0:00:02 > 0:00:04CLASSICAL MUSIC
0:00:42 > 0:00:44Monteverdi's L'Orfeo - Favola in Musica,
0:00:44 > 0:00:47is one of the first operas ever - it's still
0:00:47 > 0:00:51fresh today, as it was when it was first penned in the 17th century.
0:00:52 > 0:00:55First of all, it's played by the brass.
0:00:56 > 0:00:58Then it's played by the strings.
0:01:00 > 0:01:04And then he adds the strings and the brass together for a third time.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10I'm able to show the students, you know,
0:01:10 > 0:01:13look how cleverly this is constructed,
0:01:13 > 0:01:17you can use similar techniques to make your own melodies.
0:01:21 > 0:01:23So I've called the project Salford doubles.
0:01:23 > 0:01:25A double is when you take a piece of music and make a new version of it
0:01:25 > 0:01:28using similar materials - it's like a variation.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30This is a really good piece to take as a starting point
0:01:30 > 0:01:34because the ideas are simple, but the way he puts them together
0:01:34 > 0:01:37make them sophisticated, so what we're going to do,
0:01:37 > 0:01:39we're going to make our own versions.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42When I heard about the opportunity to come here
0:01:42 > 0:01:45and do this project, I was really, really enthusiastic.
0:01:48 > 0:01:54I play the piano and generally I haven't composed much before.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57With the first session, Barry was talking to us about
0:01:57 > 0:02:00the capabilities of instruments and what they are good at.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03The students are actually writing for real live musicians -
0:02:03 > 0:02:05seven members of the BBC Philharmonic - and it's important
0:02:05 > 0:02:08that they are thinking in terms of what these players can do.
0:02:08 > 0:02:10We can do long.
0:02:13 > 0:02:14Staccato.
0:02:16 > 0:02:20Um, pizzicato, plucking the string.
0:02:23 > 0:02:24It's interesting writing for instruments
0:02:24 > 0:02:28you don't really know how to play, that first session was quite useful.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31You could hear what they sound like, what they're good at, not so good at.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38When you are given a piece like Monteverdi to already work with,
0:02:38 > 0:02:40you don't have to do a lot of the initial thinking yourself
0:02:40 > 0:02:42which can sometimes be really hard.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44Because I've already got a melody written for me,
0:02:44 > 0:02:46it can give me a lot of scope on what I can do with it.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49How are you making these decisions about where the notes go?
0:02:49 > 0:02:52All of my melody is the Monteverdi melody, which is in the booklets
0:02:52 > 0:02:54and then I thought, what happens if I make that a flat
0:02:54 > 0:02:58and how can I change the chord underneath?
0:02:58 > 0:03:01Go back and look at what you've done already.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05Are there any really good ideas in there that I could actually make a feature of?
0:03:05 > 0:03:07What Barry's made me realise is I've got lots
0:03:07 > 0:03:09and lots of material that I can work with,
0:03:09 > 0:03:11but I can stretch that out massively,
0:03:11 > 0:03:13especially this first rhythm here.
0:03:15 > 0:03:20Originally, that was just there for one bar, but due to the advice
0:03:20 > 0:03:23Barry's given me, I thought I would expand on this idea.
0:03:23 > 0:03:28So, here it is developing a bit and it just sort of continues.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34I didn't have a lot of faith in what I'd written,
0:03:34 > 0:03:39because it's so different from what I'm sort of comfortable with composing,
0:03:39 > 0:03:44but after today's sessions, I can see it going somewhere.
0:03:49 > 0:03:51So with the Monteverdi, one really interesting thing is
0:03:51 > 0:03:54the fact that it is all anchored to a pedal.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56DEEP NOTE And there it goes.
0:03:59 > 0:04:01So a thing you can play with is
0:04:01 > 0:04:04that notion of a pedal and moving different chords against it.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13So the different chords create tension against the pedal.
0:04:18 > 0:04:19I play trumpet but in this ensemble,
0:04:19 > 0:04:22there's lots of other instruments - stringed instruments, especially -
0:04:22 > 0:04:26and writing for them is really interesting because there's lots of techniques
0:04:26 > 0:04:28like double stopping, which you just can't do on a trumpet.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32It's stopping two notes and stopping means actually playing,
0:04:32 > 0:04:36so obviously I could play the A and the E string together
0:04:36 > 0:04:40and double stop it, I could play the A and the D string together.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43What I couldn't do is play the E string
0:04:43 > 0:04:48and the G string together, because there's two strings in the middle.
0:04:48 > 0:04:50I've used double stopping in my piece.
0:04:50 > 0:04:53That's where two notes are played at the same time.
0:04:53 > 0:04:55The way I'd written it before couldn't be played,
0:04:55 > 0:04:58so Barry's helped show me how I can write it to be played properly.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06Ben's piece is manipulating the material by adding accidentals
0:05:06 > 0:05:09and changing a B to a B flat.
