Part 7
Notation
Part 7 of ‘The sound of art’ focuses on notation as a method of recording sound through symbol. Rather than focus on building specific music literacy skills, it explores the reasons that notation systems have been created throughout time.
This part’s focus on notation prepares the students to commence their own composition and notation journeys and to recognise the different ways over the years people have visually represented sound and story. Explanation of history and importance of notation is provided in this footage.
Creative Arts K-6 outcomes
Part 3 addresses these outcomes from the Creative Arts K-6 Syllabus (NESA)
© NSW Education Standards Authority for and on behalf of the Crown in right of the State of New South Wales, 2006.Stage 2
Making
VAS2.1 Represents the qualities of experiences and things that are interesting or beautiful* by choosing among aspects of subject matter.
VAS2.2 Uses the forms to suggest the qualities of subject matter.
Appreciating
VAS2.3 Acknowledges that artists make artworks for different reasons and that various interpretations are possible.
VAS2.4 Identifies connections between subject matter in artworks and what they refer to, and appreciates the use of particular techniques.
Organising sound
MUS2.2 Improvises musical phrases, organises sounds and explains reasons for choices.
MUS2.3 Uses commonly understood symbols to represent own work.
Listening
MUS2.4 Identifies the use of musical concepts and musical symbols in a range of repertoire.
* ‘Beautiful’ within this outcome does not simply mean ‘pretty’ but rather something that excites and arouses awe, wonder, fascination and delight.
Stage 3
Making
VAS3.1 Investigates subject matter in an attempt to represent likenesses of things in the world.
VAS3.2 Makes artworks for different audiences assembling materials in a variety of ways.
Appreciating
VAS3.3 Acknowledges that audiences respond in different ways to artworks and that there are different opinions about the value of artworks.
VAS3.4 Communicates about the ways in which subject matter is represented in artworks.
Organising sound
MUS3.2 Improvises, experiments, selects, combines and orders sound using musical concepts.
MUS3.3 Notates and discusses own work and the work of others.
Listening
MUS3.4 Identifies the use of musical concepts and symbols in a range of musical styles.
Teaching and learning strategies
Students will:
define and understand the use and history of graphic and traditional notation as a relationship between sound and symbol
be aware of the existence of many different kinds of notation
associate musical concepts with visual symbols
begin creating a key or legend for their own compositions.
Teachers will:
explore notation as a system created to visually represent sounds from different time periods and countries.
learn about the symbol systems used to create traditional musical notation
watch the following teaching footage to assist in teaching students about art and the history and importance of musical notation.
Assessment suggestions include:
Defines through examining and discussing, the existence of many different kinds of notation.
Recognises the relationship between visual art and music as a means of communicating and records information or ideas or shares through discussion.
Associates musical concepts with visual symbols and interprets through performing, the concept of graphic and traditional notation as a relationship between sound and symbol.
Recognises shapes and symbols that can be used to begin creating a key or legend in artworks which can then be used for graphic notation in the student’s own compositions.
Music and art activities
Discuss with the students about the history of musical notation. Music has existed since the dawn of civilization. Instruments dating back over 165,000 years have been found which show different forms of pitch and changes to adapt tone colour and sounds. These are very interesting to examine.
Initially music was passed along by oral tradition. Not long after, people became aware of the need to develop a way to write down sounds to help music survive and be communicated. This became particularly clear if the original musician forgot the melody or was no longer around to teach it.
Explain that notation is any system created to visually represent sounds. People from all over the globe and from different time periods have created different systems of notation. The earliest example of notation that archeologists have found comes from 1400 BC in what is now Northern Syria. Other examples have been found in Ancient Greek musical notation from approximately the 2nd century BC.
The modern notation system known as ‘traditional’ notation has its origins in the European church music of the 9th and 10th centuries. Monks chanted by reading words with little symbols written above them. The symbols reminded the monks that the melody went up or down in pitch. They were however just reminders and the monks were taught each chant by listening to others.
Guido d’Arrezo then invented a more detailed form of notation and solfege (syllables to represent notes) in the early 1000s AD that showed precise pitches on a staff of four lines; the shapes of the notes indicated their duration.
This system continued to evolve into what is now our standard musical notation which has five lines there are words and symbols to specify pitch, dynamics, articulation and tempo.
Following is a score (sheet music that shows all of the instruments playing) of one page of a violin concerto by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This is the second movement of Mozart’s ‘Violin Concerto No.5 in A major’. Look at all the directions the composer writes down for the musicians. You can hear the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra or Richard Tognetti and The ACO play the music on this page in this Spotify recording.
Composers continue to imagine new sounds and create unique forms of notation. Graphic notation is a way of composing that uses primarily pictures and visual images. This graphic score is by composer John Cage of his work ‘Water Walk’. Examine the score with the students and listen to the music. How are they related?
In each graphic notation score the composer creates a set of rules that explain what the symbols mean, and how they translate into sound. Explore these examples to investigate common themes. The visual arts within is also worthy of detailed discussion.
This is a graphic composition created by Alex Chorley, a then 12-year old student from Sydney. Explore and play his key and score. You may need to change the key to suit the instruments you have available. The pitch rises as you move from the centre of the circle to the outside. Time passes in a circle, like a clock.
Blue triangles - triangle (rain)
Red circles - xylophone (rain)
Yellow ovals - cymbal hit (lightning)
Green rectangles - thunder can (thunder)
Spirals - timpani drum roll (thunder)
Brown ‘dip’ - swanee whistle (tree falling)
Black ‘hills’ - voice whistle (wind)
Face and ‘tsssss’ - voice scream and hiss (person getting struck by lightning and burning)
Art activity
Create a key that the students will use to compose their pieces. In this lesson they are only creating the key. They will compose the piece itself in the next lesson.
Materials needed include: paper of any size, pens or pencils, colored pencils, markers or crayons, or paint.
Below are parameters and choices that students can make when creating their key or legend. This key should only be a draft work in progress because the students will need to add, subtract, and change things as they start to compose their pieces.
Discuss with the student ways to show how time will pass in the composition and how it will be read. For example will it move from left to right, right to left, up and down, in a circle (clockwise or anticlockwise) or is it random? Will arrows show the order of events? How will pitch (high and low) be shown?
After discussing these important components of a graphic score, ask the students to create pictures, symbols or a visual method for showing the following aspects of their scores:
the duration, rhythm and beat of notes
the dynamics or volume of notes (pianissimo through to fortissimo)
the emotions (for example a smiley face can signify the composer wants happy music, or red scribble can signify an angry section)
possible sound effects (for example on a stringed instrument using pizzicato, ponticello, tremolo, harmonics, mute or different ways of playing a percussion instrument other than the traditional method)
articulation or texture (short, sharp, smooth, connected, bouncy and so on)
instrumental sounds imitating nature (such as drawing rain for example, or wind, or a picture of a bird if they want birdcalls and so on)
shapes such as specifying that a diagonal line down from right to left indicates the pitch sliding from high to low like a sigh.
encourage the students to create rules that can be combined. For instance, if the pitch was to be high then a star at the top of the page may symbolise this and at the bottom of the page would mean low in pitch. Also, for example if something is orange, it could mean loud, if it is blue it means soft.
the following composition would therefore be two high notes played softly then two low notes played loudly and finishing with one low note played softly: