The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s
ETSA Utilities Learning program presents
Soundscapes
20 and 21 June 2012
The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
A note to teachers
‘How happy I am to be able to walk among the shrubs, the trees, the woods,
the grass and the rocks! For the woods, the trees and the rocks give man the
resonance he needs.’ (Ludwig van Beethoven)
‘Beethoven’s music is like a big, round tree in the middle of a field. My music
is like the grass, the flowers and the birds around it.’ (Toru Takemistsu)
This concert is all about the natural world and how it can be reflected in sound – and how listening to
music can make us think about the world around us and see it in new ways.
At the concert, the orchestra will be performing music from many different eras and using many different
techniques. The aim of this kit is to familiarise teachers and students with some of the music they will be
hearing at the concert and to provide some suggested activities to do in relation to the music.
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
Concert Program
Conductor:
Presenter:
Benjamin Northey
Richard Chew
Please note we will be performing excerpts from all of the following:
GRIEG
Morning Mood from Peer Gynt
BEETHOVEN
Sixth Symphony (Pastoral) – 4th Movement, The Tempest
BRITTEN
The Storm from Four Sea Interludes
COPLAND
Appalachian Spring
SMETANA
Ma Vlast – The Moldau
SIBELIUS
Second Symphony – 4th Movement
DEBUSSY
La Mer
SCULTHORPE
Mangrove
RAUTAVAARA
Cantus Arcticus
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
Flight of the Bumble Bee
WAGNER
Forest Murmurs
BEETHOVEN
Sixth Symphony (Pastoral) – 4th Movement
MUSSORGSKY
Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks from Pictures at an Exhibition
SCUTHORPE
Kakadu
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
About the conductor: Benjamin Northey
Leading Australian conductor Benjamin
Northey is one of Australia’s busiest and most
versatile musical stars. Currently Associate
Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony
Orchestra, Northey studied conducting with
John Hopkins at the University of Melbourne,
graduating in 1999 with a Master of Music
degree in conducting. In 2001, he was awarded
1st prize in the Symphony Australia Young
Conductor of the Year Competition
Development under Finnish maestro Jorma
Panula. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the prestigious 2010 Melbourne Prize
Outstanding Musicians’ Award, the 2003 Brian Stacey Memorial Trust Award and the 2001 Nelly
Apt Scholarship.
Northey has been a regular guest conductor with all the Australian state symphony orchestras
and led opera and ballet productions including Don Giovanni & Cosi fan Tutte for Opera Australia,
L’elisir d’amore, The Tales of Hoffmann and La Sonnambula for State Opera of South Australia.
Internationally Northey has appeared with the London Philharmonic, the Mozarteum Orchestra
Salzburg, the Southbank Sinfonia London, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Christchurch
Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Philharmonic.
Northey is a strong advocate for music education and Australian music and musicians. He
currently lives in Melbourne with his wife Joanne Montesano and their daughter Eva.
About the presenter – Richard Chew
Richard Chew lectures in Music at the University of South Australia and the Elder Conservatorium at the
University of Adelaide. Richard is also the musical director of the Adelaide Harmony Choir and an
accomplished jazz musician and composer.
He has composed 4 operas, and many large choral works with soloists and orchestra. He has received
commissions from The Lindsay Quartet, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Vienna Festival,
The South Bank Centre, London, Three Choirs Festival and Festival of Arts and Ideas, Connecticut, USA. His
music has been performed and broadcast widely in Europe, Australia and America. Richard has sung with
English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Opera North, The London Sinfonietta, Glyndebourne, City
of London Sinfonia, The Royal Shakespeare Company and Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
In 2009, two of Richard’s major works were premiered in Adelaide. The Shouting Fence, a choral theatre
piece, will be produced by State Opera and the Tutti Ensemble as part of the Fringe Festival and his
opera Daughter of the Sea will appear in The Australian Festival for Young People (Come Out).
