Lesson Format General Music

Grade Level: Sixth Grade

Description:
The following is a series of several lessons which work together to help students learn about a popular
20th century style of music. Graphic notation flourished in the 1950s with composers such as John Cage,
Stockhausen, and Morton Feldman producing popular works. Although this technique leaves some of
traditional notation by the wayside, it can incorporate some elements of traditional notation, and seeks
to achieve different results than traditional notation. This set of lessons allows the students to explore
historical aspects of music, alongside tapping into expressive qualities they may struggle with when it
comes to traditional notation, as well as leads to some discussions about what music is and why we
perform it.

Objectives:

- Students will understand why composers turned to graphic notation in the 1950s, and be able to
identify reasons in both a musical history, as well as a broader world-history context.
- Students will be exposed to several famous graphic notation works, both in their notated form
and through recording.
- Students will work in large and small groups to analyze graphic notation and come to an
understanding of some of the tools that composers use in their notation.
- Students will perform in groups from graphic notation, working on their own interpretations.
- Students will compose their own pieces using a system of graphic notation based off of a
composer or piece that they have studied, or they will use their creativity to go beyond ideas
presented to them.
- Students will discuss the pros and cons of using graphic notation, and how that can affect the
musics performances.
- Students will work well with their classmates in creating and interpreting works.

Standards:
Throughout this series of lessons students will work in all areas of the standards.
1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
5. Reading and notating music.
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
7. Evaluating music and music performances.
8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

Materials:
- Scores to the following pieces to pass out to the class:
o From Notations 21:
Score 1991 Michael Schumacher
Ageice Ivan Vinzce
Structured Improvisation #5 Landscapes Dan Mamorstein
 - PowerPoint Presentation with the following scores:
o From Notations 21:
A Rose is a Rose is a Round by James Tenney
Persona 1 Joy: Dancing in space by Steve Antosca
Chaos By Henrik Colding-Jorgensen
Steve Rodens Maping Space in Sound.
- Paper
- Colored pencils/markers for composition
- A variety of instruments for students to choose from.
- Deciphering Graphic Scores worksheets (attached)

Prior Knowledge:
- Students will know about some experimental music such as John Cage, and Steve Reich.
- Students will know classroom behavior expectations for working in groups and with
instruments.
- Students will know many aspects of traditional notation.
- Students will have experiences performing in front of the class.
- Students will have experience composing pieces with standard notation.
- [Optional] Students could be studying (or could have studied) WWII and the boom that
followed in their classes, which sets up the historical dialogue for this class.

Procedures:
Overview:
o Lesson 1:
Review of experimental composers Steve Reich, John Cage and Charles Ives
Discussion about how their pieces are notated
What is going on historically?
In music
In a broader historical sense
Looking at/Listening to some graphic scores
How do composers work to come up with some of these ideas?
How can we analyze these?
Aspects of traditional notation
Some artistic qualities we can use to decipher them
How we translate those into musical terms
Work as a class to decipher a score
Work in small groups to decipher and score, using a worksheet
Sharing results with the whole class
o Lesson 2:
Review of previous lesson
Finish up sharing any pieces from last time if needed, as well as going
over some of the aspects from art we can use.
Discussion about how composers may pick a style of notation for their piece
Rules for group composition time, noise level expectancies, instrument care
Croup composition time
 Sharing of the compositions, with the class trying to interpret the scores without
the groups help.
o Lesson 3:
Review of the previous lesson
Breaking up into the same small groups and receiving a score that they either
analyzed earlier or another group created.
Set time limits/restrictions.
Rules for group practice, noise level expectancies, and instrument care.
Time to practice interpretations.
Sharing interpretations with the class
Reflection on graphic notation while listening to music

Lesson 1:
- Review of experimental composers Steve Reich, John Cage and Charles Ives
- Discussion about how their pieces are notated
o Charles Ives Variations on America uses traditional notation even though it sous very
different from a lot of the other music we use.
o John Cages 433 uses three movements, each of which use a new vocabulary word
Tacet That means dont play. Could John Cage have used traditional notation? (Yes, he
could write rests with a fermata)
o Does anybody have any idea how Steve Reich may have notated his Pendulum music?
(Take ideas) Those are really good ideas, what he actually did was he just wrote out
directions. That seems kind of weird, doesnt it? Most of the music weve learned about
is written down in standard notation so musicians can all read it and work from it, but
with some scores being written out maybe there are other ways we can share our
musical ideas with each other and audiences.
o Today were going to talk about graphic notation, which was a musical movement that
started in the 1950s.
- What is going on historically?
o In music
The music weve been working with up until now, weve gone through lots of
tonal music, and some music that sounded weird and unorganized called atonal
music, but we earned even that was organized. At this time we also have some
jazz and rock and roll going on. Now do you remember why we moved towards
atonal music? (To make new sounds that arent restricted following the same
rules).
Graphic notation works as were trying to get away from restrictions. I want
everybody to think of some sort of noise that we would struggle to write down
with standard notation. Youve got 30 seconds and then Im going to point to
random people and I want you to make your noise. Its going to be our own
unwritten symphony. You can even get a little bit silly, you might have to in
order to come up with something we cant write down.
Those were only sounds with our voices and bodies, imagine all the weird noises
we could make with instruments. Thats why some composers turn to graphic
notation it helps them to communicate these noises.
o In a broader historical sense
In the 50s does anybody now what was going on in the bigger history, not just
within music? (WWII ended and the cold war started towards the end).
 How do we think the end of WWII could be influencing some of our art here?
What about advancements in technology? Why could graphic notation come
from this? (The economy was going well and led to a rise in education and more
composers who wanted to try new things, People wanted to make political
statements which may not sound like our normal music, people were
experimenting just like scientists were in the cold war, we had more exposure
and communication between artists, etc.)
- Looking at/Listening to some graphic scores
o Okay, weve been talking a lot but lets actually look at some scores! The scores can look
a lot different, but Im using scores from Notations 21 by Theresa Sauer. She compiled a
bunch of these scores today and I dont have a document camera so I put them in a
power point.
o Sometimes graphic notation uses elements of standard notation, like A Rose is a Rose is
a Round by James Tenney. This piece looks like traditional writing, but its in two circles.
Can anybody guess what the composer might want us to do by writing like this? (repeat
it over and over) He could have used repeats here, but chose to make it into a circle,
thats curious.
o Sometimes a composer uses a few elements of traditional music. The piece Persona 1
Joy: Dancing in space by Steve Antosca looks like some normal sheet music weve seen,
but were missing something. Who can tell me what were missing in this piece? (A staff)
So without the staff we dont know exactly what these notes are, doesnt that seem like
it might be trouble? But! We can see where the notes go up and down and we can see
the rhythms. The composer has a lot of control over what goes on, but the performers
feeling and input play a lot into this as well.
o Sometimes we just go crazy. The score Chaos By Henrik Colding-Jorgensen looks kind
of weird. If I gave you this music and told you to go play it on a piano or a recorder youd
look at me like I was crazy, but in a few days were going to work on playing some so we
need to put on our detective hats.
- How can we analyze these?
o Aspects of traditional notation
One of our first tools that we should look for in a score if any sort of tradition or
standard notation. We cant really find anything in the Chaos piece, but if we
look really close we can find some things in there. If we find some letters,
maybe those are dynamics! Maybe well see a staff and get some ideas from
that, maybe the composer will even give us some fancy words that we use in
music.
o Some artistic qualities we can use to decipher them
Proximity, Similarity, Continuation, and Closure
Proximity Items placed next to each other are seen as a group
Similarity Objects that look similar are groups together.
Continuation Lines that are straight or smooth without big breaks and seen as
one item.
Closure Items that are closed in shapes are seen as separate from other non-
complete shapes.
Color Could this be a mood or something more literal such as pitches on a set
of bells for students?
o How we translate those into musical terms
 Pitch High and Low - Maybe if we have a bunch of shapes that move up and
down we can think of the pitch raising or lowering. If we see something that
looks like a staff and use that.
Dynamics Loud and Soft Are there things that get bigger or smaller? Maybe
we can use the size of shapes to help us decide dynamics.
Duration Length Are some shapes longer than others? Are some sections
bigger than others?
Timbre The type of sound that should be made What instruments do we use
(The name of the piece can help) Are they normal noises? OR are they sharp like
the lines, smooth like curves?
- Work as a class to decipher a score
o Lets look at a score together Steve Rodens Maping Space in Sound. And were going
to answer some questions I have for us.
o Lets start by looking for some things that come from traditional notation or look to us
like they might be musical by themselves. Does anybody see anything? ( Letter Names
and the KeyBoard)
o Sometimes composers give us some extra instructions like Steve Reich who wrote out all
of his in Pendulum music. This composer gives us some instructions and I wonder if you
can find any. They might be a little hidden but I bet you can find one or two of them.
(Play once or twice. Instructions about how many notes to play. Sometimes composers
want the specific sounds like in the case of how many notes to play, other time they let
some of their music be up to chance and give the performers an option of how many
times to play it.
o Do you think any parts of these scores are grouped together? Maybe some of them are
instructions and others are meant to be played? How can you tell that?
o Looking at the size of some of the squares and rectangles on here do you think that any
of them should be played longer or louder? Why? (Size would be a great tool to be used
here)
o Finally, I have some good news. If this is really confusing for you and seems random, the
scores Im showing you, they dont have really complex directions. There are a lot of
ways to interpret these scores, which means as long as you have a reason for your ideas
theyre probably right. Of course other people may have other ideas and thats where
working with musician friends helps us out, but even on our own we can come to some
great ideas and be right!
- Work in small groups to decipher and score, using a worksheet
o Now were going to work with our musician friends in small groups with some scores I
found. Ive got some hint sheets, but youre going to work as a group and look at your
score. Think about all the ideas weve talked about and see if you can come up with
some ideas about how you would perform these. You have ____ minutes, and then
were going to come together as a group and show everyone our scores and answers.
Each group will get a different score so dont worry about having different ideas with
another group, just come to us with some groups, and if you dont have any ideas then
maybe we can help you out when were looking.
o Pass out the scores:
Score 1991 Michael Schumacher
From Sixty Lurid albumlatts Gary Noland
Structured Improvisation #5 Landscapes Dan Mamorstein
- Sharing results with the whole class
Assessment/Evaluation:

