Teachers' Resource Pack Spring 2019 - London Philharmonic Orchestra
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GCSE BrightSparks —Isle of Noises
Teachers’ Resource Pack
Spring 2019
Unauthorised copying of any part of this
teachers’ pack is strictly prohibited
The copyright of the project pack text is held by:
• Rachel Leach © 2019
• London Philharmonic Orchestra © 2019
Any other copyrights are held by their respective owners.
This pack was produced by:
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Education and Community Department
89 Albert Embankment
London SE1 7TP
The LPO BrightSparks concerts in 2018/19 are generously supported by The Candide Trust,
Garf & Gill Collins, Dunard Fund, Mr & Mrs Philip Kan, The R K Charitable Trust, The Rivers
Foundation, The Thistle Trust and the LPO’s runners in the Summer 2018 British 10K.
This pack and additional online resources are available on
www.lpo.org.uk/thestudioteachers
London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE Resources
Contents
Introduction 4
The London Philharmonic Orchestra 5
Set works and musical analysis:
Purcell: Music for a while 6
Purcell: Dido’s Lament 8
Hadyn: Symphony No. 101 ‘Clock’, second movement 9
Britten: Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes 11
Shore: The Lord of the Rings 13
Creative resources:
Ideas for creative work in the classroom 15
The Studio: the LPO’s online space for creative composition 21
Thank you 23
London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE Resources
Introduction
This pack forms part of a variety of resources linked to the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s GCSE
BrightSparks concert on 14 February 2019, but can also be used as a standalone resource for GCSE
Music teachers.
In the concert on 14 February, we will focus on musical works from or inspired by Britain, as part of
the LPO’s Isle of Noises focus on British music throughout 2019. The concert features the following
repertoire:
• Henry Purcell – Music for a While (Edexcel set work), and Dido’s Lament from Dido and Aeneas
(AQA and OCR Baroque style and structure)
• Joseph Haydn – Symphony 101, ‘Clock’, second movement (AQA set work)
• Benjamin Britten – Second and Fourth of Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes (AQA Western
Classical traditions since 1910)
• Howard Shore, arr. Whitney – Extracts from Lord of the Rings Symphonic Suite: The Fellowship of
the Ring (Edexcel wider listening, and general topic of film music on all major syllabuses)
This pack introduces the repertoire from the concert, provides brief analysis and background
information about the pieces and composers, and includes some ideas for creative work in the
classroom based on the concert themes.
Alongside this pack, we invite you to explore our online composition resources on The Studio, the
LPO’s creative online space for teenage musicians and their teachers, which includes composition
activities and guidance, as well as resources about additional GCSE and A Level set works.
More information about the resources on The Studio can be found on page 21.
www.lpo.org.uk/thestudio
Rachel Leach
Our concert will be presented by composer and animateur Rachel Leach. Rachel has composed and
worked for most of the UK’s orchestras and opera companies.
Rachel’s most recent comission was Zeppelin Dreams, a
massive World War One community opera for English
Touring Opera and the Wolverhampton Grand. Other pieces
have been recorded by NMC and published by Faber. Her
community opera One Day, Two Dawns, written for ETO,
won the RPS award for best education project 2009.
As well as creative music-making and composition in
the classroom, Rachel is the mentor of the LPO’s Creative
Classrooms project, training primary teachers in south London in creative music-making in the
classroom. She is also the lead tutor on the London Symphony Orchestra’s teacher training scheme,
which over 10 years has helped to train 100 teachers across East London.
Rachel also works with Turtle Key Arts writing song cycles with people with dementia, an initiative
which also trains students from the Royal College of Music. Alongside all this, she is increasingly in
demand as a concert presenter. She regularly presents children’s concerts, lunchtime concerts and
pre-concert events for LPO, LSO, BBC Proms, RCM and Wigmore Hall.
4 London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE Resources
The London Philharmonic Orchestra
One of the finest orchestras on the international stage, the London Philharmonic Orchestra
balances a long and distinguished history with its reputation as one of the UK’s most
forward-looking ensembles. It was founded in 1932 by Sir Thomas Beecham, and since then
has been headed by many great names in the conducting world.
The Orchestra regularly record for film – so it’s possible your students have heard them.
Amongst many soundtracks they have recorded are:
• The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
(watch ‘The Making of’ video here https://youtu.be/s6tE7LQr0LI)
• Thor: The Dark World
The London Philharmonic Orchestra has been performing at Southbank Centre’s Royal
Festival Hall since it opened in 1951, becoming Resident Orchestra in 1992. It also has
residencies in Brighton, Eastbourne and Glyndebourne, and performs around the UK and the
world.
