Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Lesson One: Introducing Electronic Music
- Lesson Two: Class Acoustic Composition
- Lesson Three: Exploring Effects
- Lesson Four: Making a Tape Piece
- Lesson Five: Collecting Found Sounds
- Lesson Six: Group Compositions
- Lesson Seven: Electro-Acoustic Composition
- Lesson Eight: Class Activities
- Guide to Recording: Just Two Steps to Recording in the Classroom
- Online Quiz
- Samples Sandbox
- Chill-Out Set
- Audio Files for Download
Online Quiz
You can help develop your students' listening skills with the questions below and you can have a short discussion on each point before revealing the answer.
Q1.
Listen to an excerpt from Karen Power's 'just one girl playin' around' below. Can you guess what instrument was used to make this sound?
If not, try listening to another excerpt which might give you a clue below.
Answer: Cello
All the sounds used in this piece came from a cello. Some sounds are played on the cello itself while other were recorded first and then changed using special effects.
Computers can turn a familiar sound into something totally unrecognisable!
Q2.
Here are two short excerpts from another piece by Judith Ring. Can you tell what you are hearing in each excerpt - Computer Effects? Instruments? Or a combination of things perhaps?
Answer: Voice
These excerpts are from a piece entitled 'Mouthpiece' which uses only the human voice and no special effects. The computer is used to simply make copies of the voice.
Sometimes composers record everyday sounds that they hear all around them so they can use them in their music. Which everyday sounds were used in these pieces?
Q3.
Listen to Benedict Schlepper-Connolly's 'Cyan' below.
What everyday sound did he use?
Answer: The sea
This piece is made up of long, slow notes which can sound very calming. Perhaps the composer used the sound of the sea because he thought that sounded calming too.
Sometimes we use certain sounds in our music because of how they will make the listener feel.
Q4.
Listen to Rachel Holstead's 'Rince na Cnámh' below.
What everyday sounds do you hear?
Answer: Birds, water, people talking
The composer Rachel Holstead is from Corca Dhuibhne in Co. Kerry - a gaeltacht area on the Atlantic coast - so the sounds of birds and water, and many voices talking in Irish are all things she would have heard every day as a child.
You can use sounds in your music that are important to you in your own life.
Q5.
Listen to an excerpt on YouTube of Dutch composer JacobTV's 'The Body of Your Dreams here. (Play 20 secs or so)
Where did he find his sounds for this piece?
Answer: Television advertisements
And finally...
Q6.
Listen to Roger Doyle's 'The Idea and Its Shadow' below.
1. What is the acoustic part of this piece?
Answer: A voice talking
2. What is the computer doing?
Answer: Following the "melody" of his voice as he talks
3. What happens towards the end of this excerpt?
Answer: The voice gradually gets covered up by the computer
Roger Doyle is an Irish composer who writes almost exclusively electronic music. The person talking is actually another Irish composer, named Kevin O'Connell. In this piece, Kevin is talking about how one idea can follow another idea, like a shadow following a person. That is why Roger made the computer part follow Kevin's voice, like a shadow!
Composers can get their ideas from the most unusual places - a person's accent, a shadow, or even the television.
Where do you get your ideas from? Where might you get ideas from in the future?
We are based in Dublin's Cultural Quarter, Temple Bar, home to more than fifty arts and cultural organizations.
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