Working in small groups I can get a better idea of how students are working on the concepts.
Throughout the three lessons Ill have an example of their analysis, performance, and composition skills.

What will I do with any extra time?

Since this is a series of lessons I will be starting at the beginning and do not expect to finish it,
but rather will aim towards getting to and starting my first composition time with the students. If I have
extra time I can have the groups share what they did and why.

Score Deciphering Work Sheet

Names of Group Members:
_______________________________________________________
What sort of instruments/voices do you think you would perform
this with? What sort of hints led you towards that?

Are there any aspects of standard notation in your score? If not,

are there any directions that the composer wrote out, and if so
could they be written in standard notation?

Find at least musical aspect you see in the work and write how you
would perform it. (Ex. Pitch, when the circles are higher up, we
would raise our pitch).

What could be hard/confusing to figure out about this piece?

 Review of experimental composers Steve Reich, John Cage and Charles Ives
Discussion about how their pieces are notated
What is going on historically?
In music
o Random Noise activity 30 seconds
In a broader historical sense
Looking at/Listening to some graphic scores
How do composers work to come up with some of these ideas?
How can we analyze these?
Aspects of traditional notation
Some artistic qualities we can use to decipher them
How we translate those into musical terms
Work as a class to decipher a score
Work in small groups to decipher and score, using a worksheet
Sharing results with the whole class