7 minute read
Texture: Anthony Kelley
Anthony Kelley
BORN: February 28, 1965, Henderson, North Carolina
The North Carolina Symphony gratefully acknowledges support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
BIOGRAPHY (in Student Book)
Anthony Kelley is Associate Professor of the Practice of Music at Duke University. He joined the Duke University music faculty in 2000 after serving as Composer in Residence with the Richmond Symphony for three years under a grant from Meet the Composer, Inc. One of the main goals of this program was to introduce children to the idea that the word “composer” applies to people living among us today, and not only people from hundreds of years ago like Bach and Beethoven. In addition to composing, Kelley has spent much of his time introducing younger people to music creation. He likes to focus on helping young composers transfer their musical ideas from their minds into notes on a page. One of the ways that he does this is through teaching in a way that allows for freedom of musical ideas, regardless of the amount of classical music training students have.
FUN FACTS (in Student Book)
• Anthony Kelley teaches composition at Duke University. • He writes movie music! Movies Kelley has written music for include Kudzu Vine and The Doll. • He was inspired to pursue music as a career after hearing the second movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in high school. • He grew up in Henderson, an hour north of Raleigh. His first introduction to classical music was a field trip to see the North Carolina Symphony perform in Vance County.
Spirituals of Liberation was commissioned by the North Carolina Symphony, and premiered on June 18, 2022, in commemoration of Juneteenth. Here’s a description by the composer, taken from the concert program for the premiere performance:
The three movements of Spirituals of Liberation explore the conditions of forced free labor, the contemplation of loss and hope by the enslaved, and the solemn embrace by African Americans of their newly won freedom. The work uses rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic elements that fostered sanity and survival for the Americans who endured centuries of slavery before the Emancipation Proclamation of 1865. The third movement, “Never Forget,” is a lush, noble melody with heroic harmony that expresses the celebration that the newly freed American citizens would have felt in 1866 and sounds out the importance of acknowledging the complete story of our nation and its development.
FUNDAMENTAL OF MUSIC: Texture
Texture is the aspect of music that describes how melody and harmony interact in a piece of music. There may be an instrument playing alone or many parts being played at the same time. There may be a single melody supported by harmony, or multiple independent melodies being played by different instruments simultaneously, or in a call and response format. These compositional choices influence the mood or feeling of a piece of music. A “thin” texture may be one instrument playing a simple melody. A “thick” texture may be more than two instruments playing complex lines together.
CLASSROOM ACTIVITY #1: What is Texture?
NORTH CAROLINA ESSENTIAL STANDARDS IN MUSIC:
4.ML.1.1 Apply expressive qualities when singing or playing a varied repertoire of music representing genres and styles from diverse cultures. 4.MR.1 Understand the interacting elements to respond to music and music performances. 4.MR.1.1 Illustrate perceptual skills by moving to, answering questions about, and describing aural examples of music of various styles and cultures. 4.MR.1.2 Explain personal preferences for specific musical works and styles, using appropriate music terminology. 4.MR.1.3 Design a set of criteria for evaluating music performances and compositions.
OBJECTIVE:
Students will understand what texture is and how it’s portrayed in music. Students will be able to identify different musical textures and give examples of where they might be heard.
MATERIALS:
• Video: “Is it Monophony, Homophony, or Polyphony?” Texture-Types
PROCESS:
1. Explain that texture is the aspect of music that describes how melody and harmony interact in a piece of music. 2. Explain three different textures—Monophonic, Homophonic, and Polyphonic. a. Monophonic: Everyone is doing the same thing the same way. Example: When we all sing happy birthday to a friend, we’re all singing one melody together. b. Homophonic: Melody with harmony. Example: When we sing a song with piano accompaniment. c. Polyphonic: When there is more than one melody or idea going on at once. Example: When singing in a round. 3. You can do these examples or similar examples with your students or just talk about them as a group and get students to raise their hands to give examples of these. (Answers may include: when we sing together in chorus, when one part of the class is playing Orff instruments and we are singing a melody, when we sing at church, when
I sing in drama class, etc.) 4. Use this video to check for understanding of what texture is. You can do the 1, 2, 3 finger to show understanding, use different colored manipulatives, or even have them stand up, kneel, or sit for the different textures, or whatever movement you like. 5. If time permits: Introduce Anthony Kelley & his piece Spirituals of Liberation. You can do this using your North Carolina
Symphony teacher and student guides. You can listen to the song as an exit/closing activity and ask the students to just talk about what they hear. See if they are using vocabulary you just discussed. (Lesson 2 will dig into this piece further.)
NORTH CAROLINA ESSENTIAL STANDARDS IN MUSIC:
4.ML.1.1 Apply expressive qualities when singing or playing a varied repertoire of music representing genres and styles from diverse cultures. 4.MR.1 Understand the interacting elements to respond to music and music performances. 4.MR.1.1 Illustrate perceptual skills by moving to, answering questions about, and describing aural examples of music of various styles and cultures. 4.MR.1.2 Explain personal preferences for specific musical works and styles, using appropriate music terminology. 4.MR.1.3 Design a set of criteria for evaluating music performances and compositions. 4.MR.1.4 Classify instruments into Western orchestral categories of wind, string, percussion, and brass. 4.CR.1.1 Understand how music has affected, and is reflected in, the culture, traditions, and history of North Carolina.
OBJECTIVE:
Students will apply proper terminology when listening to a piece to describe and create visual representations of what they hear.
MATERIALS:
• Video Recording: Spirituals of Liberation, III. Never Forget • Organic materials/manipulatives of your choice. Examples include construction paper & chalk, chalk on the pavement outside, clay/playdough, Legos, math blocks, scarves, sticks, etc.
PROCESS:
1. Explain that texture is the aspect of music that describes how melody and harmony interact in a piece of music.
Review three different textures—Monophonic, Homophonic, and Polyphonic. 2. Using the student and teacher workbooks, introduce students to Anthony Kelley and his piece, Spirituals of Liberation. 3. Give each student a piece of construction paper and chalk. Have them each create a listening map based on how they hear the texture. This can be as guided or unguided as you like. The great thing about chalk is that you can create visual texture on the page so you can visually show thick and thin texture as they are listening. You can make a few examples to show what they are creating, but let them know they can create it however they want to. Do this first to see how much they can do on their own. 4. As you begin the piece, talk to them a little about what they hear to jump start their thinking. For example, as the third movement begins, there is homophonic texture between the woodwinds and strings. Talk about this and get them to draw what they think homophonic texture looks like. 5. When they are done listening, have them share with a friend sitting nearby what they drew and why. Remind them to use words that describe the texture. You can then have one or two share with the class. 6. If time permits: Create several groups and pass out any organic materials you have, giving each group different materials if you can. For example: groups using sticks, playdough, Legos, bouncy balls, math blocks, etc.
WHATEVER YOU HAVE, it’s supposed to be FUN! Show the students an example of how you can create a listening map with anything! 7. Play the piece again, and as a group, have them create a texture listening map to visually show what textures they hear. They can relate this to their chalk maps if they like or use one person from the group’s map to model theirs after. 8. Have students walk around the room to see everyone’s listening maps and how they were represented. If time permits, groups can discuss what they made and why.