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
About the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra was founded as a 17 player radio ensemble in 1936 and performed
its first series of public concerts in 1937.The orchestra reformed in 1949 as the 55 member South
Australian Symphony Orchestra.
The ASO received international acclaim for the hugely successful Wagner Ring Cycles, staged in 1998
and 2004, conducted by Jeffrey Tate and then Asher Fisch. Subsequent reviews and recordings with
worldwide distribution brought the ASO to the world’s attention with glowing critical acclaim. A 2004
Ring Cycle review by FANFARE (USA) proclaimed the ASO to be…”absolutely world class…you’d think the
Vienna Philharmonic…had been brought to Adelaide for these performances”.
The ASO has attained a new level of excellence through its current Chief Conductor and Music Director
Arvo Volmer (2004 – present) and has recently made history as the first Australian orchestra to record
and release the entire Sibelius symphony cycle on CD. The orchestra’s current Mahler symphony cycle
(2006 – 2012) under Maestro Volmer is the first of its kind for South Australia and resulted in a record
breaking performance of Mahler’s symphony No.8, as part of the 2010 Adelaide Festival of Arts.
The ASO has performed to acclaim in China (1996), Kuala Lumpur (2005) and most recently in
America, including a concert in New York’s famed Carnegie Hall in 2009. The ASO leads the way in
presenting a diverse range of musical offerings including collaborations with such artists as José
Carreras Nigel Kennedy, Burt Bacharach, Herbie Hancock, Pinchas Zukerman and Adelaide hip hop
artists Hilltop Hoods.
In the Orchestra’s 2012 season the ASO presents a complete cycle of Tchaikovsky’s concertos, some
glorious orchestral music inspired by heroes – and even anti heroes – and several premieres of new
music including the Australian premiere one of our country’s leading composers, Brett Dean, as he
conducts his major new orchestral work – Fire Music.
At the concert
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
A visit to see a live symphonic concert is a very special occasion. Your participation contributes to the enjoyment of
the musical experience. The following are some questions you may have…
When I get to the concert venue, how will I know where I’m going to sit?
The ushers will direct you to the section where your seats are located. Take some time to make yourselfcomfortable
and settle in for the exciting performance. The ushers will be of help if there are any questions.
When is applause appropriate?
Applause is customarily given to both the concertmaster (first chair, Violin I), and the conductor as they walk on
stage. Applause is also appropriate at the end of a work.
Why is it important to remain quiet while the orchestra is playing?
There are many different sounds to listen to and only when everyone is quiet will you have a chance to hear them
all. More importantly, the musicians need your co-operation so they can hear each other and concentrate on giving
the audience a good performance.
Are cameras or taping devices allowed? They aren’t permitted in the theatre.
May I eat during the performance? Food and drinks are not allowed in the theatre.
Day of the Concert
• Before leaving school, please allow time for students to visit the restroom.
• Learn your bus driver’s name and be sure you can recognize her/him.
• Plan to arrive at the Grainger Studio at least 15 minutes before concert time.
• Write down your bus driver’s mobile phone number in case of an emergency.
• All students should be in the studio at least ten minutes before concert time.
Upon Arrival at the Grainger Studio
• After unloading your bus, you will be greeted by a volunteer in the main lobby; a volunteer will guide your group to
your seating area. Seating sections are assigned on the basis of group size.
• All students should be in their seats at least ten minutes before concert time.
During the Concert
• The use of cameras and recorders is prohibited.
• Students and teachers should remain in their seas for the entire concert.
• Restrooms are accessible from the foyer.
After the Concert
• Exit instructions will be given from the stage.
Back at School
• Student letters/artwork expressing reactions to the concert are appreciated.
AFTER THE CONCERT:
Encourage your students to review what they saw and heard and ask questions.
