony (major and minor). Their area of study will be vocal music with a particular emphasis on 'Music for a While', Purcell

Written task: Students will be required to compare and contrast: one set work with an unknown piece. (Section B) Listening task: Unfamiliar Piece with a skeleton score. (Section A)

Trio Sonata
A trio sonata is written for two solo melodic instruments and basso continuo, making three parts in all, hence the name trio sonata.

Dance Suite
In the Baroque era the suite was an important musical form, also known as Suitede danses, Ordre Partita or Ouverture which often included a series of dances.

Syllabic word setting
The term 'syllabic' refers to sung music. Music is syllabic when one pitch in the melody goes with one syllable in the words.

Consonant
Consonant intervals are usually described as pleasant and agreeable.

Dissonant
Dissonant intervals are those that cause tension and desire to be resolved to consonant intervals to relive tension.

Suspension
Suspension, in music, a means of creating tension by prolonging a consonant note while the underlying harmony changes, normally on a strong beat. The resulting dissonance persists until the suspended note resolves by step wise motion.

Word painting
Word painting is the musical technique of writing music that reflects the literal meaning of a song. For example, ascending scales would accompany lyrics about going up; slow, dark music would accompany lyrics such as death or despair.

Da capo aria
The da capo aria is a vocal form used primarily in the Baroque Era. It is in ternary form (ABA')

Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir.

Tierce de Picardie
In music a Tierce de Picardie (meaning Picardy third) is a major chord at the end of a piece of music in a minor key. In the 16th to 17th centuries this was a very common way to end a piece in a minor key.

Binary form
Binary form is a musical form in two related sections, both of which are usually repeated. Binary is also a structure used to choreograph dance. In music this is usually performed as A-A-B-B.

  • Spiritual
  • Moral
  • Social
  • Cultural

Develop the individual:
Appreciate the development of song and its relevance to the music listened to today.

Create a supportive community:
Tolerance of different types of music enjoyed by others.