The LPO Education and Community department maintains an energetic programme for
young people and families. Our BrightSparks schools’ concert series provides orchestral
experiences for students from Key Stage 1 all the way up to A Level, providing analysis of
set works at Key Stages 4 and 5. FUNharmonics family days provide interactive concerts and
music-making experiences for the whole family at Royal Festival Hall. Other projects work
with SEN schools, and with young people in the LPO Soundworks creative ensemble, with
accompanying online space The Studio. In primary schools, the annual Creative Classrooms
project works intensively with KS2 teachers to build confidence in leading music in school,
while parallel online space Creative Classrooms Connect hosts resources for KS2 teachers
beyond the live project. The department also caters for young professionals – the LPO Young
Composers and Foyle Future Firsts schemes look to support young players and composers at
the start of their careers.
The LPO is proud to be a member of the South Riverside Music Partnership (SRMP) which
comprises the LPO, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, and the Music Education
Hub leads of Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark and Royal Greenwich.
For more information about the London Philharmonic Orchestra, you can visit our website or
social media.
Website: lpo.org.uk Twitter: LPOrchestra
Facebook: londonphilharmonicorchestra Instagram: londonphilharmonicorchestra
5
Henry Purcell (1659–1695) Henry Purcell was an English Baroque composer. He grew up in an extremely musical family – all his male relatives were professional musicians or composers – and then spent the rest of his life working at Westminster Abbey in service to royalty. All of his music was written ‘for a purpose’; he wrote theatre music, music for religious worship and royal anthems. Purcell died at the age of just 36 after returning home late from the pub and spending a night outdoors. After his death no other notable English composer emerged until Elgar in the late 1800s. He is therefore still regarded as one of the best composers Britain ever produced. Music for a while (1692) Quick Analysis Form: Song, written for a play Instrumentation: High voice (boy treble, countertenor or soprano), harpsichord, bass viol (cello in our concert) Structure: Ground bass – bass part that repeats over and over again commonly used in the Baroque period Ternary form (ABA) – a very early example of shape that was to become known as ‘da capo aria’ in Mozart’s day Subject matter: Sung to a horrendous creature called ‘Alecto’ to distract and calm her 6 London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE Resources
Bar 1 Key: A minor
Texture: melody and accompaniment/melody-dominated homophony
3 bar ground bass establishes the key. This pattern divides up into four-note
phrases, each one a note higher than the last (A – B – C – D – E). An octave
leap at the end of each phrase creates a perfect cadence with the beginning
of the next repeat.
RH harpsichord fills in the harmony and features many ornaments:
• Grace notes (bar 1)
• Appoggiaturas (bar 2)
• Mordents, upper and lower (bar 11)
• Spread (arpeggiated) chords (bar 13)
Bar 4 Vocal line begins
Melody is mostly conjunct and stretches over a 9th.
It is mostly syllabic but there are:
• Paired syllables in bar 5 (for… a….)
• Melisma in bar 10 & 11 (won…..d’ring)
• Extended melisma in bar 20–21 (e-ter……..nal)
Purcell uses word painting (the music reflects the words being sung):
• ‘pains’ forms a dissonance with the chord beneath (bar 12)
• ‘eas’d’ creates a series of resolutions to clashes (bar 13)
• ‘eternal’ lasts a long time! (bar 20–21)
• ‘drop’ placed on the off-beat and moves alternately down and up in pitch
(bars 24 & 25)
Bar 14 Ground bass develops after 4½ repeats (B section)
Music moves through E minor, G major, C major, A major
Bar 23 Original ground bass returns but not at beginning of bar. It continues to
develop at bar 26
Bar 29 Return to beginning (A section)
Ground bass returns without development, opening melody and lyrics
return
Bar 38 Perfect cadence
Song concludes with a perfect cadence and home chord of A minor
London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE Resources 7
Dido’s Lament from Dido and Aeneas (1688)
Quick Analysis
Form: Aria (song), written for one of the first English operas
Instrumentation: Soprano and string orchestra
Structure: Ground Bass without development
Subject matter: Dido sings to her maid before killing herself
Bar 1 Key: G minor
Texture: Homophonic
5 bar ground bass falls chromatically from G to D and then turns to the
dominant (D) to create perfect cadence at the end of each repeat.