• Talk about the performance
• Explain why they felt as they did
• Draw or write about the performance
• Write a letter to one of the musicians
• Re-do an activity in the kit and see what influence the experience has had
• Research into the composers they heard and explore new ones
• Find out more about other orchestras
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
General Music Analysis Guide
Just like painters with their palette of colours, different brushes and other tools, composers have many
tools to use when writing music. They don’t have to use all of them all of the time. For example, in a
piece of music written for solo piano, there will be subtle changes in timbre (tone colour), but the
instrumentation of the piece will not change. When composers write music for a symphony orchestra
they have many timbres (French word meaning ‘tone colours’) to choose from because each instrument
and their combinations can produce different sound qualities.
TOOLS
What is it?
Q u e s t io n s t o a s k
D e s c r i b in g w o r d s
Tempo
The speed of
music
Is the music going fast or
slow? What emotion does
the tempo suggest?
Does the tempo change ?
Fa s t , m o d e r a t e , s l o w
Very, not too, a little, slightly
Rhythm
The patterns
created by
sounds and
silences
St r a i g h t , r e g u l a r , s m o o t h
Sy n c o p a t e d , i r r e g u l a r , b u m p y
E xc i t i n g , w i l d
Repetitive, pattern
Melody
Series of
musical notes;
the ‘tune’ of a
piece
Harmony
Two or more
notes of a
different pitch
heard
together;
underlying
structure of
music
Tone colour;
instrumentatio
n (which
instruments
are playing
and when)
How many beats/pulses
can you count/feel in
each phase?
Does the rhythm stay
steady of change?
Is it major or minor
sounding (happy/sad)?
Does it flow over long
notes or stagger and/or
flurry over short notes?
Does it go up or down?
Is it major or minor?
Who is playing the
harmony?
Does the harmony move
with the melody or by
itself?
What does each
instrument sound like?
How do they sound when
played together in
different combinations?
Does it sound heavy/thick
or light?
Where does the music
sound soft/loud?
Do the dynamics change
often?
Is it mostly a soft/loud
sounding piece?
High, low
Deep, mellow, thick
High, light, bright
Thin, transparent
Are the musicians playing
the notes separated and
short or long and smooth?
Bouncy, happy, light
Se p a r a t e d , s h o r t
Heavy, long, connected
Sm o o t h , l u x u r i o u s
Is it in:
So n a t a / R o n d o / B i n a r y / T e r n a r y / Fr e e
form or verse and chorus like pop
music
Timbre/
Texture
Dynamics
Style/
articulation
Form
Volume or
intensity of
sound, often
affecting
emotion
evoked by a
piece
Ways in which
the notes are
played
Referring to
the type of
“architectural”
structure on
which music is
built.
Can you identify some of
the main themes in the
music?
Long, short
High pitch, low pitch
only certain instruments playing
Melody goes up
Melody goes down
St e p s , l e a p s
Happy, sad
Tonal, atonal
C o m p l e x, s i m p l e
Loud, moderate
So f t , q u i e t
EDVARD GRIEG
Morning Mood from Peer Gynt
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in Bergen, Norway on 15 June 1843. In 1874–76, Grieg composed
incidental music for the premiere of Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, at the request of the author. Many of
the pieces from this work became very popular - particularly Morning Mood. It is now typically
associated with Nordic scenes; however, it was meant to depict sunrise over the Sahara Desert.
Melody
Listen to excerpt 1 on the CD.
The opening melody from Morning Mood is very famous – and very simple.
This melody is alternated between the flute and the oboe – like birds calling to each other at dawn. The
length of the melody they alternate gets shorter and shorter, like birds starting to all call at once.
Later the violins take up the tune with a sweeping sound, like the first rays of the sun sweeping over the
land.
Activity
Grieg’s melody is very simple, yet very effective. Think about what makes the melody effective.
Perhaps its simplicity has a resonance with people and allows space to absorb the melody – much like
watching a sunrise. Perhaps there are other reasons!
Ask students to try to compose a simple melody on a recorder or xylophone, or just by singing.
