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GM 2017

TERM 3 GRADE 7

Music Literacy

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Contents REVISION............................................................................................................................ 3

The Treble Clef ................................................................................................................ 3

Pitch ................................................................................................................................. 4

Dynamics ......................................................................................................................... 4

Tempo .............................................................................................................................. 4

Time signatures (Metre) ................................................................................................... 4

Letter names of the treble clef .......................................................................................... 5

The Stave ......................................................................................................................... 6

Unison .............................................................................................................................. 6

Instruments .......................................................................................................................... 6

Woodwind ........................................................................................................................ 6

Strings .............................................................................................................................. 7

Brass ................................................................................................................................ 7

Percussion ....................................................................................................................... 8

Folk song ............................................................................................................................. 8

The Dotted-Minim: (British name) ........................................................................................ 8

Lyrics ................................................................................................................................... 9

BASS CLEF ......................................................................................................................... 9

EDVARD GRIEG ............................................................................................................... 11

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN ............................................................................................. 11

PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY ........................................................................................ 12

Texture in music ................................................................................................................ 12

Part-song (SATB) .............................................................................................................. 13

Repetition........................................................................................................................... 14

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REVISION

The Treble Clef • The purpose of the treble clef is to show the person playing or singing music, that

the pitch will be high. • The treble clef is mostly played with the right hand on a piano as the higher

pitches on the keyboard are situated on the right hand side.

Note values

Semi-breve

Minim

Crotchet

Quaver

Semi-quaver

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Pitch Pitch is how high or how low a sound is. Women usually have high pitched voices

whereas men usually have low pitched voices.

Dynamics Dynamics is how loud or how soft (the volume) a sound is played or sung.

Tempo Tempo is how fast or slow a song is played or sung.

Time signatures (Metre) The three time signatures that we are going to concentrate on are: Duple metre (2/4) Triple metre (3/4) Quadruple metre (4/4)

Since the top number in this time signature is 2, the time

signature is called duple metre. Duple Metre has two beats

per bar/measure.

Since the top number in this time signature is 3, it is called triple metre. Triple metre has three beats per bar. This is also

known as waltz time.

Since the top number of this time signature is 4, the time

signature is called quadruple metre. Quadruple metre has

four beats per bar. This is the most common metre in music.

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Letter names of the treble clef

Remember: The spaces can be remembered as “FACE” and the lines can be

remembered by the rhyme, “Every Good Boy Drinks Fanta”. The whole

musical alphabet consists only of the first seven letters of the alphabet – A, B,

C, D, E, F and G. On the keyboard of a piano the letter names of the notes

are:

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The Stave The stave is the 5 lines and 4 spaces music notation is written on.

Unison The definition of unison is: to perform musical parts at the same pitch or in the range of

an octave. This means to play or sing a piece of music on the same note.

Instruments Woodwind

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Strings

Brass

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Percussion

Folk song A Folk song is a song originating amongst people of a country or area and is mostly

passed on by oral tradition from one generation to the next. There are often more than one

version of the song. The lyrics and melody thereof is generally simple and easy to

remember. An example is Five Little Monkeys from, Tom Fisch.

The Dotted-Minim: (British name) (American: Dotted-Half Note. French: taa-aa-aa) A dotted-minim indicates that a continuous sound must be made for a period of three

beats. Dotted-Minims are made up of a ‘hollow’ head, a dot and a stem.

Pitched Percussion Instruments

Unpitched Percussion Instruments

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Lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses or it can

be a poem relating to a category of poetry that expresses subjective thoughts and feelings,

in a song like form. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist.

BASS CLEF

The Bass Clef is known as the clef for a male voice and for instruments with low pitch.

The sheet music of the following instruments like the Tuba, Cello, Double bass, Bassoon

and Piano, will read their music in 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 can be remembered as Good, Boys, Don’t, Frighten,

Animals. The notes in the spaces are: A, C, E, G, and can be remembered as All, Cows,

Eat, Grass.

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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

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

Test your knowledge of the notes by writing in the letter names of the notes in the bass

clef.

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

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EDVARD GRIEG

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. Listen to the music of: Morning Mood by Grieg

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

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

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: Ode to Joy by Beethoven

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

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PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY

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.

Texture in music

In music, texture is how the melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic materials are combined in a

composition, thus determining the overall quality of the sound in a piece. One can have a

thick texture which means the harmony is four part and more. When it is a thin texture,

then there might be only one melody and it will be less than 4 voices sounding at the same

time.

Thin texture

Single

line melody

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Thick

texture

More

than four

harmony

notes

Part-song (SATB) The term "four-part harmony" refers to music written for four voices or for some other

musical medium - four musical instruments or a single keyboard instrument, for example -

where the various musical parts can give a different note for each chord of the music. It

can also be seen as four voices singing together, but each voice sings their own melody.

The four voices in a choir is called: Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass. The soprano voice is

the highest female voices in a choir. The alto is the lowest female voice in a choir. The tenor is the highest male voice in a choir, where the bass will be the lowest male voice in

a choir. So if one must order it, one can say the soprano is the highest voice, the alto is

second highest, the tenor is the second lowest and the bass is the lowest voice.

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Repetition Repetition in music is when a section, phrase or part of a song is sung or played again,

exactly the same as the first time. A literal repetition of a musical passage is often

indicated by the use of a repeat sign, or the instructions da capo or dal segno.

Repetition may be used as part and parcel of symmetry. This is a technique that may help

to unify a melody, theme or rhythm. If one finds a melodic or rhythmic figure that you like,

and one repeats it throughout the course of the melody or song, one must be careful not to

repeat it too much, as it may bore the listener.