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TERM 3

GRADE 7

Music Literacy

The Waltz and the Ländler

http://01varvara.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/vladimir-pervuvensky-in-the-vortex-of-the-waltz-2007-e1269847080304.jpg?w=800&h=667

THE LÄNDLER

http://www.streetswing.com/histmain/histitl/1landler1.jpg

What is the Ländler?

The Ländler is a popular folk dance in ¾ time that originated in Austria, Southern Germany, German Switzerland and Slovenia in the 1700s. Participants in the dance are paired together and the steps of the dance consist of hopping and stamping. The dancers wore traditional costumes at first, but later, because it became popular in dance halls,

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dancers started to wear more formal and elegant clothing. The dance was also sped up to make the steps flow more elegantly. It was therefore thought that this dance contributed to the development of the waltz.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ToNBpATL35Y/ULfHXgmrJGI/AAAAAAAABKg/fabMLgS2ZwA/s1600/Photo_Sound+of+Music01.jpg

The Broadway musical, which later became a feature-length film, The Sound of Music, features a scene where Maria, the governess to the von Trapp children, dances with their father, Captain von Trapp. The dance that they perform is the Ländler. You can watch these characters perform the Ländler at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUfWRBGQkz0.

The rhythm of a traditional Ländler bar of music is as follows:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Landler_dance_pattern.png

The South African folk dance most connected to the Ländler is the ‘Volkspele’:

VOLKSPELE

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Volkspele003.gif

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What is Volkspele?

Translated, the word ‘Volkspele’ means ‘folk games’, but it is really folk dancing. It is the brain child of Dr S H Pellisier, who, on visiting Sweden in 1912, decided that this country needed to have its own folk dance. As a result, he developed dance groups based on Voortrekker ideas. Get togethers were called saamtrekke where all the groups of dancers (called laers) competed against each other. The rhythm of the dance tended to be ¾ time. An example of the type of music laers danced to is “Afrikaners is Plesierig!” The words are:

Afrikaners is plesierig, Dit kan julle glo!

Hulle hou van partytjies, En dan maak hulle so:

Eers draai die ou vroutjie, En dan draai haar ou man. Hy vat haar om haar lyfie En dan draai hulle saam.

Activity 1;

Stand a boy and girl alternately and form a circle holding hands.

Waltz forward 1, 2, 3, lifting arms as you move to the centre of the circle. Waltz backwards 1, 2, 3, lowering your arms as you return to your starting place. Repeat

Waltz to the right 1, 2, 3, in an anticlockwise direction; change to your left and waltz in a clockwise direction for another 1, 2, 3. Repeat

Each girl turns underneath her right arm towards the boy on her right.

Each boy turns underneath his arm towards the girl on his left.

The boy and girl now face one another, hold round the waist and twirl (Tiekie-draai)

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MARKING CRITERIA:

You will be marked as follows:

• 5 marks for singing the song correctly and in tune • 5 marks for dancing the Volkspele • 5 marks for working together in the group • 5 marks for conducting music in triple metre

RUBRIC FOR DANCING VOLKSPELE

Criteria 5

Outstanding achievement

4 Substantial

achievement

3 Moderate

achievement

2 Elementary

achievement)

1 Not

achieved

Singing

song correctly

and in tune

Sang in pitch throughout

A mistake

noted

2 or more

mistakes noted

Only some

notes sung in pitch

Unable to sing

in pitch

Dancing

The Volkspele

Dance was

well-performed and with

confidence

Dance was

performed in most part, but a little tentative

Satisfactory

performance of dance

Very tentative

performance of dance

Unable to do

the dance

Working together

Excellent work done together

Some errors noted in their co- operation

Good work as a

group

Many errors noted in the group work

Were not able

to work together

Conducting

music in triple metre

Accurately conducted

piece

Conducted with

minor errors

Conducted with

a few errors

Conducted with

many errors

Unable to conduct

according to metre

TOTAL:

20 MARKS

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THE WALTZ

What is the Waltz?

http://vienna.metblogs.com/archives/images/2006/11/waltz.gif

The name ‘Waltz’ comes from the German verb ‘walzen’ (taken from the Latin verb ‘volvere’) meaning ‘to turn or revolve. The waltz is a dance performed in ¾ time. At the time of its rise in popularity, in the 19th Century, the waltz was considered to be scandalous because, in order to dance the Waltz, men and women had to hold each other’s hands tightly and dance close together in public.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Donauwalzer.jpg

The most famous waltz, performed each year at the New Year’s Concert in Vienna, Austria, is The Blue Danube, composed by the Austrian composer, Johann Strauss II, in 1866. Because of all the waltzes he wrote, Johann Strauss II became known as ‘The Waltz King’.