0:05:09 > 0:05:10So it just changes the inflection
0:05:10 > 0:05:13and what's happened is it sounds quite cartoonish and jokey
0:05:13 > 0:05:17and that actually fits Ben, because he has a good sense of humour.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25One of these new ideas Barry made us aware of
0:05:25 > 0:05:29was where you have, for example, two instruments starting
0:05:29 > 0:05:32on the same pitch and one would go upwards and one would go down.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35I like the way that you are using mirroring here.
0:05:35 > 0:05:37So here's the Monteverdi, da-da da-da,
0:05:37 > 0:05:40and here it is in a mirror,
0:05:40 > 0:05:42so we can feel the presence of Monteverdi,
0:05:42 > 0:05:44but it's very much a la Justin.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47Justin has literally turned Monteverdi on his head.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50First of all, we get the tune the right way up.
0:05:53 > 0:05:55But then he turns it upside down.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59So we hear the rhythm of the Monteverdi,
0:05:59 > 0:06:03but it's not doing what the Monteverdi originally did, so, again,
0:06:03 > 0:06:07there's a sense of humour there and a quirkiness and it really works.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18What I got from this process is that, in a way,
0:06:18 > 0:06:22less is more - you don't need to keep introducing ideas,
0:06:22 > 0:06:26you can just develop them and change them and that's interesting enough.
0:06:26 > 0:06:28With this experience, I feel a lot more comfortable
0:06:28 > 0:06:31writing for instruments that I don't know how to play.
0:06:31 > 0:06:34I've learnt a lot more about general composing
0:06:34 > 0:06:36and I know how to come up with material out of thin air.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55PIANO
0:06:59 > 0:07:02The Bach C Major Prelude is an absolute gem of a piece.
0:07:02 > 0:07:07It's very simple in musical terms, it just takes one shape
0:07:07 > 0:07:09and it repeats it at different levels over the keyboard.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17It's a really intricate piece of composition
0:07:17 > 0:07:20and there are so many things that we can learn from it -
0:07:20 > 0:07:24the way he moves his chords, the directions he takes his harmony in.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27A lesser composer might have said, "I'll just move that up one note."
0:07:31 > 0:07:33Not so interesting, but what Bach does...
0:07:33 > 0:07:35PLAYS PIANO
0:07:35 > 0:07:38He keeps this note still and he goes...
0:07:42 > 0:07:45So he had a much more rich chord.
0:07:45 > 0:07:46So for the students,
0:07:46 > 0:07:48I want them to find their own chord shapes.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51For example, they might start with something like...
0:07:53 > 0:07:55..and then just say, "Where can I take this?"
0:08:05 > 0:08:08Bach used a lot of repetition with his melodies.
0:08:08 > 0:08:13I took a melody from Bach's piece and I've repeated it here,
0:08:13 > 0:08:15and I've done the same pattern but changed the notes
0:08:15 > 0:08:19and gone up some notes here, and it just repeats.
0:08:19 > 0:08:23The students have to take that idea of moving chords around,
0:08:23 > 0:08:27but they've now got to think, "How do I now reimagine that
0:08:27 > 0:08:30"with a string quartet, a clarinet, a horn or a percussionist?"
0:08:30 > 0:08:35This time, over the top, I've added harmonies around the piano.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47Bach's piece was written by the piano, so I had to take the idea
0:08:47 > 0:08:51that he was using two main bars - his right and his left hand -
0:08:51 > 0:08:54and so he used the violin - 1 - as his right hand
0:08:54 > 0:08:57and violin 2 as his left hand.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00With the clarinet, the horn and the cello, I just added them
0:09:00 > 0:09:03in the background to help give the piece some colour.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06So once they've started sharing the chord patterns
0:09:06 > 0:09:08with different instruments,
0:09:08 > 0:09:11they're starting to build up textures within the ensemble.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15It's great to have a full sound some of the time, but it's also
0:09:15 > 0:09:18nice to hear the individual instruments.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20I've written a very simple piece of music
0:09:20 > 0:09:22which shows how texture can be built up.
0:09:22 > 0:09:27We're going to come in one instrument at a time, just build up line by line,
0:09:27 > 0:09:29just so you can hear how textures build.
0:09:32 > 0:09:33So we've got a first violin.
0:09:35 > 0:09:36We can add a second violin.
0:09:41 > 0:09:42Add a viola.
0:09:46 > 0:09:47Add a cello.
0:09:52 > 0:09:54And a clarinet.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06Thank you very much, so we added just a layer at a time there, yeah?
