Composition Resource – Listening
Listening to music plays a central role in developing a learner’s understanding of
music, both as a performer and composer. It helps to build a picture of how music
connects with the listener and informs their own compositions.
To develop composition skills, it is important to help learners develop their
understanding of how we connect and respond to music, as listeners, and how this
goes beyond listening to music as a background activity. By exploring this, learners
will develop their own appreciation and understanding of how music works.
There are four main ways we can respond to music:
Emotional response – Music has the power to elicit emotional responses from the
listener. This could be feelings of joy or sorrow, or association with a particular
memory.
Intellectual response – Knowledge of the background of a piece, or style, of music
can impact on how we respond to a piece of music.
Imaginative response – Music has the ability to conjure up images in the mind. This
could be intentional on the part of the composer, or could be linked to the emotional
response.
Physical response – There are obvious signs of physical responses to music,
through dancing or moving to a piece of music, for example, tapping our toes or
clapping hands. There are also less obvious physical responses such becoming
more relaxed.
We all respond differently to pieces of music, much in the same way as we will
respond differently to a piece of art or performance. It is important to discuss this
with learners and encourage them to consider how an audience might respond to
their own composition work.
It is important to listen to music from Scottish culture. Scottish Traditional
Music, Concerto Caledonia and Scotland’s Songs all provide a range of pieces
for all levels.
Also, BBC Ten Pieces and BBC School Radio provide good resources to
support listening skills.
Early
Listening activities at early level can help to reinforce the connection musical sounds
can make with children’s feelings and imagination. Pieces of music can be selected
which stimulate the imagination and/or make young children want to move.
Asking children what they liked about a piece of music will help them to begin to
make connections between what they are hearing and what they are creating.
Suggested Listening:
Leo Brouwer Cuban Landscape with Rain
Johann Strauss – Tritsch-Tratch-Polka Op.214
Henry Hall & his orchestra - The Teddy Bear's Picnic
Henry Hall – Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf?
Mozart – The Marriage of Figaro
Bach - Minuet in G major (Classical guitar)
Johann Strauss II – Persian March
Gaelic Song: The St Kildans' Song (Oran na Hiortaich)
First
Listening activities through first level can help to reinforce the connections that music
can stimulate the imagination and evoke responses. It is important to use music
which is familiar to young people. This could be a song or a theme from a film.
Encourage learners to develop stronger opinions about the music they listen to by
asking them to justify their responses. It is interesting to compare responses from a
range of learners.
Suggested listening:
Beethoven Symphony No. 5
Johann Strauss Sr - Radetzky March
Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker Suite, Op 71a
Camille Saint-Saëns - The Carnival of Animals
Serge Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf
Antonin Dvorák - Slavonic Dance No. 2
Haydn - Symphony No. 104
Train - Hey, Soul Sister
Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl
Second
Listening activities at second level will begin to explore the deeper meaning behind a
piece of music and help learners begin to pick out musical building blocks which can
be used in their own compositions. Learners should begin to understand how a piece
of music is put together to inform the structure of their own compositions.
Find examples of music in the style the children will be composing, for example,
radio jingles. Encourage a more reflective style of questioning through group
discussions following a listening activity.
Suggested Listening:
John Adams Short Ride in a Fast Machine
George Bizet: Carmen Suite #1 - Les Toreadors
Elgar - Pomp and Circumstance No. 1 in D Major
Steve Reich – Clapping music
Stravinsky's - The Rite of Spring
Mozart - Rondo Alla Turca
Johannes Brahms - Hungarian Dance No. 5
Frank Sinatra - Come Fly with Me
Bruno Mars - Just the Way You Are
Judith Weir - Airs From Another Planet
Edgar Varèse - Poème électronique
Third and fourth
Listening activities through third and fourth level will be designed around critical
reflection activities. Young people will develop a greater understanding listening to
music and the connections it makes with the listener. They will develop their views
on what they listen to and be able to analyse the piece in a number of ways. Young
people become more aware of attributes and components of music and how they
can apply this in their own compositions.
Young people will often listen to music out with school. Providing opportunities to talk
about this in class with peers can help them to develop a deeper understanding of
music and provide a more in-depth insight into how music is constructed. Using
reflective questions, such as the ones included in the table below, can help young
people to form and express their opinions about the music they listen to and
compose.
Piece of Music:
Suggested Listening:
Leonard Bernstein – Mambo (West Side Story)
Messiaen - Quartet for the End of Time
Judith Weir – Stars, Night, Music and Light
Harrison Birtwistle - Ostinato with Melody
Arnold Schönberg - Pierrot Lunaire - 8. Nacht
Edvard Grieg - Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 - Anitra's Dance
Bizet - Habanera
Capercaillie - Coisich A Ruin
Oasis - Wonderwall
James MacMillan - Confessions of Isobel Gowdie
Harrison Birtwistle - Lied
Piece of Music
Composer
What do I already know about
this work?
What feelings, mood and
atmosphere does this work
evoke?
What images did the music
enable you to see?
Consider colours, shapes,
numbers, events, settings
etc.
How would you describe the
form of this piece?
Name some of the elements
of this piece that you might
apply in your composition.
What images did the music
enable you to see?
What could you use, from
this piece of music, in your
own composition?
What is the composer trying to?