Activities
1. Group Activity: One student composes a short tune and sings it to another student who then sings it to another, and so on. Compare the last student's tune to the original tune and note the changes. (The first tune could be recorded at the beginning of the activity.)
2. Imagine what it was like before the stave was invented. How could you write a tune for somebody else to play or sing?
3. Tonic sol-fa. Find out what this method of reading music is about (See link). Write the sol-fa words for the notes of a simple well-known melody and see if your partner can sing it.
4. Listen to some plainsong and compare it to later devotional music such as Byrd's Mass for Four Voices. Find as many similarities and differences as you can. Then listen to part of Handel's Messiah and do the same again.
5. Listen to a later piece of music heard in the programme: Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring'. What effect do you think the orchestration has on the emotions compared to a single line of plainchant?
6. Follow up the links below and see how much more you can find out about the different elements of the programme.
