Jensen Gonzalves

MUED 373
April 2, 2018
PTE#2: Literature Project

Analysis:

Star Wars by John Williams is recognizable by many people because of the opening fanfare that
is played by mainly brass players. This fanfare leads into the bigger impact moment that is
coming later on within the piece. The brass is used because they are able to pierce through the
ensemble and really make a statement. Within the beginning of the fanfare the forth trumpets
are very important to bring the harmonic structure to the piece and adding more depth to the
chord that is being played. John Williams introduces this motive early on in the piece and then
continues to use it throughout the whole piece but he changes it throughout what instruments
play it. Many people seem to think that the leap of a 5th interval is intended to be a symbol for
heroism (Richards, 2013). The fanfare is also really important because it sets the main key for
the piece which is concert B-flat major and throughout the piece Williams stays relevantly in
the key but does some modulations within the piece. Throughout the piece Williams stays in
the key by using not only the tonic chord but also using the quartal or dominant chords.

Longitudinal Objectives
1. Students will learn the importance of balance within the ensemble through
experimental techniques between brass and woodwinds.
2. Students will learn how to play a triplet and how to subdivide the big beats in order to
obtain the correct length of triplet note.
3. Students will learn how to use dynamics to express the music that they are feeling.
4. Students will be able to play a movement of the Star Wars Melody.
5. Students will learn how to practice fast notes in a way that is easier than just playing the
full run.

Framework/Standards
1. MU:Cr2.1.E.IIa Select and develop arrangements, sections, and short compositions for
specific purposes that demonstrate understanding of characteristic(s) of music from a
variety of cultures studied in rehearsal.
2. MU:Pr4.1.E.Ia Explain the criteria used to select a varied repertoire to study based on an
understanding of theoretical and structural characteristics of the music, the technical skill
of the individual or ensemble, and the purpose or context of the performance.
3. MU:Pr4.2.E.Ia Demonstrate, using music reading skills where appropriate, how
compositional devices employed and theoretical and structural aspects of musical works
impact and inform prepared or improvised performances.
4. MU:Pr5.3.E.Ia Develop strategies to address expressive challenges in a varied repertoire
of music, and evaluate their success using feedback from ensemble peers and other
sources to refine performances.
Lesson #1:

Objectives:
1. Students will learn about John William and the general ideas from the piece.
2. Students will review the concert C scale up and down with different articulations.
3. Students will go over the triplet pattern and how to subdivide it.

Standards:
1. MU:Pr4.1.E.Ia Explain the criteria used to select a varied repertoire to study based on an
understanding of theoretical and structural characteristics of the music, the technical skill
of the individual or ensemble, and the purpose or context of the performance.
2. MU:Pr5.3.E.Ia Develop strategies to address expressive challenges in a varied repertoire
of music, and evaluate their success using feedback from ensemble peers and other
sources to refine performances.

Materials:
1. Warm up worksheet
Procedures:
1. To start the class I will be giving a short lecture about who John Williams is and the
importance of his pieces in movie scores.
2. I will have the students play their concert c note and hold it out.
a. I will then ask them to sing the pitch
b. Then I will ask them to play the pitch again and watch for tuning
c. I will then move on to playing the chord and back to the same pitch to work on
the ear and on tuning to a large ensemble.
3. I will then hand out the warm up worksheet and tell them that they have 30 seconds to
look over it and make sure that they understand.
a. The worksheet goes from the basic scale to learning triplets so I will go through
each little warm up by itself to make sure that students understand what is going
on.
b. When we get to the triplet part I will have the students play through it to see if
they can work through and this will give them a realization that not everything is
super easy. (This part will serve as my pre-test)
4. I will then go to the board that has a triplet rhythm written out and I will talk through
them how to subdivide them and the little words that help with understand like “triplet,
or strawberry”
5. I will then have the students sing back a rhythm that I write on the board and I will give
them different examples to sing to make sure that the understand the difference
between a triplet and three eighth notes.
6. We will then move onto the warm up sheet again and play through the triplet patterns
that I have created.
7. Once they successfully get through the rhythmic exercises we will see if the students are
able to go through the whole warm up sheet, since this will be our warm up for the next
couple of lessons.

