23678_Language-Music:23678_Launguage-Music
11/9/11
12:53 PM
?
Communication can sometimes be American poet Henry competitive. Consider a poetry slam, Wadsworth Longfellow where poets compete before an audience once said, “Music is to have the best poem and performance. the universal language Or a free-styling event, where rap of mankind.” musicians make up new words to a song in a competition. More than 100 years ago, composers (people who write music) similarly tried to one-up each other by writing variations of popular music. During the performance, you get to be the judge as two musicians compete against each other using variations of a song popular at that time.
EXPRESS IT!
Language and music also share the ability to express emotions and ideas. Think about how you could communicate an idea (like pride) or a feeling (like happiness) and jot down how you would communicate it in each of the following ways. Speaking aloud: In writing: With gesture or body movement:
David M. Rubenstein Chairman Michael M. Kaiser President Darrell M. Ayers Vice President, Education
Christoph Eschenbach Music Director
Major support for the Kennedy Center’s educational programs is provided by David and Alice Rubenstein through the Rubenstein Arts Access Program.
Visually, like in a drawing, painting, or model: With music (humming, tapping a familiar beat, and so forth): Next, share your ideas with a friend or family member. Which method communicated your idea best? Why?
Cuesheets are produced by ARTSEDGE, an education program of the Kennedy Center. ARTSEDGE is a part of Thinkfinity.org, a consortium of free educational Web sites for K-12 teaching and learning. Learn more about Education at The Kennedy Center at www.kennedy-center.org/education
A Good Audience… ■ ■ ■ ■
Stays seated Stays quiet Watches and listens carefully Claps at the end
Connections: MORE Language
+ Music
David and Alice Rubenstein are the Presenting Underwriters of the NSO. Additional support for Performances for Young Audiences is provided by the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts, Capital One Bank, the Carter and Melissa Cafritz Charitable Trust, The Clark Charitable Foundation, Fight for Children, Inc., Mr. James V. Kimsey, The Kirstein Family Foundation, Inc., The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, Inc., Linda and Tobia Mercuro, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, Park Foundation, Inc., Mrs. Irene Pollin, Dr. Deborah Rose and Dr. Jan A. J. Stolwijk, The Theodore H. Barth Foundation, Inc., the U.S. Department of Education, and the Verizon Foundation.
The contents of this Cuesheet do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. © 2012 The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Please recycle this Cuesheet by sharing it with friends!
Cuesheet
DID YOU KNOW?
PERFORMANCE GUIDE
Grand “Slams”
Page 1
Developed and hosted by Yvonne Caruthers Performed by Yvonne Caruthers, cello Natasha Bogachek, violin Gareth Flowers, trumpet Daniel Villanueva, percussion Yvonne and Natasha are members of the National Symphony Orchestra.
How do we communicate? Through language, of course, but also through gestures and images—and yes, music. Like language, music is a system of symbols and rules that communicates specific ideas. Music can also communicate emotions, and even tell stories. During the performance, National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) cellist Yvonne Caruthers and three of her musician friends will demonstrate some surprising connections between language and music. Performances for Young Audiences is made possible by
23678_Language-Music:23678_Launguage-Music
11/9/11
12:58 PM
Page 3
Let’s Talk About Some Ways Languageand Music Connect
E N
Cracking the Code
Reading, Writing, and Rhythm
Written language— whether it is English, Chinese, Hindi, or something else— is a code that represents the ideas and sounds of spoken language. Written music works the same way. Notes, or musical sounds, can be thought of as the musical alphabet. But unlike G L I S H the 26 letters in the English alphabet, music only has 12 notes. During the performance, the musicians will demonstrate some C H I N E S E of the many ways those 12 notes can be combined to create a seemingly endless variety of musical phrases.
Rhythm is patterns of strong and weak beats organized into groups and repeated. In language, you most easily hear rhythm in poetry, where rhyming words are often emphasized. In music, rhythm—along with harmony and melody—is an important building block. During the performance, listen for different rhythms among types of music as well as music from other cultures.