0:10:06 > 0:10:10So the texture built up, rather a nice effect.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13Working with Barry's encouraged me to add texture to my piece,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16by spreading my instruments out across the piece,
0:10:16 > 0:10:18sometimes only having the violin playing,
0:10:18 > 0:10:20sometimes only having the cello playing,
0:10:20 > 0:10:21or the clarinet, or the horn.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27Once you've got a little melodic idea,
0:10:27 > 0:10:29you can give it to one instrument,
0:10:29 > 0:10:32but if you're thinking in terms of colours
0:10:32 > 0:10:35of the instruments, why not share that melody?
0:10:35 > 0:10:38Now, you've done something lovely here -
0:10:38 > 0:10:42you've shared a melody between the clarinet and the horn in bar 4.
0:10:42 > 0:10:44BARRY PLAYS MELODY
0:10:46 > 0:10:48Yeah, I've done it three times. I've done it there,
0:10:48 > 0:10:51there and I do it on the next page, as well.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54Charlie does this very successfully. He starts off on one instrument with
0:10:54 > 0:10:58a couple of notes and then he passes it to another instrument,
0:10:58 > 0:10:59so we hear the melody
0:10:59 > 0:11:02but we also hear the colour of two different instruments.
0:11:02 > 0:11:03Clarinet.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06Horn.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14Did you notice? It was like a tennis match, wasn't it?
0:11:14 > 0:11:17Which side are we at now?
0:11:17 > 0:11:19He is really playing with colour. Excellent, well done.
0:11:19 > 0:11:24So you've generated new material, you've started to manipulate it.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26Do a bit more experimenting and then start to think,
0:11:26 > 0:11:28"What's the shape of the piece?"
0:11:28 > 0:11:32So I'm going to call this idea "A",
0:11:32 > 0:11:35and this idea "B", so we can make a simple structure.
0:11:38 > 0:11:43Starts with A, and then I put my section next to it which is B,
0:11:43 > 0:11:49and just to make it a satisfying shape, I'm going to come back home
0:11:49 > 0:11:53to A. Nice simple structure and we call it ternary.
0:11:53 > 0:11:58My piece ended here, but Barry told me to add sections into it,
0:11:58 > 0:12:03so I've added a section B from here to here.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07So that's my section B and then I've put my section A,
0:12:07 > 0:12:11which was the first bit, back at the end, but I made a few little tweaks.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16Charlie's worked with a sequence of chords,
0:12:16 > 0:12:19with different textures, different sections of the piece,
0:12:19 > 0:12:22he's cleverly structured it, coming back to ideas
0:12:22 > 0:12:25we've heard before, and it makes for a very successful piece.
0:12:42 > 0:12:44Mendelssohn's Fingal's Cave was chosen
0:12:44 > 0:12:48because it paints a picture of the different moods of the sea.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53So I want the students to explore the same idea of how they combine
0:12:53 > 0:12:57the instruments to get across the different moods of the sea.
0:12:59 > 0:13:01So we've chosen this six-note fragment
0:13:01 > 0:13:03from the beginning of Fingal's Cave,
0:13:03 > 0:13:06da-da-da-da dum dum, da-da-da-da dum dum,
0:13:06 > 0:13:10which then Mendelssohn repeats at various pitches,
0:13:10 > 0:13:12and it runs all the way through.
0:13:12 > 0:13:17The students are going to use this as the basis of their compositions.
0:13:17 > 0:13:21I am a cellist, so I don't play wind instruments
0:13:21 > 0:13:23and I don't play any percussion instruments,
0:13:23 > 0:13:27so I didn't understand what they could do with their instruments.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30The students are writing for a seven-piece ensemble -
0:13:30 > 0:13:34a string quartet, a clarinet, a French horn and a percussionist -
0:13:34 > 0:13:37so before they can begin to do that, they need to know,
0:13:37 > 0:13:39what are the possibilities of the instruments?
0:13:39 > 0:13:40What can they ask them to do?
0:13:40 > 0:13:42The horn is particularly good if you want to have
0:13:42 > 0:13:45something quite loud and sharp and brash.
0:13:45 > 0:13:46LOUD NOTE
0:13:47 > 0:13:51And we've also got the thing called a mute, which, like your TV remote,
0:13:51 > 0:13:52just makes it a little bit quieter.
0:13:52 > 0:13:54MUTED NOTES
0:14:06 > 0:14:09Fingal's cave is on the Isle of Staffa,
0:14:09 > 0:14:10where there are those hexagonal rocks,
0:14:10 > 0:14:13the same sort that we find on the Giant's Causeway,
0:14:13 > 0:14:18and I think it's not insignificant that "da-da da-da da-da" has got six notes.
0:14:18 > 0:14:19He moves it around.
0:14:19 > 0:14:20PLAYS MELODY
0:14:20 > 0:14:22He moves it around.
0:14:24 > 0:14:26He could just carry on moving it.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30I've used six notes mainly in my piece
0:14:30 > 0:14:32and that comes through in the vibraphone.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36I had these six notes originally. Then I added three more notes
0:14:36 > 0:14:38and I did the same notes on the vibraphone
0:14:38 > 0:14:40to the string quartet as well.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52You're writing a piece about a storm,
0:14:52 > 0:14:54so you've got to think of the drama of that.