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Sixth Symphony (Pastoral) – 4th Movement, The Tempest
Beethoven loved walking in the environs of Vienna and spent nearly every summer in the country.
Beethoven's letters are filled with declarations of the importance of nature in his life, such as this one
from 1810: "How delighted I will be to ramble for awhile through the bushes, woods, under trees,
through grass, and around rocks. No one can love the country as much as I do. For surely woods, trees,
and rocks produce the echo that man desires to hear."
Listen to track 2 on the CD
This excerpt is from the first movement of the symphony, titled Awakening of cheerful feelings upon
arrival in the country.
Tempo - activity
Is this piece fast or slow (allegro or adagio?)
What would it sound like if it was a different tempo?
Can you sing the melody at a different tempo?
Musicians sometimes use a machine called a metronome to work out how fast or slow to play
something. They can set it at different beats per minute, eg 60 beats per minute is the same as the
second hand ticking on a clock.
Clap the beat of this melody. How many beats per minute do you think it is?
You can check if you are right by going to http://www.metronomeonline.com/ and clicking on the
number you think it is.
At the concert you will hear the 4th movement which depicts a storm - you can see the Simon Bolivar
Youth Orchestra perform this at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRwMxCuagYg
What instruments does Beethoven use to depict the sounds of the storm?
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
BENJAMIN BRITTEN
The Storm from Four Sea Interludes
Benjamin Britten was an English composer, born in 1913. He wrote lyrical music and was considered to
be a particularly good orchestrator – in other words good at deciding which instruments to use at
particular times, to create different colours and effects.
In 1942 Britten returned to Britain from New York and settled on the Suffolk coast. This music tries to
capture some of the moods of the sea, when the sky, clouds, sunshine (or lack of it) and the colour of
the sea all interplay to create unique scenery. The music is sparse, and it might be easiest to think
about how the sea looks at dawn, or when the sea meets the land, either on a beach or at cliffs. For the
storm, imagine the ocean being whipped up during a violent storm, with white caps and sea foam, and
wind whipping the waves.
Listen to track 3 on the CD
Form
You will notice that the form or structure of this music is itself a bit like the peaks and troughs of ocean
waves in a storm. When we talk about form in music we often use letters to represent sections of the
music. For example the strings playing at the beginning of this exerpt could be called ‘A’, then there is a
‘B’ section in which the brass plays, beginning at 0:50 on this track. Then the ‘A’ section with the strings
returns, then there is a new ‘C’ section at 1:37 in which there are frenzied woodwinds. Then all the
instruments join together in a new ‘D’ section in which culminates in a calming down moment – the
calm after the storm.
So the form of this section could be represented as A-B-A-C-D.
Some forms which recur often in classical music are given names, such as ‘Ternary form’ which is A-B-A.
An example of this form is ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’. It has three sections; the first and last ('Twinkle,
twinkle...', at the beginning and end) are the same, but they contrast with the middle section ('Up above
the world so high...").
Activity
Choose some well-known songs and ask students to think about their structure/form.
Why do composers use structure in music? Notes are the building blocks and form is the design. Is
there form in nature? Perhaps that is why we respond to form when we hear it in music?
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
AARON COPLAND
Appalachian Spring
Aaron Copland (1900 – 1990) was an American composer,
composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his
own and other American music. The open, slowly-changing
harmonies of many of his works are archetypical of what many
people consider to be the sound of American music, evoking the vast
American landscape and pioneer spirit. Appalachian Spring was
originally written as a ballet, scored for a thirteen-member chamber
orchestra, and created upon commission of choreographer and
dancer Martha Graham.
Copland originally composed the music without the title, and so was
often amused when people told him he captured the beauty of the
Appalachians in his music. Little known is that the word "spring" denotes a source of water and
not springtime but for most people it effectively depicts both.