Chromatic fall guarantees dissonant chords and tension above. These are
further emphasised by the constant long-short rhythm in each bar.
Bar 6 Vocal line begins
Mostly conjunct with small leaps and some dotted phrases.
No ‘Baroque’ ornamentation perhaps because of sombre subject.
Word painting:
• ‘laid’ falls in pitch (bar 8)
• ‘trouble’ interval of a tritone (bar 12)
Dido’s heightened emotion is heard on the word ‘remember’ when the singer
leaps upwards towards the top of her range with a hesitant rhythm (bar 33)
Coda Ground bass continues alone after the vocal line has finished
Ends with perfect cadence in G minor
Sir Nathaniel
Dance-Holland’s
The Meeting of
Dido and Aeneas
(1766)
8 London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE Resources
Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
Franz Joseph Haydn was born in Austria in 1732 and died in 1809. For almost all of his
adult life he worked as music master for the richest family in Europe: the Esterhazys.
They employed the best musicians, and had the best facilities for Haydn to write in
but their estate was pretty shut off from the outside world. With little else to occupy
him except music he was able to experiment and innovate, and over his years with the
family Haydn re-invented every musical structure, creating the rules that define the
Classical period. He is now thought of as the father of Classical music.
Symphony No. 101 ‘Clock’, second movement (1793)
Haydn’s Symphony No. 101 was written whilst on a visit to London in 1793. It was
probably nicknamed ‘Clock’ by a musical critic as a way of distinguishing it from all his
other works. The 2nd movement features a ‘tick-tock’ idea throughout.
Quick Analysis
Form: Symphony, second movement
Instrumentation: Classical orchestra: 2 of each woodwind, 2 horns, 2 trumpets,
2 timpani, strings
Structure: Theme and variations
Giovanni Canaletto’s The River Thames with St Paul’s Cathedral (1746)
London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE Resources 9
Bar 1 ‘Ticking’ motif on bassoons and pizzicato 2nd violins, cellos, basses
Tonic/Home key: G major
Bar 2 Melody enters played by 1st violins: ‘Theme A’
Dotted rhythms provide a contrast to the ‘ticking’ underneath
Theme A moves to dominant (D) and back to the tonic (G) again
Repeat
Bar 12 ‘Theme B’
Upward dotted melody with ‘ticking’ idea alternating between soft 2nd
violins and loud cellos/basses
Bar 17 Theme B continues
4-bar sequence in upper strings, inverted dominant pedal on oboe . This is
when a melody instrument, in this case the oboe, plays a sustained note
which has strong tonal effect, ‘pulling’ the harmony back to the dominant
key (D)
Bar 25 Theme A returns – flute doubles the violin melody
Violas have triple stopped chords
Theme B – A repeats
Theme A – B – A is the basis of the variations later in this movement
Bar 36 ‘Minore’ – dramatic and dark minor key episode based on the violin
melody from bar 4
Brass and timpani enter for the first time
Haydn uses dotted rhythms and arpeggios to move through several
different keys
Bar 65 Variation I
Opening material and major key returns for 1st variation
‘Ticking’ idea is on high woodwind and the orchestra is thinned down to
just woodwind and 1st violin
Bar 75 Theme B follows with same orchestration
Bar 80 4-bar sequence again
Flute has a variant of the dominant pedal from before
Bar 84 Double speed ‘ticking’ on bassoon
Bar 89 Theme A repeats with the same ‘thin’ orchestration
Bar 99 A silent bar – a musical ‘joke’
Bar 100 Variation II
In the unusual key of Eb
No theme B or return to A in this variation
Bar 114 Variation III
Back in the tonic key, theme A returns with triplet accompaniment which
gradually takes over – the mood is grand
Bar 123 Theme B returns with triplets
Bar 137 Theme A returns – very majestic and grand, still with triplets
Bar 146 Coda – ending
Tonic key is confirmed with scalic passages and three simple tonic chords
in the final bar.
10 London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE ResourcesBenjamin Britten (1913–1976)
Benjamin Britten was one of the most important and popular British composers of
the last century. He was born in Lowestoft into a middle-class family and wrote great
music from the age of 17. The piece that made him world-famous was his 1945 opera
Peter Grimes, which tells the dark story of a lonely fisherman and a tragic accident at
sea. Britten used orchestral interludes between the acts of his opera as a device to
cover the scenery changes. These are perfect examples of programme music which
defines music that is descriptive, suggesting visual images or ‘telling a story’.
Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes (1945)
There are four interludes featured in the opera Peter Grimes. Below you can find a brief
outline of the two interludes we will feature in the BrightSparks concert:
I. ‘Dawn’: Lento e tranquillo
Britten uses just three ideas in this piece and never places all three at the same time:
1. A slow mostly step-wise melody, white notes only (high flutes, violins)
2. Arpeggiated 3rds bubble up and down, also only white notes (clarinet, violas, cymbal)
3. Two alternating chords. A major moves to a more dissonant place and back again.
The clashing bass note is delayed. (brass, lower strings, timpani)
London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE Resources 11IV. ‘Storm’: Presto con fuoco
Britten uses Rondo form (one section returning) to convey a treacherous storm at sea.
• A: ‘The waves’ – an upwards surging idea with unpredictable rhythm and metre
• B: ‘Sea monster’ – a short scalic idea, trying to rise upwards
• A returns
• C: ‘Pirates’ – jaunty rhythms, percussion and piccolo sound like a pirate ship is nearby
• A returns
• D: Dreamy magical chords alternating with fast, flickering sounds
• Coda: the ideas start to converge before an earth shattering fall through the
orchestra – the ship has sunk!
Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise (1872)
J.M.W. Turner’s Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842)
12 London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE ResourcesHoward Shore (b. 1946)
Canadian composer Howard Shore wrote some of the best known film scores of the
1980s and 90s including Silence of the Lambs and Mrs Doubtfire. He was approached
by film director Peter Jackson to write the music for his epic Lord of the Rings trilogy
(based on the books by J R R Tolkein) and chose the London Philharmonic Orchestra to
record the soundtrack. The score has won many awards including an Oscar.
Peter Jackson J R R Tolkein
Shore uses leitmotifs in his scores. A leitmotif is a short musical idea that represents
a place, character, emotion, concept etc. Leitmotifs are adapted and developed as the
narrative transforms the element they are describing. Many film composers use this
technique, including John Williams and Bernard Herrmann, but the concept originated
in the operas of Richard Wagner. Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen or The Ring Cycle
is a cycle of four operas that, like the Lord of the Rings, draws inspiration from Norse
mythology. Over the three films, Shore created 10 hours of music and 90 leitmotifs!
Visit The Studio for more resources to support teaching film music in
class, including specific videos looking at Star Wars (John Williams, Edexcel
GCSE setwork) and Psycho (Bernard Herrman) as well as an Introduction to
narrative film music playlist.
More information about The Studio is on page 21.
London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE Resources 13Extracts from Lord of the Rings Symphonic Suite: The Fellowship of the Ring (2002) Quick Analysis of leitmotifs used in The Fellowship of the Ring The fellowship motif: strong, wise, heroic This motif is often played by the brass section with full orchestral accompaniment. Hobbit motifs: These connected motifs all show the character of the Hobbits. All use the pentatonic (5 note) scale used by Irish folk music (D, E, F#, A, B) and are often played on ‘folk’ instruments such as tin whistle, fiddle, bodhran (Irish hand drum). The Shire – the Hobbits’ home: safe and calm Rural life: playful and fun Their understanding nature: used during ‘breaking of the fellowship’ to show their feelings as the fellowship breaks apart. In dreams: Shore slows down ‘the Shire’ to create a melody for a song. This song runs during the end credits. 14 London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE Resources
Ideas for creative work in the classroom
Creative tasks based on some of the techniques used within these pieces may help
your students to understand the music from a hands-on point of view. Here are some
suggestions for creative work that can be undertaken either in groups or individually.
Composing task 1: Ground bass
This composition task will take your students through how to create their own piece
of music, using ground bass as a starting point, like the two pieces of Purcell in the
concert.
1 Invent (or borrow an existing) bassline
This is going to repeat around over and over during your piece so if writing your
own bassline follow these simple rules:
• Begin on the tonic and end on the dominant to guarantee a satisfying repeat.
So, if you are in C major, start on C. To find the dominant simply count 5 notes
up from the home note – in C major the dominant note is G
• Keep it simple. You only need one or two notes per bar. The bassline from Music
for a While looks busy:
… but can actually be simplified to just:
The bassline of Dido’s Lament (in G minor) is the simplest idea of all, it’s just a falling
chromatic scale:
2 Find your chords
Play around with your bassline to find which chords fit on top. Start with the
most obvious chords (i.e. start with Chord I, end with Chord V) but then find more
complex and interesting chords to go in between. When this is fixed, challenge
yourself to find a completely different set of chords!
London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE Resources 153 Decide on the structure
Decide how many times you are going to repeat your ground bass and plot out
how and when the chords will change on top. You can notate this as a simple diagram:
4 Decide on the accompaniment
Are you going to place block chords against the ground bass (like in Dido’s Lament),
create a rhythmic accompaniment or a moving, melodic line (see Music for a While RH
harpsichord)?
Tip: a great way to discover what fits and what
doesn’t is to improvise. Record the bassline over and
over and then play this as you improvise on the top.
Plot your ideas onto your diagram:
16 London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE Resources5 Add a melody (to create a song see below)
Add a melody on top that contrasts with everything else. So if you have a busy,
moving accompaniment, make your melody still, smooth and floaty – and vice versa.
Ideally your melody should keep transforming and developing as the ground bass
stays the same underneath.
Add this onto your diagram too.
Develop your ground bass:
• In Music for a While Purcell develops his bassline after 4½ repetitions but it is so
cleverly done that you don’t immediately notice the change. Can you develop your
bassline, keeping the same style and structure? Everything on top will develop too
– chords, accompaniment and melody
• Ternary from – return to the original bass pattern, accompaniment and melody
after your developments to create a ternary form piece (ABA)
Further listening
Many composers have used the idea of a repeating bassline as a structure for their
music. Sometimes these pieces are called Chaconne, Passacaglia or Canon. Here’s a
list of some of the best:
Pachelbel: Canon in D
Brahms: Symphony No. 4, Finale
Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1, Movement 3
Britten: Cello Suite No. 2, Movement 5
Taking it further: Turn your ground bass into a song
Do your students need more of a challenge? Get them developing their newly created
ground bass into songs!
1 Words
Write or choose your lyrics carefully and keep them simple. For example, Dido’s
Lament features just eight lines of poetry. If you decide to set someone else’s poetry
ask them first or make sure it is out of copyright (i.e. the writer died over 70 years ago).
2 Mood
Use your words to help you decide the mood of your song. The mood will then
decide your tempo (speed) and even the key (major often reflects a happy mood,
minor keys could be more melancholic).
3 Use your ground bass and chords as a basis for your new song.
London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE Resources 17Tips for writing your own lyrics:
• Words don’t have to rhyme but lyric lines should be short and simple.
Rhyme does help with rhythm, but if you start with a rhyming scheme
you have to stick to it!
• Ask yourself these two questions: What are you trying to say? What’s
the simplest way of saying it?
• Repetition is good, it means there’s less work to do musically and the
song will hang together better if it includes lines that keep returning.
4 Add a melody
Here are some tips for setting the words on top of your bassline and chords:
• In any sentence some words/syllables are more important than others and are
stressed during natural speech. You can instantly tell if the stress of a sentence
or word is wrong by saying it out loud to a pulse. Sometimes there are many
options to choose from, but you can always spot the wrong one straight away.
• Make sure that your lyrics begin on the correct part of the bar to ensure the
stresses are all correct.
• Underline words that need stressing. Stress them by altering their pitch or
length. Think about repeating important lines of text ( just like Purcell does).
5 Changed your structure?
If your structure changes as a result of the lyrics you have written that’s fine! Your
words are a key part of determining the structure along with changes to chords and
whether or not you develop the bassline.
6 Perform your piece
Finally, find players to help you perform your ground bass piece.
Taking it further:
• Don’t forget to add in some word painting (when words are sung in a way that
reflects their meaning). Use the pitch and range of the voice, chords and sound
effects to enhance the meaning of the words
• Be truly operatic by repeating the beginning at the end to create a Ternary form
song (otherwise known as a Da Capo aria).
18 London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE ResourcesComposing task 2: The 21st century clock!
Haydn’s Symphony No. 1, written in 1793, was nicknamed ‘Clock’. Here’s a simple
method for turning a 21st century househould item into music.
1 Choose a household item or gadget with a distinctive sound that can be simply
described by a short musical motif, like Haydn’s ticking motif.
2 Invent the motif! For example a dishwasher could be a whirring sound; a
microwave becomes a long, low hum and a ping. You could even make a motif out
of your phone’s ringtone.
3 Turn this motif into an ostinato i.e. repeat it over and over.
4 Create a melody to go on top of this ostinato. To make it stand out, try to invent a
tune that contrasts with the rhythm of your ostinato. Haydn’s tune has a dotted
rhythm for example in contrast to the ticking ostinato.