0:14:54 > 0:14:55You've got to think of the build,
0:14:55 > 0:14:57the eye of the storm and the shape of the piece.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12Silence is a brilliant thing. So are gaps.
0:15:12 > 0:15:15If you've got material that's really, "Chiro, chiro, chiro, chiro",
0:15:15 > 0:15:18make a new version that's got gaps in.
0:15:18 > 0:15:19Chiro.
0:15:20 > 0:15:22Chiro, chiro, chiro.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25Same thing, but totally different effect.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37Before Mendelssohn went to the Hebrides, he stayed at a monastery,
0:15:37 > 0:15:41so I've tried to recreate a choral section at the start of my piece.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44Instead of having a soprano, alto, tenor and bass,
0:15:44 > 0:15:48I've replaced them with violin 1, 2, viola and violincello
0:15:48 > 0:15:51and the melody is played by the clarinet and the horn.
0:16:00 > 0:16:02When I started my composition,
0:16:02 > 0:16:05I wrote lots and lots of different lines for percussion instruments,
0:16:05 > 0:16:07but it's only one man playing it,
0:16:07 > 0:16:10so he can't play the vibraphone, the tom toms and the bongos
0:16:10 > 0:16:13and the wood blocks and the wind chimes all at the same time.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18Let's have the bongos on those lines.
0:16:18 > 0:16:20The three tom toms...
0:16:20 > 0:16:23The key thing to think about when you're writing for percussion
0:16:23 > 0:16:24is play air percussion.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27Imagine, here is your vibraphone, here are my wood blocks,
0:16:27 > 0:16:31here are my bongos, my tom toms, here's my cymbal.
0:16:31 > 0:16:34And as you're writing the music, think yourself round,
0:16:34 > 0:16:37can I actually reach those notes, can I get to them?
0:16:37 > 0:16:40It actually makes it much easier if everything is on the same stave.
0:16:45 > 0:16:47Barry gave me lots of advice
0:16:47 > 0:16:49about what it's like for the musicians to play the piece.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52See the difference between these two sections here.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54As you can see, this one is all together as one thing,
0:16:54 > 0:16:57which is just needlessly confusing for the musician,
0:16:57 > 0:17:00it's very difficult to count and that's what the split up tells you -
0:17:00 > 0:17:02one beat there and one beat there.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08I called my piece The Tempest,
0:17:08 > 0:17:10so there's lots of ups and downs in the piece.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12Like it just goes from mezze forte -
0:17:12 > 0:17:16really, really loud - to pianissimo - very quiet - suddenly.
0:17:18 > 0:17:23I use a lot of bass in the cello and a lot of eerie kind of sounds.
0:17:23 > 0:17:24Like I used a bow on the vibraphone
0:17:24 > 0:17:27to create a kind of eerie uncertainty at the start
0:17:27 > 0:17:29and at the end of the piece.
0:17:33 > 0:17:34It was lovely to hear it come together.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40Of all the pieces, Uyiosa's piece is the one that closely answers
0:17:40 > 0:17:43the brief, which was to incorporate elements of the Mendelssohn,
0:17:43 > 0:17:47the rhythm, the shape of his melody - da-da da-da-dee dum -
0:17:47 > 0:17:49and she's put her own slant on it,
0:17:49 > 0:17:52so it's a personal response to the Mendelssohn.
0:17:55 > 0:18:00This whole process has changed the way I go about writing composition.
0:18:00 > 0:18:02Learning more about different instruments
0:18:02 > 0:18:05so I can use a wider range of instruments in my future compositions,
0:18:05 > 0:18:08and just be more experimental with my composition, as well,
0:18:08 > 0:18:12not be afraid to go outside the box, push the boundaries a bit.
0:18:26 > 0:18:31At a time when novelists were writing Frankenstein and Dracula,
0:18:31 > 0:18:33and painters were making really gory pictures,
0:18:33 > 0:18:37it's no surprise that composers were also writing pieces about death.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40So this led to Saint-Saens writing his Danse Macabre.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51It's a dance of death. It's one of the first tone poems,
0:18:51 > 0:18:53it actually paints a picture in sound.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57So what I'm asking the students to do is to think,
0:18:57 > 0:19:00"What's Saint-Saens done to make his piece so interesting?"
0:19:00 > 0:19:03Well, it's about fantastic ways of using the instruments,
0:19:03 > 0:19:06so they're going to be writing for musicians from the BBC Philharmonic
0:19:06 > 0:19:09and trying to find interesting ways to write for them.
0:19:09 > 0:19:13Saint-Saens did some fantastic sound effects in it.