BEDRICH SMETANA
The Moldau from Ma Vlast
Smetana was a Czechoslovakian composer well known for using Bohemian rhythms and melodies in his
music. This was a form of nationalism, helping to maintain identity at a time when other nations tried
to take over Czechoslovakia and impose their culture on the people.
The Moldau is a major river. It starts in the mountains as a stream, very cold, fast and clear. On its way
to the sea it gradually gets bigger and broader, travelling through farmlands and valleys, villages, and
eventually to Prague. Imagine the river flowing at first over large rocks and boulders, from very high
mountains, becoming a broad and majestic feature in valleys and fields.
The Moldau features one of Smetana's most famous melodies:
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
JEAN SIBELIUS
Symphony Number 2
Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer, who wrote his second symphony in
1902. This symphony is one of Sibelius' most popular and enduring, and in
the fourth movement in particular, with soaring brass chords evokes the icy
landscape and soaring Alpine peaks of Finland.
Other parts of the symphony are more light hearted, and as one conductor
observed in 1955,
"The second symphony is a song of praise for summer and the joy of life."
Listen to track 5 on the CD
Listening
Ask students to imagine what landscape Sibelius was trying to depict with this music.
At 0:20 you can hear the French Horns breaking through the sound like mountain peaks. The woodwind
and strings sound like birds circling the peaks.
Activity
Ask students to write a listening map for this excerpt.
For example:
0:05 woodwinds bird sounds.
0:20 horns mountain peaks etc
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
CLAUDE DEBUSSY
La Mer
Claude Debussy was a French composer, and one of the most prominent figures
working in the field of impressionist music. Impressionism in music was a
tendency in European classical music, mainly in France, which appeared
in the late nineteenth century and continued into the middle of the
twentieth century. Similarly to its precursor in the visual arts, musical
impressionism focuses on a suggestion and an atmosphere rather than
on a strong emotion or the depiction of a story as in program music.
Musical impressionism occurred as a reaction to the excesses of the
Romantic era. While the earlier era was characterized by a dramatic use
of the major and minor scale systems, impressionist music tended to
make more use of dissonance.
Debussy had once planned to be a sailor, so it is appropriate that his larges purely orchestral work
shows the sea in its various moods. Descriptive music is the essence of Debussy's art, and he used the
orchestra in a way not attempted before. His studies of eastern music had freed him from traditional
European harmonic and tonal rules, and the subtleties of eastern instrumental sounds had taught him
to use the orchestra as a pliable instrument in which individual tones might be blended to produce
pastel shades and new effects. Debussy paints the sea with love, respect and great perception. Its
constant movement is conveyed clearly at the opening of the first movement, as one seems to perceive
the vast body of water dimly in a gradually-growing dawn light.
Listen to track 4 on the CD
Style/Articulation
In this excerpt you can hear the flute with a flowing melody:
The arched phrasing line above the flute indicates that the player should play the notes slurred – all
joined together in one breath, without stopping the sound between notes. This small melody sounds
very like the flowing motion of the sea. Imagine now if all of these notes were played staccato –
tongued separately and short. The effect would be very different. Ask students to think about what
sort of image the music would sound like in this case.
Harmony
In this excerpt (from 0:20 to 0:34) we can also hear a typical feature of Debussy’s writing: the fluid
movement between keys: the first two bars are in a major key and sound bright, then the next two bars
are in a minor key and sound slightly darker. This is another technique which Debussy uses to depict
the fluid motion and ever changing nature of the sea.
PETER SCULTHORPE
Mangrove
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
Peter Sculthorpe is an eminent Australian composer, born in Lauceston Tasmania in 1929. He has been
innovative in creating sounds that reflect the Australian landscape, using unusual combinations of
instruments, sparse writing, and striking harmonies.
