A set of BCMG's Big Ears Resource Packs created to accompany our 2006-2014 schools concerts, including composing activities inspired by contemporary classical music and curricula topics.
Big Ears
BCMG's Big Ears project ran from 2006-2014 and was a series of schools’ concerts and associated workshops for children at Key Stage 2. The workshops and concerts aimed to introduce young people to the very best contemporary classical music in the most engaging way possible, respecting young people as open-minded and discriminating listeners. Performances involved film, theatre and other visual elements to stimulate imaginative responses, complement and enhance the listening experience.
The creative music workshops running alongside the concerts were led by composers and BCMG musicians supported by CPD for teachers and a teacher resource pack. This resource brings the different packs from different concerts together as a collection. The packs reflect our journey of finding different and better approaches to exploring contemporary classical repertoire with young people. The packs were created by different teams for different years but the main contributors were composers Liz Johnson, Duncan Chapman and Nancy Evans, BCMG Director of Learning.
Rather than convert the contents of each pack into it's own digital resource, which would have been an enormous job, we are offering them here as a PDFs with included Spotify links to the listening material where possible.
You will need to have Spotify open for the links to work. Many of the pieces explored do not have recordings - this is typical with contemporary music and, when recordings become available, we will add them. Though this is annoying, many of the activities stand alone without the recordings or, with imagination, alternatives could be found. You might also be able to find videos or performances of the missing pieces on Youtube. In some cases we have included music not featured in the resource pack but that were part of the concert.
The composing activities vary to what extent they explore the musical ideas in the pieces with some focusing more on the extra-musical inspirations. These extra-musical themes have been highlighted in the introductions to enable you as a teacher to link the activities to topics such as space, visual art, the environment etc. There are also some performance activities as well as composing activities
Click HERE for the PDF of the A to Z resource pack.
Big Ears A to Z explores generating rhythms and melodies, creating variations, and organising musical ideas into larger structures.
The composing activities in the pack can stand alone without the suggested listening or different material can be substituted.
Iannis Xenakis: Rebonds B
Olivier Messiaen: Appel Interstellaire
Tansy Davies: Inside Out 2
Louis Andressien: Workers Union
Frank Zappa: The Black Page
Click HERE for the PDF of Colour / Shape.
This pack has diverse inspirations for its composing activities. Many are visual - paintings, a film of Little Tich, the music hall performer who inspired the composer Stravinsky, and activities that use children's visual responses to music as graphic scores.
As with many of these packs, the activities stand alone without the suggested listening or different material can be subsituted.
New York Counterpoint Steve Reich
Three Pieces Igor Stravinsky
Derive Pierre Boulez
Wynter Music Philip Cashian
Click HERE for the PDF of this pack.
When Words Sing explores the many ways to compose for the voice and to use words - whether this is the words of Winnie the Pooh, different languages, nonsense words, a group of mythical beasts or an onomatopoeic cartoon strip.
Though it is always good to link the activities to the listening examples, many of the activities stand alone or can be used with different musical examples.
Luciano Berio Folk Songs
Cathy Berberian Stripsody
Oliver Knussen Hums & Songs of Winnie the Pooh
Matthew Sergeant The Squonk
Peter Wiegold The Youwarkee
John Woolrich The Kraken
Liz Johnson Elephant Woman
Click HERE for the PDF of this pack.
The Constellations resource pack uses space as its inspiration for composing: plotting stars in constellations to make melodies, creating soundscapes for the milky way or a rocket launch, using Morse Code to generate rhythms and exploring graphic scores. Obvious cross-curricular links can be made with space/science.
As with many of these packs, the activities stand alone without the listening examples.
Luciano Berio O King
Bruno Maderna Serenata per un Satellite
Param Vir Constellations
Click HERE for the PDF of this pack.
Transformations explores the idea of composing by transforming existing music. The musical examples featured in this pack include a transformed song by Madness and a transformation of a short piece by the 18th Century composer Couperin.
Featured music
Cardiac Arrest Thomas Adès
Hinterland Tansy Davies
Les Baricades Mistérieuses Thomas Adès
Click HERE for the PDF of this pack.
Box of Delights celebrates everything percussive. Composingctivities include: composing music for five drums of different pitches, exploring different kinds of graphic score; translating nonsense words into music for percussion; layering different 8 beat rhythm patterns and composing music for household objects. Though it is useful to connect the activities to the suggested listening, many of the activities stand alone.
Iannis Xenakis Rebonds B
Steve Reich Music for Pieces of Wood
Morton Feldman The King of Denmark
György Ligeti With Pipes, Drums, Fiddles
John Cage Living Room Music
Click HERE for the PDF of this pack.
Noise to Notes explores composing inspired by the sounds of the environment. The featured listening include music inspired by birds, the street, trains, the rain and laughter. Links can be made to topics such as the weather, transport, birds, history. The activities can stand alone without the listening. This pack also features the use of the free and simple software SoundPlant to support children's composing.
‘(Mr Evans), it’s starting to rain!’ Duncan Chapman
Scherzo (with Trains) Julian Anderson
Musicians Wrestle Everywhere Judith Weir
Crack Up Shiori Usui
Oiseaux Exotiques Olivier Messiaen
Click HERE for the PDF of this pack.
Living Toys uses toys, dreams and games as the inspiration for composing music. Some activities use the sounds of children's toys to compose (traditional music boxes and more modern electronic toys) and the another uses simple dice to generate the structure of the music. Cross-curricular links can be made with stories/literacy, dice/maths, machines/science.
Game I: Tandy Richard Baker / Brian Duffy
Game II: Speak & Spell Richard Baker / Brian Duffy
To Compose Without the Least Knowledge of Music Colin Matthews
Living Toys Thomas Adès
Crank Richard Baker
The Modified Toy Orchestra
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