Assessment:
Students will be graded on their participation in the group activities but they will also be
assessed on their individual capability of playing the triplet pattern. I will be going around while
the students are singing or playing the rhythms and try to make sure that all students are
understand it or if some students will need some extra help to understand the topic.
 1 2 3 4 5
Students Students are Students are Students are Students are
struggle with sometimes able to get mainly able able to stay
being able to able to sing the first part to keep the with the
correctly the correct of the triplet triplets even correct triplet
understand triplet pattern but they do length and
the triplet rhythm but correct but not they are also
pattern and still do not then get off understand understanding
how the understand the beat the the
subdivision the somehow subdivisions subdivisions
works. subdivision
Students are Students Students are Students are Students are
not able to struggle able to play mostly able able to stay
play the playing the the beginning to play the with the beat
correct correct of the triplet correct and produce
rhythmic rhythmic pattern triplet the correct
pattern on pattern on correct buy rhythm on the rhythmic
their own their own get off the their pattern on
instrument instrument beat on their instruments their
own instruments
instruments
Student does Student Student was Student was Student was
not sometimes engaged in mostly very involved
participate in participated the lesson for engaged the in the lesson
the lesson of in the lesson half the time whole lesson plan and had
the day and but they but then got but they a bunch of
seems were still distracted by were not questions and
uninterested very their phone very involved was able to
(on their cell distracted or friend. in the singing contribute to
phone, part of the the lesson as
talking to lesson. well.
their friend,
etc.)
Lesson #2

Objectives:
1. Students will take their knowledge about triplets and apply it to Star Wars piece.
2. Students will learn a good practice technique for fast runs that may be difficult to play at
speed.

Standards:
1. MU:Pr5.3.E.Ia Develop strategies to address expressive challenges in a varied repertoire
of music, and evaluate their success using feedback from ensemble peers and other
sources to refine performances.

Materials:
1. Warm up sheet
2. Sheet music

Procedures:
1. The students will be handed their part for Star Wars
2. I will then ask the students to play a concert C pitch on their instruments.
a. Once I do this then I will get them to sing the pitch and hear it in their ears.
b. Then I will ask them to play the pitch again and work on the intonation and tuning
of the ensemble.
c. We will then play the concert C chord, a cluster chord, and then back to the
original pitch of concert C.
3. The students will then practice the triplet rhythm that they learned in the previous lesson
by “ta-ing” the examples that I write on the board.
a. Once they do it as a group I will create a round with it by separating the different
sections and see if the students are able to keep the triplets together when other
people are not saying the same rhythm
4. After this the students will take out the warm up sheet and we will go through the whole
thing to see if the students are able to play it without any big breaks between the short
examples.
5. Once going through the warm up sheet and making sure that the students feel comfortable
we will then transition to the piece.
a. I will ask the students to use the knowledge that they know about the triplets and
apply it to the beginning of the piece.
b. We will go through the beginning until the students feel comfortable with the
rhythms
6. After the students feel comfortable with the triplets in the beginning I will then ask the
students to find a part of their music where they have a lot of 16 note runs in. (For most it
will be in the tempo change at measure 19)
a. I will ask the students how they would practice this if they are at home
b. Once asking a couple of students I will then go through the way that I would
suggest to rehearse it. (practicing in small chunks and building upon it)
c. I will take all the students through this technique and I will be using a metronome
so they can get a feeling of when they are on the beat or not, we will be starting
 slower and slightly moving faster when the students feel more comfortable with
the notes and rhythm.
7. The goal for the end of class will be to play most of the runs at a good tempo (still under
the exact tempo marking)

Assessment:
I will be only assessing students on participation during this lesson since it is mostly dealing with
how they are practicing during the class and paying attention during the lesson.

1 2 3 4 5
Student does Student Student was Student was Student was
not participate sometimes engaged in the mostly engaged very involved in
in the lesson of participated in lesson for half the whole lesson the lesson plan
the day and the lesson but the time but but they were and had a bunch
seems they were still then got not very of questions and
uninterested (on very distracted distracted by involved in the was able to
their cell phone, their phone or singing part of contribute to
talking to their friend. the lesson. the lesson as
friend, etc.) well.
Lesson #3

Objectives:
1. Students will begin to understand the different parts of the movement in Star Wars
2. Students will talk about the difference in the beginning of the piece and the middle of
the piece.
3. Students will understand how important balance is between brass and woodwinds

Standards:
1. MU:Cr2.1.E.IIa Select and develop arrangements, sections, and short compositions for
specific purposes that demonstrate understanding of characteristic(s) of music from a
variety of cultures studied in rehearsal.
2. MU:Pr4.2.E.Ia Demonstrate, using music reading skills where appropriate, how
compositional devices employed and theoretical and structural aspects of musical works
impact and inform prepared or improvised performances.