Music to Your Ears At the performance, you will hear: An original piece by Gareth Flowers featuring tape loops “ABC,” a three-note piece by Yvonne Caruthers An arrangement of one of the pieces from “Six Easy Piano Pieces” by Arnold Schoenberg “Do-Re-Mi” from The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II Theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind by John Williams
Make a Point (!) How would you write a word that you wanted to be spoken with excitement? How about an exclamation point (!)? In music notation, think of the accent mark (>) as music’s exclamation point. When musicians see the accent, they know to play the note stronger or more forcefully. During the performance, you’ll learn how music symbols translate into sounds. Get a sneak peek with this labeled example.
“Carnival of Venice,” variations for trumpet by Jean-Bapiste Arban
BEAT IT!
time signature: the rhythm
“Carnival of Venice,” variations for violin by Niccolo Paganini
key signature: identifies the specific pattern of notes for that piece of music
H I N D I
Music Speaks Volumes
Read this poetry excerpt aloud, nodding your head each time you say a bolded word to see whether you sense the rhythm:
— from “The Swing” by Robert Louis Stevenson
During the performance, you’ll learn how a French author and musician used sounds, colors, and symbols to create a brand new language. Plus, you’ll get to try your hand at cracking his code.
code.
Rhythm also helps us tell different types of music apart. For example, music that people march to often has strong first and third beats in every 4 beats of music. In rock music, beats two and four are usually the strong beats. Try to feel the difference by tapping your hand on your knee in a steady 1-2-3-4 beat with more energy on the highlighted beats below. 1
2
3
Marching Music
4
1
2
3
Rock Music
notes: musical sounds
Whether in speech or music, the word dynamics describes the overall volume level of the sound. It can be loud, soft, or something in-between. Music played loudly gives a very different message from music played softly. Think about how this works in language. What’s the difference between a shouted “YES” and a whispered one?
How do you like to go up in a swing, Up in the air so blue? “Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing Ever a child can do!”
BY THE WAY…
staccato: short
4
In music, Italian words describe musical dynamics. Forte (for-tay) means loud, piano means soft. Variations on these words describe degrees of loudness or softness. For example, moderately soft is mezzo-piano; very loud is fortissimo.
DID YOU KNOW?
?
Many musical terms, like forte, are Italian words because many of them were first written down by Italian composers.
staff: five horizontal lines on which music is written
bass clef: a symbol that shows the pitch range
forte: loud
piano: soft accent: emphasis
diminuendo: a gradual decrease in volume
23678_Language-Music:23678_Launguage-Music
11/9/11
12:58 PM
Page 3
Let’s Talk About Some Ways Languageand Music Connect
E N
Cracking the Code
Reading, Writing, and Rhythm
Written language— whether it is English, Chinese, Hindi, or something else— is a code that represents the ideas and sounds of spoken language. Written music works the same way. Notes, or musical sounds, can be thought of as the musical alphabet. But unlike G L I S H the 26 letters in the English alphabet, music only has 12 notes. During the performance, the musicians will demonstrate some C H I N E S E of the many ways those 12 notes can be combined to create a seemingly endless variety of musical phrases.
Rhythm is patterns of strong and weak beats organized into groups and repeated. In language, you most easily hear rhythm in poetry, where rhyming words are often emphasized. In music, rhythm—along with harmony and melody—is an important building block. During the performance, listen for different rhythms among types of music as well as music from other cultures.
Music to Your Ears At the performance, you will hear: An original piece by Gareth Flowers featuring tape loops “ABC,” a three-note piece by Yvonne Caruthers An arrangement of one of the pieces from “Six Easy Piano Pieces” by Arnold Schoenberg “Do-Re-Mi” from The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II Theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind by John Williams
Make a Point (!) How would you write a word that you wanted to be spoken with excitement? How about an exclamation point (!)? In music notation, think of the accent mark (>) as music’s exclamation point. When musicians see the accent, they know to play the note stronger or more forcefully. During the performance, you’ll learn how music symbols translate into sounds. Get a sneak peek with this labeled example.
“Carnival of Venice,” variations for trumpet by Jean-Bapiste Arban
BEAT IT!
time signature: the rhythm
“Carnival of Venice,” variations for violin by Niccolo Paganini
key signature: identifies the specific pattern of notes for that piece of music
H I N D I
Music Speaks Volumes
Read this poetry excerpt aloud, nodding your head each time you say a bolded word to see whether you sense the rhythm:
— from “The Swing” by Robert Louis Stevenson
During the performance, you’ll learn how a French author and musician used sounds, colors, and symbols to create a brand new language. Plus, you’ll get to try your hand at cracking his code.
code.
