Some starting points for
COMPOSING MUSIC INSPIRED BY THE WEATHER
Rainstorm - body percussion
Sit in a circle. Pass sounds around the circle in order one by one, listening
carefully to the sound picture created as the sounds gradually change.
As each person joins in they continue with the same sound. Start the next
sound when the first has completed the circle and pass this around. Repeat
with the whole continuous sequence:
rub palms together
tap fingers gently on palm
clap hands
slap knees
stamp on the floor
slap knees clap hands
tap fingers gently on palm
rub palms together
Think of other weather sounds to add to the sequence, eg fingerclicks, vocal
whoosing or whistling wind.
Rainstorm - percussion and/or soundmakers
Select five types of instrument describing types of weather to create a
rainstorm with instruments, eg egg shakers, wind tubes, glockenspiels, drums
or thundersheets, cymbals.
Divide into groups and decide how to structure the sequence to create a piece
of music describing the build up, centre and dying away of a storm.
Raindrops
Explore instruments and soundmakers to find as many different ways as
possible of making sounds which describe raindrops.
Work in pairs or small groups to create raindrop effects using as many
different timbres (sound qualities) as possible on ONE instrument only.
Tips
 Materials - try wood, metal, skin, shaken sounds
 Beaters - try using fingertips, both ends of beaters, beaters of different
materials - plastic, wood, metal
 Techniques - try taps, slides (glissandi), rolls using 2 beaters
 Musical elements - vary the tempo, dynamics (volume), pitch (high or
low notes), texture (combinations of sounds)
Perform the sounds to each other to listen and compare what you have found.
Now decide how to structure the sounds to make a large group piece.
TIPS
 Make a sequence of separate sounds
 Layer sounds one by one to create a thicker texture
 Order the sounds by dynamics (eg quietest to loudest or vice versa)
 Choose a repeating theme which is played between the other sounds rondo structure - ABACADA….
 Choose an ostinato (repeating pattern) to play all the way
through as an accompaniment to the other sounds
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ICT - remember to record work in progress and performances for listening and
appraising. Record real weather sounds, use ICT to change and manipulate.
WEATHER WATCH
Some suggestions for INSTRUMENTS AND SOUND SOURCES
SUN
Suspended cymbal & soft beater
Pair of cymbals
Glockenspiel
Chime bars - shimmer effect by moving a strip of card over sound hole
MIST/FOG
Low xylophone bar - roll with two soft beaters
Recorder top - finger in sound hole then gentle, long blowing
Tambour/large drum - fingers rubbed on skin
RAIN
Suspended mugs or teacups tapped with spoon or wooden beater
Metal container with or without water, tapped with hard beater
Plastic bottle water shaker
Plastic bottle top shaker
Boomwhackers
Indian bells
Triangles
Cowbells or metal agogo
Rainstick
ICE/SNOW
Crinkly plastic scrunched with the hands
Metal wind chimes
Metal cabasa
Autoharp - strings plucked or strummed with beater handle
Glockenspiel with hard beaters
WIND
Swirly tubes
Bottle top shakers
Maracas
Xylophone - glissandi (slides) using soft beaters
STORM
Dustbin
Thunder sheet - large flexible sheet of metal or cardboard, shaken
Thunder tube
Cardboard box drums
Drums or tambours
Jingle sticks
Cymbals
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MUSIC WHICH DESCRIBES THE WEATHER
Listen to music which is inspired by, or describes the weather. Use the music
as a stimulus or to compare with your own compositions.
Go to the Audio Network music library to explore the theme of weather
through listening to the music listed below at www.audionetworkplc.com
Weatherman
Blues/jazz song with shuffle rhythm, female vocal and saxophone solo

Which weather conditions are included in the lyrics?
(rain, summer sun, cooler temperatures, autumn wind, changing skies,
storm clouds)
SUN
Early morning
Orchestral sounds

What mood does the composer create? How?
What do you think the weather will be like?
(Peaceful, calm, waking, gradual light. Slow,
quiet, gentle sounds gradually building up on top
of each other and becoming higher in pitch at the
end as if the sun has risen)
Blue sky
Song with male vocal, guitar, piano and drum kit accompaniment

How does the music describe a happy mood?
(relaxed rhythm; happy, jaunty melody; whistling)
Sunlight 2
Electronic synths

Which sounds remind you of the sun and why?
(Shimmering sounds at the beginning; long, smooth sounds; quiet
sounds which get louder as if the sun is getting hotter)
CLOUDS
Gliss nirvana
Solo harp playing glissandi (sliding over the strings)

How does this give the impression of clouds?
(It sounds light, airy and is continually moving)
MIST
Through the mist
Bass flute, pizzicato strings, shaker

What atmosphere is created? How?
(Scary, creepy, nervous sounds. Gradual crescendo then louder rattles
on shaker)
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RAIN
Fairy dust
Solo glockenspiel Evelyn Glennie

