1. Grade 8 Unit 1 – Lesson 1 Grade 8 Unit 1 – Lesson 1

2. Please have a seat and prepare yourself for an awesome year First thing is first, the person to the right or left of you is your partner for the day. Introduce yourself and start talking about the piece of music you’re hearing Do you like it? Why or why not? What type of music is this? What does this music make you think of? First thing is first, the person to the right or left of you is your partner for the day. Introduce yourself and start talking about the piece of music you’re hearing Do you like it? Why or why not? What type of music is this? What does this music make you think of?

3. What do you think happened to music after WW II?

4. World War II was a unique situation for music and its relationship to warfare. Never before was it possible for not only single songs, but also single recordings of songs to be so widely distributed to the population. Never before had the number of listeners to a single performance (a recording or broadcast production) been so high. And never before had states had so much power to determine not only what songs were performed and listened to, but to control the recordings not allowing local people to alter the songs in their own performances. Though local people still sang and produced songs, this form of music faced serious new competition from centralized electronic distributed music. Remember people were just beginning to have radios

5. Music had to change…. And it did. One example is Arnold Schoenberg (1874- 1951)

6. Atonal music – a piece of music with no tonal center Twelve tone music - The technique is a means of ensuring that all 12 notes of the chromatic scale are sounded as often as one another in a piece of music while preventing the emphasis of any one note through the use of tone rows, an ordering of the 12 pitches. All 12 notes are thus given more or less equal importance, and the music avoids being in a key. The technique was influential on composers in the mid-twentieth century. Twelve tone music - The technique is a means of ensuring that all 12 notes of the chromatic scale are sounded as often as one another in a piece of music while preventing the emphasis of any one note through the use of tone rows, an ordering of the 12 pitches. All 12 notes are thus given more or less equal importance, and the music avoids being in a key. The technique was influential on composers in the mid-twentieth century. Deals a lot with mathematics Deals a lot with mathematics

7. A tone row – has all 12 notes of the chromatic scale. Retrograde – the tone row is backwards. Retrograde – the tone row is backwards. Inversion – the intervals go in opposite direction from the original tone row.

8. Several individuals after Schoenberg took music a step further and manipulated current instruments or made their own instruments Henry Cowell – The Banshee

9. The Quadrangularis Reversum is a percussion instrument invented and built by Harry Partch in 1965. The instrument features an inverted diamond shaped centre compared to an earlier instrument made by Partch, the Diamond Marimba. Underneath the bars there are bamboo resonators. The instrument is made out of a eucalyptus branch and redwood structure and one of Partch‘s bigger instrument sculptures. Partch used the instrument in his two last compositions. The Quadrangularis Reversum is a percussion instrument invented and built by Harry Partch in 1965. The instrument features an inverted diamond shaped centre compared to an earlier instrument made by Partch, the Diamond Marimba. Underneath the bars there are bamboo resonators. The instrument is made out of a eucalyptus branch and redwood structure and one of Partch‘s bigger instrument sculptures. Partch used the instrument in his two last compositions.

11. What household items could you use to make an instrument? Do you see anything in this room that might be used, aside from all of the keyboards? Do you see anything in this room that might be used, aside from all of the keyboards? What about an old tape recorder? Could this be used as an instrument? How? How?

12. Next class we will talk about Steve Reich and Minimalism. We will also be talking about teams, and how you will be designing your instruments. Could you add an electric, or computer component to your instrument? Could you add an electric, or computer component to your instrument?