5 Create a series of variations. You could...
• Change the mode – major to minor and vice versa
• Change the metre (time signature)
• Change the rhythms
• Change the mood
• Change the orchestration
• Fragment (cut it up)
• Add a countermelody
• Play it retrograde (backwards) or inverted (upside down)
6 Keep the ostinato constant but consider:
• Shifting it to another instrument
• Splitting it between different instruments
• Changing the speed, length or notes
7 Structure your piece by beginning with the theme and then moving through your
variations going from least interesting to most developed.
London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE Resources 19Taking it further:
• Add a contrasting section into your piece somewhere. To do this choose your
favourite bar from your tune and make a whole new section out of it (see the
‘Minore’ section of Haydn’s piece which is based on Bar 4 of the movement)
• Add a musical joke. Haydn added unexpected silences into his music to keep the
audience on the edge of their seat...
• Disguise the tune – make your last version so clever that you can hardly spot the
theme within it
Further listening
Many composers showed off their skills by using the structure of theme and
variations. Here are some of our favourites:
Beethoven: Symphony No. 6, Movement 5, Finale
Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Haydn
Elgar: Variations on an Original Theme “Enigma Variations”
Britten: Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (which features a tune borrowed
from Purcell!)
20 London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE ResourcesThe Studio: The LPO’s online space for creative composition
As well as this pack, our online space The Studio offers a wealth of resources for GCSE Music
students and their teachers, including insights from composers, creative composition briefs
and material related to other set works. We have picked out a selection below that will be of
particular relevance for GCSE Music students:
• Composing to a brief: Create music for a chase scene in a spy movie video
In this video, composer and teacher Steven Berryman talks through how you might
approach this Edexcel “composing to a brief” task, with a string quartet from the LPO
playing examples, fully annotated and explained. While this video looks in particular at
the Edexcel task, it discusses features and techniques of composing to a brief, that would
be useful for any student undertaking a similar task at GCSE level.
• Composing starting points: pdf resources
In these two written resources, we offer some tips on starting points for general
composition at GCSE level. Former LPO Young Composer Ailie Robertson shares techniques
she uses to generate musical ideas, which can then be developed into extended
compostions, and teacher Ros Savournin shares a lesson plan on using war poetry to
create songs.
• Focus on set works: Star Wars and Psycho
In these videos, Dr Vasco Hexel discusses features of Star Wars (John Williams, Edexcel set
work) and Psycho (Bernard Herrmann, A Level Edexcel set work, and useful for general film
composition at GCSE).
• Introduction to narrative film music video playlist
A highly informative starting point for any student learning about film music, presented
by Dr Vasco Hexel. Find out about the functions of film music, typical features and
examples.
The above resources, and a digital version of this pack, are hosted on the teacher page of The
Studio: www.lpo.org.uk/thestudioteachers.
London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE Resources 21Creative Briefs As well as guidance and information about composing, The Studio also hosts a wealth of video stimuli, or Creative briefs, to invite composition, based on Film, Dance and the Stage. We have just added our latest Creative brief to the Film section: • Film Creative brief 4: an introduction to foley As Music GCSE students are required to study and compose film music, a good way to get them to start thinking about putting sound to picture is to explore the art of foley. In our Film Creative brief 4 playlist, we invite students to add the sounds to a Buster Keaton clip, with guidance from professional film composer Alex Harwood. This is a fun live activity, but could also form the basis of a longer composition project if desired. Why not use one of the Creative briefs on The Studio as composition practice exercises for your students? Each brief includes guidance from a composer on how to approach it. You can also submit your students’ compositions to the LPO for sharing at www.lpo.org.uk/thestudio. 22 London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE Resources
Thank you
We hope this pack will give you some suggestions to support GCSE provision in
your school. For further ideas, don’t forget that the LPO’s BrightSparks series of
schools concerts runs annually at Royal Festival Hall, with specific concerts for both
GCSE and A Level students.
You can find out more at www.lpo.org.uk/education
Do feel free to get in touch at any time about our work here at the LPO, or if you’d
like any future guidance for musical work in the classroom. We’d love to hear from
you about your school’s future musical activities!
Isabella Kernot, Education and Community Director
isabella.kernot@lpo.org.uk
Talia Lash, Education and Community Manager
talia.lash@lpo.org.uk
Hannah Tripp, Education and Community Co-ordinator
hannah.tripp@lpo.org.uk
London Philharmonic Orchestra GCSE Resources 23You can also read