0:19:13 > 0:19:15The xylophone pretends it's a skeleton dancing.
0:19:19 > 0:19:24The first session here at Media City just taught me what you can achieve
0:19:24 > 0:19:28on different instruments and the different techniques you can do.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34Could I ask for sul ponticello tremolando. Any note, please?
0:19:37 > 0:19:39What we're looking at are the orchestral colours
0:19:39 > 0:19:41that Saint-Saens uses.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43He has collenia using the wood of the bow
0:19:43 > 0:19:45so it sounds like skeletons' bones.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48Instant atmosphere. Thank you very much.
0:19:48 > 0:19:54Colour in music is the timbre, the tone colour of the instrument,
0:19:54 > 0:19:56so I could play you a note on a violin
0:19:56 > 0:19:58and then I could ask a clarinet to play the same note.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01You would notice the difference in timbre, in tone colour.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09Basically, you're an artist and on your palette, you've got violin 1,
0:20:09 > 0:20:13violin 2, viola, cello, clarinet, horn and percussion
0:20:13 > 0:20:14and you're going...
0:20:16 > 0:20:20I've never worked with any of these instruments before,
0:20:20 > 0:20:23so to work with it on a computer was even more scary,
0:20:23 > 0:20:26but then once you get used to it, it's really easy to work with
0:20:26 > 0:20:28and it's good to hear different instruments
0:20:28 > 0:20:30and see how you can work with them.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33If I had my violin, I'd play you this.
0:20:33 > 0:20:34DISCORDANT NOTES
0:20:36 > 0:20:40Because one of the feature of the piece he uses is a detuned violin.
0:20:43 > 0:20:49The violin is tuned in fifths. G to D, D to A, A to E.
0:20:49 > 0:20:51And what Saint-Saens does...
0:20:54 > 0:20:57..he tunes that E by tuning the tuning peg down to an E flat.
0:20:59 > 0:21:01So now, we get...
0:21:05 > 0:21:07If he hadn't, we would get this sound...
0:21:10 > 0:21:13..which is a bit too normal, really, for a devils' dance.
0:21:14 > 0:21:19Connor uses the idea of dissonance and notes jarring against each other
0:21:19 > 0:21:21to create a really grinding effect
0:21:21 > 0:21:23which almost sets your teeth on edge,
0:21:23 > 0:21:27so he's looked at Saint-Saens and thought, "I'll have some of that."
0:21:27 > 0:21:30You've got some ideas which are really lovely
0:21:30 > 0:21:35and they happen once. And they could happen again - or they could happen
0:21:35 > 0:21:38over and over again, because the audience don't get sick of ideas.
0:21:38 > 0:21:42What Barry has said about using the same idea over and over again,
0:21:42 > 0:21:43rewrite it in different ways,
0:21:43 > 0:21:46so it creates different effects on different people.
0:21:46 > 0:21:48Like the vibes here,
0:21:48 > 0:21:51that's what happens at the start of Danse Macabre,
0:21:51 > 0:21:54them four bars, and then I've just added the violins
0:21:54 > 0:21:56and the clarinet in B flat
0:21:56 > 0:21:59and it just creates more spookiness in the piece.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12The Saint-Saens is actually in triple time.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17One, two, three. One, two, three.
0:22:17 > 0:22:22But Connor's decided that he wants to run in duple and quadruple time.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31It's still a dance, but it's using quadruple time -
0:22:31 > 0:22:33that's four beats in a bar,
0:22:33 > 0:22:35rather than triple time - three beats in a bar.
0:22:37 > 0:22:40I'm looking forward to the Philharmonic playing my piece
0:22:40 > 0:22:44because I can tell the limitations of the musicians.
0:22:44 > 0:22:48I can't... Well, really...at speed.
0:22:48 > 0:22:50Playing those really quickly is very difficult.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53The computer makes a valiant attempt to sound like instruments,
0:22:53 > 0:22:57but it can never replace proper instrumentalists,
0:22:57 > 0:23:00because even with a single note, they'll bring out
0:23:00 > 0:23:03so many nuances in that note which a computer can't do.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14The benefits of this process are being able to write
0:23:14 > 0:23:18for different instruments and knowing the different instruments,
0:23:18 > 0:23:20and the different ranges for the instruments.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25Connor's piece is demonic and devilish.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32A dance which whips itself up to a frenzy
0:23:32 > 0:23:34and then dies away at the end.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54Stravinsky said, "A good composer doesn't borrow, he steals",
0:23:54 > 0:23:57so we're going to steal bits of other people's compositions
0:23:57 > 0:23:59and make new pieces from them.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03We've chosen Stravinsky's Petrushka,
0:24:03 > 0:24:07one of the ballets Stravinsky wrote for the Ballet Russe in 1911.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10But we're using the version that he made in 1947.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13He actually went back to something he'd written previously
0:24:13 > 0:24:15and altered it -
0:24:15 > 0:24:17which gives a good message to the students, you know -
0:24:17 > 0:24:21just because you have written it down, don't think it's set in stone.
