Developing a motif

Hello, I'm Dr. Southall, and this is a unit called Atmospheric Music. Join me for our learning today and we'll see how we get on. In this lesson, you'll be able to develop a motif by using chromatics or the minor scale to change the feel of the music. There's three key words for this lesson. The first is program music and instrumental music that tells a story or describes a scene. The second is motif, a short, melodic idea that recurs throughout a piece of music. And the third is minor scale, a set of notes where the third and sixth notes in the scale are flattened, and that sounds sad or more solemn than a major scale. There's two parts to this lesson. The first is program music. Programmatic music is music that is written to depict or tell a story. It became particularly popular during the romantic era of around 1820 to 1900. Although techniques from program music have continued to be used in film music into the 20th and 21st century. "The Saucer's Apprentice" written in 1897 by French composer Paul Dukas, is a famous example of program music. The music tells the story of a magician who leaves his apprentice to do the chores, and the apprentice uses magic to get the broom to do the work. A section of the music depicts the broom gradually coming to life, growing two legs and dancing along, doing the chores, fetching water to clean the floor before the situation starts to get out of control, and the floor floods with water. You may remember a scene similar to this depicted in a Disney movie called "Fantasia." How does this music depict that part of the story? Consider the musical devices you can hear and discuss how the elements are used. So I'd like you to pause this video and listen to this clip, but consider these things staccato or legato for the musical devices, chromatic movement, pedal and note clusters. See if you can make comment on all of those. And in terms of the elements, consider things like pitch, tempo, dynamics, rhythm, timbre, and tonality. In other words, the key of whether it's major or minor. Good luck. Here's some examples of the sorts of things that you may have written or thought. In terms of musical devices, there's staccato that gives an imagery of the broom dancing around. Chromatic movement and the minor key helps to make the music sound dark and sinister. And the legato section towards the end shows a change in the story, sweeping the water. With regards to elements, it starts as a short motif then develops into a melody. The broom takes time to find its feet, so to speak. The uneven rhythm and silences show the jumpiness of the broom. The pitch is generally low, but jumps back and forth between two notes like a broom dancing back and forth. It starts quietly and gets louder with sudden changes in dynamics, increasing the stress of the situation as it gets worse and there's less control. The tempo's quite fast to show the dancing broom. And there's low pitched instruments for the melody such as the bassoon. Here's a check for understanding. What is program music? Is it A, music used in television shows, B, music used for film, or C, music that depicts a story? Well, the answer is see music that depicts a story. Hope you got that right. Let's move on. Describe three features of the music used to show someone sneaking out of a monster's den. What sort of features would are in that sort of music? Well, here's some example answers. Soft dynamics and slow tempo to show creeping, staccato to show footsteps, low pitch chromatic movement or pedal to create attention. Time for some independent practice. Pictures at an exhibition is a piece of music written by Russian composer, Modest Mussorgsky. It's a 10 movement work each inspired by a different painting. "Bydlo" is a short movement which depicts a heavy cart pulled by oxen, which comes nearer moves past the observer and on into the distance. The music was orchestrated by Maurice Revel. He chose a small tuber as the solo melodic instrument in this movement. Listen to the excerpt and answer the following questions. To do so, you will need to download this file and listen outside of the video. Describe the pitch, tempo and rhythm at the beginning, which contribute to the feeling of a heavy cart being pulled by oxen. Why is the tuber a suitable choice for the melodic instrument? What other features of the melody make the music sound slightly uncomfortable and dark? What happens in the music to give the impression that the cart gets nearer moves past and then moves off into the distance? Discuss things like tempo, pitch, dynamics and the instruments used. Let's look at some potential responses in our feedback. So for question one, you may have written something like, the pitch is low. The tempo is slow and steady, and the rhythm is constant in the accompaniment to show the steadiness of the cart moving forward slowly. In the second question, you may have said something like, it is a low pitched instrument and has a heavy sounding timbre. In the third one, you may have written something like, it is mainly legato with some weighted notes. There are large jumps in the melody. It goes quite high for a tuber, which sounds slightly uncomfortable, and it uses the notes of the minor scale. And for the fourth question, our response could be something like, the dynamics get gradually louder towards the middle and then quieter. The pitch is low to start with. Cellos, double bass and bassoons and gets higher overall with higher pitched instruments joining in in the middle like violins and flutes. The texture also gets thicker as more instruments join. There's a snare drum in the middle as the cart moves past the listener adding to the impression that the cart is near. Now, do have a think about these responses that I've got in