GENERAL MUSIC

Week 1 and 2

Week 1: Activities can be found in Jupiter emails

Week 2:

Know your 4 families of instruments by sight and sound: Woodwinds, Brass, Percussion, Strings
List 5 examples of instruments in each family.

Watch and List the instruments in the following demonstration:

Army Field Band: Woodwinds, Brass, and Percussion demo

Go to the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and discover the various instruments of the orchestra. Try to memorize the sounds and the sight of all the instruments.

Here is where you can learn about and list the 5 examples of string instruments of the orchestra: Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass, Harp

Dallas Symphony Orchestra: Strings (W.W, Brass, & Percussion)

Week 3: FILM MUSIC

Week 3

Discover about 2 important film composers: Max Steiner and John Williams.
Listen and watch examples of how these guys used their music and choice of instruments to create Leitmofifs that enhance the film.
What are the scientific names for PITCH and VOLUME? ( Watch this Scientific Review on Frequency and Amplitude: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsQL-sXZOLc )
How can composers use pitch and volume to help the scenes in film?

1. INTRO TO STEINER AND WILLIAMS

Go read about John Williams and Max Steiner. Google and read about them on Wikipedia. Using the films of John Williams link, email me a list of the movies you have seen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_John_Williams#Film_scores

2. MAX STEINER

After reading about Max Steiner we will be using the 1933 version of King Kong to study how he synchronized his music to the film. But first, watch this link to learn a little more about why he is considered the father of film music. Words to discover: Synchronize and Leitmotif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEn_cFz_KZ4&list=RDVEn_cFz_KZ4&start_radio=1&t=448

At school, we would be watching the entire movie and discussing the music we hear at the various scenes. It would be great if you could watch the entire movie, but here is a famous scene of King Kong climbing the Empire State building. What instruments do you hear? Describe how the pitch and volume changes in the music as Kong climbs up the building. Do you hear Steiner's leitmotif (character's melody) of Kong and the beauty? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qkahQVFzMI

SPECIAL EFFECTS IN 1933 KING KONG

Here is an interesting link to watch about the special and innovative film techniques that were going on in 1930's Hollywood . This is how it was done before computer animation

https://youtu.be/K4ViuqIdsJg

3. JOHN WILLIAMS...coming soon.

Week 4: FILM MUSIC AND SOUNDTRACKS/Intro and review of the Recorder