What are the bars of a glockenspiel made of? (Metal)
Do you think this music could describe raindrops? Why?
(Each note sounds like a drop; the patterns are different speeds and
lengths; at first it sounds as if it is just starting to rain, then raining
faster, then stopping)
Rain Train
Minimalist violin piece

How has the composer created the impression of rain?
(Short repeated melodic phrases with regular rhythms are
played by two violins in overlapping patterns).
Rainy days/ Rainy days 2
Pizzicato violin

How has the composer used the violin to describe the rain?
(Plucked strings which make short sounds, repeating patterns that fall
in pitch step by step)
Liquid air
Violin solo, piano and strings

Which instrument is playing the raindrops sounds? (Piano, harp)
What is the mood of the music? What pictures can you see as you
listen?
Chronophone 3 Evelyn Glennie
Played on a barimbulum - a wooden box with thick steel wire threaded
through the sides.

Can you suggest what the instrument is made of and how the sound is
made? How does the music change?
(It starts slowly and the notes get gradually faster and louder)
ICE
Black Ice scape
Bell tree solo

Why has the composer chosen this instrument to describe ice?
(Its metal sound is bright and shiny. It makes sharp, light sounds)
Jagged Ice
Strings, autoharp, percussion.

How does the music describe jagged ice? (Sharp rhythms; long, dark,
low sounds contrasting with bright, high, short sounds; dangerous,
threatening sounds)
How many percussion instruments do you notice? (Claves, sleigh bells,
cymbal, drum)
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WIND
Bullroarer
Bullroarer - a tube attached to string and whirled overhead - originally an
aboriginal weapon.

Does this sound remind you of the wind? How does the sound change?
(It gets faster and louder - it makes a crescendo)
Arctic waste
Electronic wind sounds with strings

How does the composer create a cold, deserted atmosphere?
(Continuous wind sound; long, distant, bleak-sounding chords)
Winter
Violin effects, harmonics

How do the sounds make you feel? Why?
(There are cold, creaking, high-pitched sounds)
STORM
Ride the storm
Hip hop groove with vocal and electronic effects

What sound effects can you hear that describe a storm?
(wind, crashing waves, thunder and lightning)
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FAMOUS COMPOSERS INSPIRED BY THE WEATHER
SUN
Maxwell Davies
Gershwin
Orkney Wedding and sunrise
Summertime (Porgy & Bess)
CLOUDS
Debussy
Ligeti
Nuages from Nocturnes
Clocks and Clouds
FOG
John Adams
Fog tropes
RAIN
Britten
Chopin
Debussy
Noye’s Fludde (raindrops played on teacups)
Prelude Op 28 No 15 The Raindrop (piano)
Gardens in the rain from Estampes (piano)
SNOW
Debussy
Delius
Purcell
Vaughan Williams
Maxwell Davies
Footsteps in the snow from Preludes (piano)
Sleigh ride
Frost scene - King Arthur
Sinfonia Antarctica
Sinfonia Antarctica No 8
STORM
Benjamin Britten
Beethoven
Berlioz
Moussorgsky
Robert Saxton
Strauss
Vivaldi
Noye’s Fludde and Sea interludes from Peter Grimes
Pastoral symphony - 4th movement
Symphonie fantastique (3rd movt)
Night on a bald mountain
Summer is icumen in (Let’s go Shoolie shoo, A&C Black)
Thunder & Lightning polka
The Four seasons
SONGS
Here comes the sun - Beatles
Raindrops keep falling on my head
The sun has got his hat on
Raining in my heart
Good day sunshine
You are my sunshine
Singing in the rain
Sing a rainbow
Do you know the colours? (Bobby shaftoe A&C Black Colours in correct order!)
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RESOURCES
All of these resources can be used by generalist teachers as no music
reading is required.
Let’s go zudie-o
MacGregor A&C Black
Composition and creative dance activities Book & CD
The snow is dancing based on Debussy’s Footsteps in the snow
Let’s go shoolie shoo
MacGregor A&C Black
Composition and creative dance activities Book & CD
Twister based on Saxton’s Summer is icumen
Listening to music 7+
Composition activity
Winds on the mountain
MacGregor A&C Black
Book & CD
South American traditional panpipe music
Bingo Lingo
MacGregor A&C Black
Storm Vocal performance chant
Three Singing Pigs
Umansky A&C Black
Story and composition activity
Noah’s ark
Pictorial score
Three Rapping Rats
Umansky A&C Black
Story and composition activity
Imir the frost giant
Pictorial/graphic score
Seasons - Songbirds
Wellington boots
A&C Black
Book & CD
It’s gonna be hot
Junior songscape
Listen to the rain
Lin Marsh Faber
Music & CD
Summer
Whistle down the wind
Lloyd Webber
Helen MacGregor
Teacher Adviser for Music
Advisory Service Kent
helen.macgregor@kent.gov.uk
Tel 01622 203 800 x 252
Mob 07919212 033
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