Mangrove was written and first performed in 1979, and provides a particularly good example of how
Sculthorpe continually seeks to avoid hackneyed, ‘European’ responses to nature. He deliberately
omitted the traditional ‘water and rain’ instruments, woodwinds and harps, from the orchestra on this
occasion lest he were tempted to use them. This is partly because he had little interest in actually
portraying a mangrove tree in music. As Sculthorpe has said of Mangrove, he wished to evoke
'memories of a time spent among mangroves; thoughts of Sidney Nolan’s rain- forest
paintings, in which Eliza Frazer and the convict Bracefell become through love, birds and
butterflies, ... even recollections of a beach, mangrove- free, at Ise, in Japan; and thoughts
of a New Guinea tribe that believes man and woman to be descended from mangroves.'
Sydney Nolan, Convict in Swamp, 1973
A most striking aspect of Mangrove is
Sculthorpe’s treatment of its main melody,
which is given first to the cellos who present it
in heterophony: that is, they are directed to
play it fuori di passo, literally ‘out-of-step’ with
each other. Some play either a little before or
after the beat, while others play the melody in
strict rhythm.
Mangrove is written for 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, bass trombone, tuba, percussion (3 players),
and strings.
Ryhthm
Listen to the driving drum sound in this excerpt (track 7). What do you think this sound represents (eg
rain?). What about the trumpet sounds (eg raindrops hitting puddles or frogs)? Imagine how this
excerpt would sound without this drum sound and the constant rhythm it provides.
Dynamics - Activity
Does this excerpt get louder or softer? Ask the students to listen to the excerpt and draw a line or
graph – some kind of representation of the dynamics. Or they could start off crouched on the floor and
grow taller and taller to represent the growing of the dynamics, shrinking back down to the floor again
as the excerpt gets softer again.
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
EINOJUHANI RAUTAVAARA
Cantus Arcticus
Cantus Arcticus, Op. 61, is a composition by the Finnish
composer Einojuhani Rautavaara. It was written in 1972, and is
probably his best-known work.
Subtitled Concerto for Birds and Orchestra it incorporates tape
recordings of birdsong recorded near the Arctic Circle and on
the bogs of Liminka in northern Finland.
The work is in three movements: The bog opens with a flute
duet, after which the other woodwinds join in, followed by the birds. The second movement,
Melancholy, features a slowed-down recording of the song of the shore lark. The final movement,
Swans migrating, takes the form of a long crescendo for orchestra, with the sounds of whooper swans,
before both birdsong and orchestra fade, as if into the distance.
Listen to the CD (track 8)
Listening
Ask the students about the beginning – are they instruments playing? (They are recorded bird sounds)
Why do you think Rautavaara used the bird sounds? (Perhaps he was trying to show us the music that is
all around us in nature)
Activity
Ask the students to record some sounds in nature eg bird sounds, wind, insects. If they have access to
computers, ask them to collate their collected sounds into a track using eg Garage Band (Mac) or
Audacity:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
They could then add other tracks using recordings of themselves playing instruments or pre-recorded
music or sounds.
We’d love to hear the results! If you have time please send the resulting tracks to
[email protected].
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
RICHARD WAGNER
Forest Murmurs
Richard Wagner was born in Germany in 1813, and died in Italy in 1884. He is best known for
composing a number of operas called The Ring Cycle. He used very large orchestras, to reflect the grand
themes and settings of his operas. At the time Wagner was writing, composers gravitated toward
stories based in mythology and the supernatural. Composers also found ways to make their musical
ideas represent people, things, and dramatic situations as well as emotional states and even
philosophical ideas.
This orchestral music is extracted from an opera. The hero of the opera is resting in the depth of a
forest. Imagine very tall, old, large European trees (ie not rainforest) which create a green canopy, and
dappled light, or glimpses of sunlight shafting through the trees. There is birdsong, and a feeling of
peace and tranquillity. Imagery arising from this could include details like leaves, the texture of
different kinds of bark, and the play of light on and through leaves.