Rhythm also helps us tell different types of music apart. For example, music that people march to often has strong first and third beats in every 4 beats of music. In rock music, beats two and four are usually the strong beats. Try to feel the difference by tapping your hand on your knee in a steady 1-2-3-4 beat with more energy on the highlighted beats below. 1
2
3
Marching Music
4
1
2
3
Rock Music
notes: musical sounds
Whether in speech or music, the word dynamics describes the overall volume level of the sound. It can be loud, soft, or something in-between. Music played loudly gives a very different message from music played softly. Think about how this works in language. What’s the difference between a shouted “YES” and a whispered one?
How do you like to go up in a swing, Up in the air so blue? “Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing Ever a child can do!”
BY THE WAY…
staccato: short
4
In music, Italian words describe musical dynamics. Forte (for-tay) means loud, piano means soft. Variations on these words describe degrees of loudness or softness. For example, moderately soft is mezzo-piano; very loud is fortissimo.
DID YOU KNOW?
?
Many musical terms, like forte, are Italian words because many of them were first written down by Italian composers.
staff: five horizontal lines on which music is written
bass clef: a symbol that shows the pitch range
forte: loud
piano: soft accent: emphasis
diminuendo: a gradual decrease in volume
23678_Language-Music:23678_Launguage-Music
11/9/11
12:53 PM
?
Communication can sometimes be American poet Henry competitive. Consider a poetry slam, Wadsworth Longfellow where poets compete before an audience once said, “Music is to have the best poem and performance. the universal language Or a free-styling event, where rap of mankind.” musicians make up new words to a song in a competition. More than 100 years ago, composers (people who write music) similarly tried to one-up each other by writing variations of popular music. During the performance, you get to be the judge as two musicians compete against each other using variations of a song popular at that time.
EXPRESS IT!
Language and music also share the ability to express emotions and ideas. Think about how you could communicate an idea (like pride) or a feeling (like happiness) and jot down how you would communicate it in each of the following ways. Speaking aloud: In writing: With gesture or body movement:
David M. Rubenstein Chairman Michael M. Kaiser President Darrell M. Ayers Vice President, Education
Christoph Eschenbach Music Director
Major support for the Kennedy Center’s educational programs is provided by David and Alice Rubenstein through the Rubenstein Arts Access Program.
Visually, like in a drawing, painting, or model: With music (humming, tapping a familiar beat, and so forth): Next, share your ideas with a friend or family member. Which method communicated your idea best? Why?
Cuesheets are produced by ARTSEDGE, an education program of the Kennedy Center. ARTSEDGE is a part of Thinkfinity.org, a consortium of free educational Web sites for K-12 teaching and learning. Learn more about Education at The Kennedy Center at www.kennedy-center.org/education
A Good Audience… ■ ■ ■ ■
Stays seated Stays quiet Watches and listens carefully Claps at the end
Connections: MORE Language
+ Music
David and Alice Rubenstein are the Presenting Underwriters of the NSO. Additional support for Performances for Young Audiences is provided by the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts, Capital One Bank, the Carter and Melissa Cafritz Charitable Trust, The Clark Charitable Foundation, Fight for Children, Inc., Mr. James V. Kimsey, The Kirstein Family Foundation, Inc., The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, Inc., Linda and Tobia Mercuro, The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, Park Foundation, Inc., Mrs. Irene Pollin, Dr. Deborah Rose and Dr. Jan A. J. Stolwijk, The Theodore H. Barth Foundation, Inc., the U.S. Department of Education, and the Verizon Foundation.
The contents of this Cuesheet do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. © 2012 The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Please recycle this Cuesheet by sharing it with friends!
Cuesheet
DID YOU KNOW?
PERFORMANCE GUIDE
Grand “Slams”
Page 1
Developed and hosted by Yvonne Caruthers Performed by Yvonne Caruthers, cello Natasha Bogachek, violin Gareth Flowers, trumpet Daniel Villanueva, percussion Yvonne and Natasha are members of the National Symphony Orchestra.
How do we communicate? Through language, of course, but also through gestures and images—and yes, music. Like language, music is a system of symbols and rules that communicates specific ideas. Music can also communicate emotions, and even tell stories. During the performance, National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) cellist Yvonne Caruthers and three of her musician friends will demonstrate some surprising connections between language and music. Performances for Young Audiences is made possible by