these slides, they do use the the kind of key vocabulary and technical vocabulary that's really important to get into your answers. Let's move on to the next part of the lesson, major to minor. By changing some of the notes in a melodic idea, a composer can quickly change the feel of the music. We can listen to two different clips. The first one is in C major, the second is in C minor. And I'd like you to think about how you might describe the difference in the feeling between the two keys. Here's the first one. (high pitched music) Oh, that's nice. It makes me want to go to sleep. And the second one. The second one is gonna be in C minor. (high pitched music) Hmm. Not quite as teary, I think. What did you think? Do you think the second one sounded a bit dark, solemn, sad, or sinister? It certainly wasn't as lifting. I didn't think. Well, the C major scale uses all the white notes. This was from the first audio clip that we played. The C major scale is C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. Now just by coincidence, I suppose in this particular scale, it's all the white notes on the keyboard. The second audio clip you heard was the C minor scale, which is a slightly different note. So you can see here it's the notes are C, D, E, flat, F, G, A, flat B, and C. So we're not just using all the white notes anymore on the keyboard. The two flat notes are on the black keys. Let's watch a video of this. (piano music) Let's have a quick check for understanding, which two notes of the scale are flattened to create a minor scale? Is it the third, fourth, fifth, or sixth? Well, it's the third, A and the sixth, which was D. Hopefully you got those right. Well done. Let's listen to the opening of our scary story. The notes of the ostinato pattern. return as a motif after the narrator says, "the school was quiet now." So listen out for that phrase when we play the clip. They are played in a different way to help reinforce the sense of unrest. Let's listen. (high pitched music) "Almost done with this." Jake said carefully blending the colors on his palette. "Just one more shade. Better not take too long." Zara's voice call from down the hall. "Library closes soon." Jake smiled to himself. "Don't worry, I'll be out before you are." Jake often stay behind after school to finish his artwork. In the quiet of the empty classroom, the golden evening light slanted through the blinds, striping the floor in warm, dusty bands. The school was quiet now, (gentle music) almost too quiet. It certainly changes at that point, doesn't it? Let's listen to that motif in isolation now, and when we listen to it, I want you to think about how the motif is played differently to suggest the change of mood. Here we go. (high pitched music) You'll notice that the motive was played slower, quieter, at a lower pitch with a different timbre, with an added pedal in a more accented and deliberate style and in a minor key. The third note is flattened. When we use the notes of the minor scale to create a musical idea, we would describe this as being in the minor key. Adding chromatic movement that is different to the notes of a minor scale can also create a sense of unrest in the music, which you may have felt when we listened to the previous clip. It's important to listen to your motif as the relationship between the notes makes a difference to the feel of the musical idea. If you think back to the side by side comparison, the first iteration sounded quite nice. The second iteration sounded quite unnerving, and that was the one that was in a minor scale. Let's do a quick check for understanding. Suggest four ways that we can change a motif so that it sounds more sinister. Well, you may have said or thought things like these, play in the minor key or with chromatic notes, play it slower or quieter. Change the timbre to something heavier or lower, add a pedal or change the articulation. Any of those would be suitable for that question. True or false, using either chromatic movement or the notes of the minor scale can create a more sinister feel in the music. Well, that's true. Flattening the third and sixth notes of the scale creates a minor key feel, but changing other notes of the scale to create chromatic movement can also make the music sound sinister. Let's do some practice. Develop your motif or notes from your ostinato so it suggests a change of mood in your story soundtrack. Success criteria for this include, the motif should use the notes of C minor or chromatic movement. Choose elements which contribute to the music, creating a sense of unrest, and we've talked a lot about those in this lesson. For example, a slower tempo, lower pitch, heavier, lower pitch timbre, the change of articulation such as legato. Well, hopefully you have done all of that and enjoyed it. So it is time for a brief evaluation. Ask yourself these questions. Have you used the notes of the C minor scale or chromatic movement? Have you added a pedal, for example? Check against the success criteria to get a sense of how well you've done in this task. Which elements have you used to help create a sense of unrest? It may be that you've used timbre. It may be that you've used pitch. It may be that you've adjusted the tempo. Any of those ideas that contribute to a sense of unease for the feel of the music is great. Well done. Let's just do a quick summary of this lesson then. Program music is music that tells a story through music. The elements of music, including pitch tempo, dynamics, and timbre are used appropriately to convey the correct mood. We've developed our motif from major to minor to change the feel of the music from cheerful and positive to suggest a sense of unrest. Well done for contributing to this lesson. I look forward to seeing you next time.