Year 7 investigation:
Instrumental ensembles
Save this sheet to your computer and fill
everything in on here. If you need a different
file format (because you do not have Word
on your computer), ask you teacher for help.
Remember it is extremely important to write
in your own words—do not copy and paste!
1. What is an ensemble?
Fill in the grid below to answer the questions, researching online to find information
where necessary.
Look up the word ‘ensemble’ in a
dictionary.
What does it mean…in a musical sense?
What different musical ensembles
can you think of without looking
them up?
In a non-musical sense?
What language does the word come from?
Find out what kind of ensembles the following groups are (look them up):
The Grimethorpe Colliery Band
The London Philharmonic
Louis Armstrong and the Hot Five
Led Zeppelin
2. Investigating some different instrumental ensembles
Fill in the grid below to answer the questions, researching online to find information
where necessary.
The Orchestra
You already know about the sections of the
orchestra from your last project.
Now you are going to learn about changes in the
shape of the orchestra over history. Here are
diagrams of the orchestra at different times:
Research the dates of these periods:
Baroque:
Classical:
Baroque period
Romantic:
Summarise the changes made to the size of the
orchestra, and the instruments in it, over these
three periods (look this up if necessary).
Classical period
Romantic period
Watch the Hallelujah Chorus
www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3TUWU_yg4s
Judging from the orchestra accompanying the
choir, which period was this music written in? How
can you tell?
The orchestra (continued) Watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-Gd5iHJL7o
Name one thing you really like about this performance, and a question you would like to have answered.
Be specific with a time reference (i.e. 1:31) if required.
I really liked
My question is
The brass band
Research British-style brass bands
What instruments are included?
When did the British brass band come about?
What industries are associated with brass bands?
Watch William Tell Overture played by What are the differences between
the Grimethorpe Colliery Band
trumpets, cornets, and flugelhorns?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjMWOzeuRiw
What instrument(s) play most of the melodies in
this piece?
String quartets
Watch Eleanor Rigby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m067kmfUTAM
What instruments are found in a string quartet? (do not guess)
Name at least three things that a string quartet
does not have which orchestras and brass bands
do.
A quartet has four
players.
What is an ensemble that has…
Two players?
Three players?
Five players?
Eight players?
Nine players?
Ten players?
A string quartet is a type of chamber ensemble. What do we mean
by chamber music?
Percussion ensemble
Watch Ionisation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wClwaBuFOJA
See how many instruments you can name just by watching
the video. Remember there are 100s of types of drum—
you need to be specific about what sort you mean!
Watch the video carefully. The
music is very complicated. How
do the players keep track of when
they should play?
Both of these instruments are used in Ionisation. Find out
what they are called—this might help
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionisation_(Var%C3%A8se)
Jazz combo
Watch Mo’ Better Blues
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1VREP-5Rg8
This is a typical 5-piece jazz combo.
You might find it useful to look up
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_combo
Which instruments here form the ‘front
line’ (also known as the ‘horn section’)?
The musicians do not play from sheet
music.
How do jazz musicians know what to play?
And which instruments form the ‘rhythm
section’?
Research jazz
Name three really famous jazz musicians from the
last 100 years, and the instruments they played.
At 2:33 the sax player starts to improvise.
What does this mean?
1.
2.
3.
3. Create an extended piece of work about your choice of ensemble: the
orchestra, the brass band, the string quartet, the percussion ensemble or the
jazz combo.
You can choose how you do this:
 A piece of extended writing (word
document) - this should be over
1000 words
 A podcast (i.e. audio recording)
 A video
 A powerpoint (minimum 8 slides,
include diagrams, pictures and
hyperlinks)
 A detailed mindmap or infographic (for
more info on how to do this, visit
http://www.mindmapping.co.uk/make-mindmap.htm, http://www.easel.ly/ or
http://infogr.am/ )
The focus is up to you:
 Origins
and history of your
chosen ensemble
 Music
written for your
ensemble
chosen
 Specific
ensembles, i.e. London
Symphony Orchestra,
Grimethorpe Colliery Band,
Miles Davis Quintet etc.
 Recommended
websites to find more info
You will find lots of information of Wikipedia about all the different ensembles. It
is always worth watching performances of pieces on YouTube so you can see what
the instruments look like and how they are played.
 Subject-specific
terms that can/should be used: ensemble, pitch, melody,
rhythm, accompaniment, timbre, harmony, dynamics, string, percussion, brass,
woodwind, conductor, improvisation, sheet music