Look carefully at the painting below. In art, the balance of light and shade in a picture, especially when they are strongly contrasting, is called chiaroscuro (Italian: 'bright-dark').

In groups (7T & 7X GROUPS), create a piece of music called Chiaroscuro. This is your opportunity to be really creative!

1. Each group member is to select an instrument they have available to them - either a classroom instrument, your own instrument (you must have it with you) or your voice.

2. Experiment  with expressive techniques of musical light such as:

• strongly contrasting dynamics and subtle changes in dynamics

• immediate contrasts in tempo and gradual changes of tempo

• combining crescendo with accelerando and diminuendo with rallentando

• contrasts of legato sounds and staccato sounds

• differences in pitch (high/medium/low) and in rhythm (e.g. gentle and flowing, energetic and jerky)

• and perhaps the expressive use of silence

Also think about the other dynamics and expressive techniques you have learnt about that you could possibly use. 

3. Decide which of these expressive techniques you will use in your composition.

4.  Develop a composition using the expressive techniques you have chosen. Your composition might have a composed melody, it might be an arrangement of an existing song or it might just be musical gestures. If you are stuck for ideas, you can create your composition based on a nursery rhyme.

5. Organise your ideas into a logical form. (Think about the structure diagram we used for Tempus est iocundum last week. You might want to draw something similar) . 

6. Write down your music as traditional notation (handwritten or flat.io), graphic notation or a combination of both. Ensure you include expression markings.

7. Practise your piece.

8. Perform your piece for the class and see if they can identify which dynamics and expressive techniques you have used.