0:24:21 > 0:24:23I'm used to writing for piano but, obviously,
0:24:23 > 0:24:26because I'm writing for orchestra, it's been different
0:24:26 > 0:24:29because of different extremes of the instruments.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32The students are actually writing for an ensemble
0:24:32 > 0:24:36from the BBC Philharmonic - strings, clarinet, a horn and percussion -
0:24:36 > 0:24:39and they've very much got to think about how to combine them,
0:24:39 > 0:24:43and how to find new and different colours from the ensemble.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47I wasn't very familiar with writing for vibraphone.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49The vibraphone can also sound like a plucked instrument -
0:24:49 > 0:24:52played with dead strokes, that's where you keep the head of the beater on the bar.
0:24:52 > 0:24:55DAMPENED NOTES
0:24:55 > 0:24:57I didn't know that he could pedal the notes.
0:24:57 > 0:25:02I can push down so I can make the notes actually resound much more.
0:25:02 > 0:25:04DEEP, RESONANT NOTES
0:25:10 > 0:25:13The Stravinsky piece had lots of different melodic material
0:25:13 > 0:25:16you could choose from and put that into your own piece.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19Just from that very opening, we can get our own material to run with,
0:25:19 > 0:25:21so, yes - Stravinsky's opening.
0:25:29 > 0:25:33So I can take a handful of notes from Stravinsky
0:25:33 > 0:25:36and take them to the piano. I'll play them once...
0:25:38 > 0:25:41What am I going to do now? Well, let's transpose them,
0:25:41 > 0:25:43let's move them somewhere else and see what the effect is.
0:25:43 > 0:25:44SAME NOTES ASCENDING
0:25:52 > 0:25:56So the students are going to take melodies from the Stravinsky -
0:25:56 > 0:25:59I mean, it's just absolutely jam-packed with melodies,
0:25:59 > 0:26:01so they've got a lot to choose from - and they're going to take them
0:26:01 > 0:26:04and run with them and make their own treatments of the melodies.
0:26:07 > 0:26:09So how are we going to score that? So we've got...
0:26:09 > 0:26:13'Cameron has written his Stravinsky-inspired piece for piano
0:26:13 > 0:26:15'and then he has the task of trying to make
0:26:15 > 0:26:17'a similar set of sounds on the ensemble.'
0:26:17 > 0:26:19On the piano, that's nice to play,
0:26:19 > 0:26:23because that's a nice closed position and it's easy to play, yeah?
0:26:23 > 0:26:26Scoring it for the strings, I would put the first violin there,
0:26:26 > 0:26:29I'll put my second violin there, and I'll bring that F down,
0:26:29 > 0:26:32so we've got that. That's going to make a really nice sound.
0:26:32 > 0:26:39Cameron realised for himself that just simply trying to orchestrate
0:26:39 > 0:26:43from his piano original wasn't going to work, so he's then gone in
0:26:43 > 0:26:46and started thinking about the ensemble
0:26:46 > 0:26:49and the effect is much more successful.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52Your shape is just directly drawn from the Stravinsky,
0:26:52 > 0:26:55but you've softened it considerably.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58Cameron has just taken a basic four-note unit from Stravinsky.
0:26:58 > 0:27:03Da-da dum-da. He's just taken that four-note unit
0:27:03 > 0:27:05and then added his own endings to it,
0:27:05 > 0:27:07Stravinksy ends "da-da-da da-da da-da dum-dum..."
0:27:07 > 0:27:09HIS HUMMING MORPHS INTO ORCHESTRA
0:27:10 > 0:27:13..and Cameron's "da-da-da dee da-dum".
0:27:16 > 0:27:19So the Stravinksy is hidden in there,
0:27:19 > 0:27:21but he's made it very much his own.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23Rhythms from the Stravinsky there again,
0:27:23 > 0:27:25so if we hear the Stravinsky before this,
0:27:25 > 0:27:29that'll just come out like a happy memory of him.
0:27:29 > 0:27:33So this is a melody that Stravinsky used in his piece, Petruschka.
0:27:40 > 0:27:43So in violin 1 and the clarinet, I've got the main melody.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54In the viola and violin 2, and violincello,
0:27:54 > 0:27:57I've used harmonic interest,
0:27:57 > 0:28:00I've added harmony to make the melody more interesting,
0:28:00 > 0:28:02but I've also added dynamics, so it doesn't overwhelm the melody.
0:28:02 > 0:28:06The students here are telling the players the volume that they want
0:28:06 > 0:28:09by indicating it with letters beneath the notes.
0:28:09 > 0:28:11P, piano, which is soft.
0:28:11 > 0:28:15Forte, loud. And all the gradations in between.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19I've actually graded each note - you don't have to do that, of course,
0:28:19 > 0:28:24you can just add a set of hairpins,
0:28:24 > 0:28:26which tells you to do exactly the same thing.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30Tell them where to start and tell them where to finish...
0:28:31 > 0:28:35..and the musicians will make their own judgements about how that works.
0:28:45 > 0:28:49OK, players, any observations there?
0:28:49 > 0:28:52In bar five, you've used the word "staccato"
0:28:52 > 0:28:55and a dot over the note that you want short
0:28:55 > 0:28:56would have been much easier to read.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00If the player wants to translate what you've written on to a page,
0:29:00 > 0:29:03they need as much information as possible.
0:29:03 > 0:29:04Here's a little tune that I've written,
0:29:04 > 0:29:06if I wanted it spikey,
0:29:06 > 0:29:12I need to add a staccato dot underneath everything.
0:29:12 > 0:29:13That would be lovely.
0:29:13 > 0:29:15SINGS MELODY
0:29:15 > 0:29:19If I wanted it, on the other hand, smooth,
0:29:19 > 0:29:25I could add a slur and that says do that all nicely, smoothly connected.
0:29:37 > 0:29:40So Cameron's finished up with a piece which actually really
0:29:40 > 0:29:44totally answers the brief, it runs with material from Stravinsky
0:29:44 > 0:29:48and makes new melodic material from it, and makes it into
0:29:48 > 0:29:51a really successful, strongly structured piece.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12The Chairman Dances is a piece from 1987 by John Adams.
0:30:12 > 0:30:14It's a companion piece to Nixon In China,
0:30:14 > 0:30:18his opera about the meeting of the American President Richard Nixon
0:30:18 > 0:30:21and the Chinese Leader Chairman Mao.
0:30:25 > 0:30:27Adams very cleverly writes for orchestra,
0:30:27 > 0:30:29so the challenge I've given the students is to make
0:30:29 > 0:30:34really interesting things happen in terms of mood and atmosphere.
0:30:34 > 0:30:37CLARINET PLAYS SOLO
0:30:40 > 0:30:43What was the mood of that when you heard it played like that?
0:30:43 > 0:30:46- Like a happy mood. - How does that sound on violin?
0:30:46 > 0:30:48VIOLIN PLAYS SAME PIECE OF MUSIC
0:30:52 > 0:30:54It's very different, but it's the same tune.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57Because they are writing for this instrumental ensemble
0:30:57 > 0:30:59drawn from the Philharmonic, they need to know exactly
0:30:59 > 0:31:01what the instruments can do and how they can use them
0:31:01 > 0:31:04to achieve the different effects that they want to achieve.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07I learnt from the ensemble how to play the instrument,
0:31:07 > 0:31:09different ways of playing it,
0:31:09 > 0:31:12different techniques and, with that, you can
0:31:12 > 0:31:16create different atmosphere and you can change the mood of the piece.
0:31:18 > 0:31:21The violin has got natural harmonics, which is basically just
0:31:21 > 0:31:24a point along the string, and so we have the open string...
0:31:24 > 0:31:25PLAYS OPEN STRING
0:31:25 > 0:31:30And then we can put our fingers down and play a note, the next G,
0:31:30 > 0:31:32but if I lightly press my finger there,
0:31:32 > 0:31:36I get this more ethereal sound.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42One of the important things that John Adams does is harmony.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45He uses melodies, but the harmonies are important.
0:31:45 > 0:31:48He makes the chords grow and spread out organically.
0:31:48 > 0:31:51Here's the opening of the piece. I've simplified it.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53So first of all we get...
0:31:58 > 0:32:00And then he adds.
0:32:05 > 0:32:06And then he adds.
0:32:12 > 0:32:13Then he adds.
0:32:18 > 0:32:22So this chord starts tight and spreads out and spreads out
0:32:22 > 0:32:23and spreads out.
0:32:23 > 0:32:25The students all started from exactly the same point,
0:32:25 > 0:32:29which was make a pattern of three, four, or five chords
0:32:29 > 0:32:33and just move one note or move two notes and see what happens.
0:32:36 > 0:32:40I've reflected John Adams' storyline into my own interpretation of it.
0:32:40 > 0:32:42It was government secrets
0:32:42 > 0:32:44so it kind of develops, the texture, it's like one instrument
0:32:44 > 0:32:48and then flows into more instruments, so it's like whispers.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51It's two instruments carrying through,
0:32:51 > 0:32:54so this is like a conversation, but as you go down the score,
0:32:54 > 0:32:58you can see more instruments joining in. The violin 2, viola
0:32:58 > 0:33:01and then the clarinet, so then at this point,
0:33:01 > 0:33:03nearly all of the instruments are involved
0:33:03 > 0:33:06and then they all just get blown away by the horn at the end.