Materials:
1. Warm up sheet
2. Sheet Music
3. Dynamic Sheet
Procedures:
1. Students will play a concert Bb note
a. I will then ask the students to sing that pitch and also tonisize the chord
b. After they sing the chord they will play the chord and tonisize the chord, then I
will ask for a cluster chord and then back to concert Bb
2. Students will then take out their warm up sheet so we can just warm up with these little
exercises.
3. I will have the students do a run through of the movement so that they can begin to
understand the piece.
a. Once we get through a run through (no matter how it went) we will talk about
the different parts of the piece.
b. What is different between the beginning and the middle of the piece?
c. Does the mood of the piece change?
d. How does instruments change the mood of the piece?
4. I will then hand out the dynamic worksheet and we will go through these little examples
to make sure that all students understand the different dynamic markings.
5. I will be calling on every student and I will play one of the dynamics that they learned
about and see if they are able to identify what it is.
6. Once I feel comfortable that they understand the different dynamic markings we will
then transition back to the piece and play the beginning of the piece again.
a. Once going through little parts of the piece we will talk about the balance
between woodwinds and brass and when should one group be more present
than the other.
7. We will go through the piece and the different dynamics until the end of the class period

Assessment:
Students will be assessed if they knew the dynamic that I played on my saxophone and if they
were able to identify it. This will be considered a quiz and students will get credit if they know
the dynamic and no credit if they do not know the dynamic. For the students that were unable
to identify the dynamic that I was playing I would suggest that they came in and got extra help
from me.
Lesson #4

Objectives:
1. Students will start rehearsing Star Wars in more depth
2. They will apply their knowledge about dynamics and balance while rehearsing
3. Students will experience the difference between not balanced ensemble playing and
balanced ensemble playing.

Standards:
1. MU:Pr4.2.E.Ia Demonstrate, using music reading skills where appropriate, how
compositional devices employed and theoretical and structural aspects of musical works
impact and inform prepared or improvised performances.
2. MU:Pr5.3.E.Ia Develop strategies to address expressive challenges in a varied repertoire
of music, and evaluate their success using feedback from ensemble peers and other
sources to refine performances.

Materials:
1. Warm up sheet
2. Sheet music

Procedures:
1. I will ask the students to sing a concert Bb
a. I will then have the students play the note on their instruments.
b. We will then tonisize the chord and then play it.
c. The students will then be asked to play the concert Bb again and tune to each
other.
2. I will then ask the students to take out their music and beginning working on sections.
a. I will be rehearsing the sections that I feel gave the students the most difficult
time when we ran through the piece during the last lesson.
3. We will be rehearsing the chunks that they need rehearsing and being reminded about
the dynamics that we learned about in the past lesson.
4. I will then play around with the balance of the ensemble in the beginning couple
measures of the piece to show the students how important it is to blend.
a. I will have the trumpets play very out of the texture and then have the
saxophones play quietly. Hopefully they will hear that it is not what an audience
would like to hear.
b. We will also discuss what it means to be balanced within the ensemble.
5. After learning about that we will rehearse some more sections and hopefully it will clear
up a lot of the unbalanced situations that are going on. Until the period is over.

Assessments:
Students again will mostly be graded on their participation in the class, but I will also be walking
around while the students are playing and see how they are learning the notes and the rhythms
so I know what still needs to be worked on in the next rehearsal. (see rubric in lesson #2)
Lesson #5

Objectives:
1. Students will continue to rehearse the piece
2. Students will be asked to express themselves through the music
3. Students will be able to play through movement one of the Star Wars Medley

Standards:
1. MU:Cr2.1.E.IIa Select and develop arrangements, sections, and short compositions for
specific purposes that demonstrate understanding of characteristic(s) of music from a
variety of cultures studied in rehearsal.
2. MU:Pr5.3.E.Ia Develop strategies to address expressive challenges in a varied repertoire
of music, and evaluate their success using feedback from ensemble peers and other
sources to refine performances.

Materials:
1. Sheet music

Procedures:
1. We will do the same warm up that we did in lesson #4 but in concert C since that is what
Star Wars is in- Start with singing and then play the chord and the tonic pitch to tune
2. We will then transition straight into the piece and working on any sections that I feel still
needs to be worked on and refined.
3. I will then ask the students what it means to be musical
a. Then the students will go through each section and tell me what type of “mood”
the piece sounds like it is in.
b. The students will be asked to be more musical in the lyrical parts.
4. We will rehearse those sections and make sure that they are being more lyrical and trying
to express the “mood” of the piece as best as they can.
5. We will then have a full run of the piece.

Assessment:
Students will be assessed if they are able to play through the piece with correct dynamics, triplet
rhythm, and have an idea what the music is trying to portray. This will also be my posttest to
make sure that the students feel really comfortable with the triplet rhythm.

1 2 3 4 5
Students are not Student is trying Student is Student mostly Students are
able to get to get through working hard is able to get able to play
through the the piece but and is able to through the through the
piece. They are they still are play through piece but has whole piece
making a lot of having issues most of the some issues without any
note errors and with notes and piece with with either the note issues or
rhythm rhythms. correct notes notes or the rhythm issues.
mistakes. and rhythm rhythm