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http://www1.umn.edu/news/prod/groups/ur/@pub/@ur/@news/documents/multimedia/ur_multimedia_310745.jpg

You can watch an orchestra and dancers perform The Blue Danube waltz at a New Year’s concert in Vienna here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHFJWCCsWWQ

Here are some modern pieces, also in ¾ waltz time:

Amazing Grace (Traditional)

Silent Night (Traditional)

Blackout – Muse

Kiss from a Rose – Seal

Breakaway – Kelly Clarkson

A Thousand Years – Christina Perri

The Potter Waltz (from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

My Favourite Things (from The Sound of Music)

Eidelweiss (from The Sound of Music)

Have you ever really loved a woman – Bryan Adams

Hallelujah – Lou Reid (from Shrek)

Christmas Song – Alvin and the Chipmunks

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whY9MKlvisI)

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BASS CLEF

When you want to write music for Bass Instruments like the Tuba, Cello, Double bass, Bassoon and other bass instruments, as well as bass voices, a different clef is used. This clef is called the BASS CLEF. The sign for the bass clef resembles a cursive F, and is such because it is situated around the note F on the stave. The notes on the lines are: G, B, D, F, A and the notes in the spaces are: A, C, E, G.

http://www.pianomother.com/assets/images/FreeSheetMusic/notes-on-the-bass-clef.png

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Test your knowledge of the notes by doing the following exercises:

Now access ‘Perfect Piano’ and play them on the bass section of the keyboard.

Listen to the music of: Morning Mood by Grieg

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRlXnoC0ySs)

EDVARD GRIEG was born in Bergen, Norway on 15th June 1843. For most of its life, Norway struggled to be its own nation separate from unions with other countries. It was Edvard’s music that helped give Norway its own identity. For his contribution, he came to be regarded as a hero to the people of Norway. Many of his works include Norwegian folksongs where he paints a musical picture of the landscape of the beautiful countryside. He set Henrik Ibsen’s stage play

Peer Gynt to music, which includes two of his best known works: Morning Mood and In the Hall of the Mountain King.

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Listen to the music of: Ode to Joy by Beethoven

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87qT5BOl2XU)

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN was born in Bonn, Germany in 1770. His talent was recognized early on, and by 1778 he was learning to play the organ and the viola in addition to his piano studies. In 1787, young Beethoven decided to travel to Vienna, hoping to meet and study composition with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. By his twenties he began to suffer from hearing loss. He did, however, continue to compose, conduct and perform, even though he was completely deaf. One story recalls that after conducting the premiere of his Ninth Symphony, which includes the melody Ode to Joy, he had to be turned around to see the overwhelming applause of the audience. He is remembered as an important composer in the transitional period between the Classical Era and the Romantic Era in music.

Listen to the music of: Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cNQFB0TDfY)

PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY was born in 1840 in the present – day Udmurtia, Russia. His father was a Ukrainian mining engineer. The only music instruction he received were piano lessons from a piano manufacturer, who occasionally made visits to the School of Judisprudence. On attending the Opera and Theater, it was the works of Rossini, Bellini, Verdi and Mozart that he enjoyed the most. In 1861, he heard about classes being offered by the Russian Musical Society. In the following year, he

followed his teacher to the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he met and studied with Anton Rubinstein. Rubinstein was impressed with Tchaikovsky’s talent.

Listen to music written for and in the Bass clef:

• A Cello piece – The Swan from the ‘Carnival of the Animals’ by Camille Saint-Saëns o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNbXuFBjncw • A Double bass piece – The Elephant from the ‘Carnival of the Animals’ by Camille

Saint- Saëns o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ase1PyMJ9iw • A tenor aria such as Una fortiva lagrima by Donizetti

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o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUI8rpMzsC8 • A contemporary song such as The End of the Road by Boyz II Men o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDKO6XYXioc • A Bass guitar piece such as Victor Wooten’s version of Amazing Grace o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg_j7n4BcVA

Watch, on Youtube, a Brass band playing Stand by Me (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77HHUoLffec) where the bass instruments play an OSTINATO as follows:

Try to sing the ostinato using the vocal sound of ‘doem’ and ‘do do’. Make sure that you’re singing these sounds accurately and in the correct rhythmic pattern.

The word OSTINATO comes from the Italian word that means stubborn or obstinate. Indeed this is true in music, as the musical phrase repeats over and over. The musical phrases then always have the same pitch, stress and duration. In Jazz and R&B (Rhythm and Blues) a short musical phrase that is repeated like this is called a RIFF. The Bass line to Pachelbel’s Canon is an Ostinato and a new tune is created above it throughout the piece. This means that it lends itself to Jazz improvisation (creating your own tune) above the steady bass.

Listen to the Pachelbel Canon on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xu5TlSXEzzs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bViB_P7RTDU