0:33:06 > 0:33:08So it goes from nearly all of the instruments just to one.
0:33:11 > 0:33:13I'd like to bring into it the possibility of using
0:33:13 > 0:33:17some of Nixon's speech when he resigned.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20"I have felt it was my duty to persevere."
0:33:20 > 0:33:23PLAYING NOTES "I have felt it was my duty to persevere."
0:33:24 > 0:33:29"I would have preferred to carry through to the finish."
0:33:29 > 0:33:31Something very daring has happened.
0:33:31 > 0:33:33That bit actually spells Watergate.
0:33:33 > 0:33:37Lovely, so, W-A-T-E-R-G-A-T-E.
0:33:37 > 0:33:39Brilliant, yeah, it does.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41I picked some words that I wanted to put into it,
0:33:41 > 0:33:43like Nixon, Mao, Watergate, resign.
0:33:43 > 0:33:45You just write the seven notes at the top
0:33:45 > 0:33:46and then you just go through the alphabet,
0:33:46 > 0:33:51so then if you want to write Nixon - the N would be a G, I would be a B,
0:33:51 > 0:33:54and so N-I-X-O-N, that's Nixon,
0:33:54 > 0:33:58and then M-A-O for Mao.
0:34:02 > 0:34:04Because it's to do with politics and stuff like that,
0:34:04 > 0:34:07I've been trying to get it as if it's like a speech.
0:34:07 > 0:34:09If he says something that I think he'd say really loud
0:34:09 > 0:34:13and like emphasise that point, then I'd emphasise it in the music.
0:34:15 > 0:34:19And if it's something that wasn't exactly relevant in his speech
0:34:19 > 0:34:22and he's going on a bit, then I might have made that a bit quieter.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30You've actually deliberately set out to unsettle the listener.
0:34:30 > 0:34:32Yeah. I don't want them just to relax.
0:34:32 > 0:34:36Of the pieces so far, that's one of the ones that comes closest
0:34:36 > 0:34:38to John Adams' way of thinking.
0:34:38 > 0:34:43Ross's piece really surprised me, he's really taken to heart
0:34:43 > 0:34:45the dramatic possibilities of the ensemble,
0:34:45 > 0:34:48working with dissonance, clashing sounds...
0:34:55 > 0:34:58He's got the strings playing in the key of E major,
0:34:58 > 0:35:01which has got a G sharp in it, and then the horn comes in
0:35:01 > 0:35:04playing a G natural, which is a semitone lower than the G sharp.
0:35:04 > 0:35:07They actually fight each other for your attention.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15And the other thing I like very much is the use of dynamics,
0:35:15 > 0:35:18but you've used them to extreme, so it's really dramatic.
0:35:27 > 0:35:29Dynamics - telling the players whether you want them
0:35:29 > 0:35:31to play loud or soft, for example,
0:35:31 > 0:35:33is one way of affecting the atmosphere.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37Another way is to think of the articulations, the phrasing -
0:35:37 > 0:35:39how do you want those notes to be played?
0:35:39 > 0:35:42- How's he going to play that? - I'm not sure what to do with that,
0:35:42 > 0:35:44whether to have it attacking or smoother.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47If I'd just written it like that, whatever instrument's playing,
0:35:47 > 0:35:49it's going to play it quite separately.
0:35:49 > 0:35:51HUMS MELODY
0:35:51 > 0:35:52Perhaps not that short, but...
0:35:52 > 0:35:56If I wanted it played smoothly, I'm going to add a slur,
0:35:56 > 0:35:58so I'm going to add that there,
0:35:58 > 0:36:01and that nice smooth shape says, "Play it smoothly, please."
0:36:01 > 0:36:03Da-da dee-da.
0:36:03 > 0:36:08He said that it would be good to put in some phrasing here,
0:36:08 > 0:36:12so it's... Like, for the violin, it would be one bow stroke going,
0:36:12 > 0:36:14"der-der-der" instead of "dun-dun-dun".
0:36:14 > 0:36:18It makes it sound a lot smoother and flow more,
0:36:18 > 0:36:21where here, it would be more sharper.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24Georgia came up with a really stunning boppy idea...
0:36:25 > 0:36:28..and then she said, "What do I do with it?"
0:36:28 > 0:36:29LAUGHTER Georgia's idea is great,
0:36:29 > 0:36:33but it needed developing and a really simple way
0:36:33 > 0:36:36to develop it is, one, to repeat it on one instrument
0:36:36 > 0:36:39and then to have the same idea on another instrument,
0:36:39 > 0:36:40but starting slightly later.
0:36:40 > 0:36:42So they're working in canon.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56The pieces here have really captured the spirit of John Adams.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01They have made pieces that are theirs
0:37:01 > 0:37:03but there's a really strong element
0:37:03 > 0:37:05of knowing how John Adams makes his music work.
0:37:32 > 0:37:35Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd