As a Creator - Bach's Prelude BWV 999
Lesson Ideas - Experimenting as a Creator
On these pages, you will find lesson ideas for the approach to Experimenting as a Creator. We hope these ideas inspire your thinking toward developing your approach to experimenting with music. Remember, one size does not fit all. You will most likely feel the need to adapt according to your own students' needs. Feel free to do so. You need to also keep in mind that throughout the experimentation process, research, creating, and performing music will inevitably all be connected.
Photo by Yannis Papanastasopoulos on Unsplash
Ask your students to listen to this work (on harpsichord) and make initial observations about its features:
Teacher only boxYou may wish to guide students by asking them about:
1. what the piece is lacking (perhaps a melody?),
2. the relationship between the LH and the RH, or
3. even about the harmonic progression.
Then you may wish to ask students to compare this version (Bobby Mcferrin) with the original:
- What changes have been made?
- Has the original been transformed?
- What elements have remained intact?
- What specific features have been manipulated/modified?
- How has the material been modernised?
This next section pre-supposes students have an understanding of the following harmonic aspects:
- primary chords
- pivot chords
- suspensions/retardations
- inversions
- 7th chords
TASK 1: 20 minutes
Through a combination of playing and score identification, students attempt to complete a harmonic summary of the material on the first page. This can be done individually and/or in pairs or groups.
This score has been extracted from the International Music Score Library Project:
https://imslp.org/wiki/Prelude_in_C_minor,_BWV_999_(Bach,_Johann_Sebastian)
Task 2: 30 minutes
Distribute the following worksheet for chord checking and general discussion. The color coding has been adopted to help you make sense of the harmonic rate of change and to identify other patterns with relative ease.
Teacher only boxYou may wish to have students choose individual questions to lead the discussion OR have small groups collectively prepare responses to the questions posed.
To assist the discussion and to provide students with a record of the types of responses that could assist with subsequent activities, the following responses have been provided. This is only available to teachers, but downloading and distribution are permissible.
Teacher only boxTask 3: 30-60 minutes
Write an experimentation on or a DAW software program of your choice on HOW you are going to transform this material, based on the observations that we identified so far.
Come up with a clever title that encapsulates your musical thoughts.
You may be interested in listening to this as well for further inspiration. See HERE for another example.
Here are some examples of student work:
NOTE:
All of these examples represent EXCERPT 1 for the three students and should NOT be seen as a complete portfolio demonstrating a progressive development of ideas. The students may wish to return to these individual experiments at a later time for a second instalment in the experimental process.
Bach in the Trap Style:
Inspired by Bach's BWV 999 - Trap StyleBach in a Range of Styles:
Inspired by Bach's BWV 999 - Eclectic MixBach in the Jungle:
Inspired by Bach's BWV 999Order the class from 1 to 8 (depending on how many students you have in the class). Distribute a PALM card to each student.
STUDENT 1: Explains their work, using the following ideas as prompts:
- Were you inspired by any work that influenced the outcome of your work?
- Where could further developments be made?
- What's the significance of the title (if any)?
STUDENT 2:
Provides immediate verbal comments to STUDENT 1
STUDENT 3:
- Provides written feedback on the PALM card and hands it to STUDENT 1
Teacher only boxProvide the opportunity for any other comments/suggestions in an open discussion.
Image has been created with the AI technology Craiyon.
This continues with Student 2 presenting their work, Student 3 providing verbal comments, Student 4 with written comments, and so on.
Write up THREE of the features that you manipulated, developed, AND/OR transformed for your Bach experimenation.
GUIDING QUESTIONS:
- Were you inspired by a particular genre? Which elements did you extract from it?
If you had to create another example, where would you develop further?
Write between 400-600 words responding to the above as some personal reflection on your work.
Image has been created with the AI technology Craiyon.