Activity
Ask students how they would depict in music:
-
A leaf falling
An avalanche
A river tumbling over rocks
A hot summers day with a heat haze
A bushfire
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
PETER SCULTHORPE
Kakadu
Sculthorpe’s Kakadu takes its name from the Kakadu National Park, an
enormous wilderness area stretching from coastal tidal plains to inland
mountain plateaux. Today, only a few of its native inhabitants still speak
the Kakadu, or Gagudju, language from which the park takes its name. As
Sculthorpe says, the work ‘is concerned with my feelings about this place,
its landscape, its change of seasons, its dry season and its wet, its cycle of
life and death.’
In this piece, the violins use a technique called tremolo: they move the
bow back and forth across the strings very quickly to create a shimmering
sound.
Listen to the excerpt - track 6 on the CD
You can see the score for this piece at
http://cdn.australianmusiccentre.com.au/documents/ds_2000_2841.pdf
Notice the unusual techniques used by Sculthorpe – eg on page three the violins are directed to play
rapid continuous quarter tone vibrato for 12 seconds, while at the same time half of the second violins
play rapid continuous glissando (sliding sound between two notes). The effect of all these instruments
playing different types of sounds is one of a shimmering of birds or insects.
Listening
Listen to track 6
See if you can tell what instruments are playing. What would the students use to create insect sounds?
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
ACTIVITY 1
Ask students to listen to excerpts 1,3,4,5,7 and 8
Ask them to number these pictures 1 – 6 in order that they hear the music, choosing the image they
think the music goes with.
Of course there’s no right or wrong answer – this exercise can lead to discussion of how music can mean
whatever it means to you as an individual.
Alternative activity: listen to all of the excerpts and think about what landscape the composer
is describing.
ACTIVITY 2
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
Ask students to mark on this map all of the countries which the composers are from, and the regions their
music describes.
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
ACTIVITY 3
Listen to excerpt 1 (Morning Mood by Grieg) and ask students to identify the instruments playing the main
theme, and then find them in the following orchestral layout:
Do the same for the other excerpts
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
Soundscapes Art project
We would like to invite your students to participate in an art project based on the music featured in
Soundscapes – and on their thoughts about nature and the environment.
If students would like to – and if time and programming permits – they could listen to the music
featured on the accompanying CD and draw or paint (or digitally create) some works inspired by
what they hear.
We invite teachers to send us the artwork, either by post or digitally, and then we will feature as
many artworks as possible as projections during the performances of Soundscapes.
Please send the artworks to:
Kristina Phillipson
Learning & Outreach Coordinator
ASO
GPO Box 2121
Adelaide 5000
or
[email protected]
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
Teacher Feedback Form – It’s A Riot!
IMPORTANT! Your comments and feedback are key elements in planning our future programs.
Please share your thoughts, opinion and suggestions. This form may be photocopied for use by all
the teachers/parents attending the concert.
1. Which performance did you attend?
June 20 June 21
10am or 11.30am
2. Please rate the following on a scale of 1 to 6
Poor
Excellent
Suitability of programming
1
2
3
4
5
6
Presenter’s rapport with audience
1
2
3
4
5
6
Orchestra performance
1
2
3
4
5
6
Logistics (seating, exiting, etc)
1
2
3
4
5
6
Students’ response
1
2
3
4
5
6
Comments
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3. Was the Teaching kit useful? Is there anything you would like to see added?
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4. Did you find the concert to be a valuable educational experience?
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5. Additional Comments
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Please Return to
ASO – Learning Program GPO BOX 2121, Adelaide SA 5000 [email protected]
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The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra presents
Soundscapes
Student Review of the concert – It’s A Riot!
Student name – ________________________________
Age- _________
School
Grade – _______
-
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Performance attended - _______________________
Describe your concert experience.
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Name one of the musical pieces you heard at the concert and describe it.
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Choose two musical instruments you heard at the concert and compare them: eg
how do they make their sound?
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What did you enjoy the most and what did you enjoy the least at this concert?
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Do you have any questions for the musicians?
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What music would you like the orchestra to perform in the future?
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