Lesson video

Hi everybody, my name is Miss Kilpatrick, and it's time for another music lesson.

Today, we're going to be exploring recitative and aria.

Don't worry if you didn't know what those words mean you will, by the end of today's lesson, let's get going.

In this lesson, you will need, paper and pencil, your voice and if you have some, headphones.

Or if you don't have headphones find a quiet space where you won't be disturbed and try and turn off any notifications from apps or conversations you have running.

You can pause the video now, if you need to go and get any of those things.

So today in our lesson we're going to start by warming up our voices.

We're going to compose a musical conversation.

And if you remember either of the two words that I used in the introduction today, then you'll know one of those is a musical conversation.

We're going to learn an aria and your challenge will be changing the tonality of the aria.

And we'll talk more about tonality a little bit later in our lesson.

We're going to start with a vocal warmup 'cause we've got to use our voices for singing today.

So let's get ourselves really ready.

Take a nice deep breath in, roll your shoulders up and around and breathe out.

Pull your shoulders right up to your ears, really, really tight, breathe in.

And as you breathe out, let your shoulder drop.

Let's try that again.

Shoulders up to your ears, breathe in, really squeeze and out.

So your shoulders up and back and down.

Keep that lovely upright position as we sing.

So we're going to start with a number game.

I'll teach it slowly and then we'll have a go together.

So it starts like this, one, one two one, one two three two one, one two three four three two one, one two three four five four three two one, one two three three four five six five four three two one, one two three four five six seven six five four three two one, one two three four five six seven eight seven six five four three two one.

And then we're going to have a go doing it backwards but let's just do that first bit, slowly, so we really get there.

I'll help you by showing you where we've got to with my fingers.

Okay, so let's go, ready and one, one two one, one two three two one, one two three four three two one, one two three four five four three two one, one two three three four five six five four three two one, one two three four five six seven six five four three two one, one two three four five six seven eight seven six five four three two one.

Well done, if you got all the way through.

Lets have a go at starting at number eight, and we're going to go backwards, again, I'll help you with the fingers so you can see where we are.

So we start, right up there, off we go.

Eight, eight seven eight, eight seven six seven eight, eight seven six five six seven eight, eight seven six five four five six seven eight, eight seven six five four three four five six seven eight, eight seven six five four three two three four five six seven eight, eight seven six five four three two one two three four five six seven eight.

How did you get on? Should we have a go a little bit faster from the beginning starting at number one.

There's our number one, we're going to go about this speed, here we go.

One, one two one, one two three two one, one two three four three two one, one two three four five four three two one, one two three four five six five four three two one, one two three four five six seven six five four three two one, one two three four five six seven eight seven six five four three two one.

Eight, eight seven eight, eight seven six seven eight, eight seven six five six seven eight, eight seven six five four five six seven eight, eight seven six five four three four five six seven eight, eight seven six five four three two three four five six seven eight, eight seven six five four three two one two three four five six seven eight.

Well done, if you've got all the way through.

The very last thing we're going to do, just to see if you've really got those numbers into your head.

I'm going to hold them a finger.

We're just going to do one through to five.

One two three four five, five four three two one.

So if I hold up this finger here you're going to sing.

One, excellent.

When I hold this many fingers, two.

What if I hold this many fingers? Five, well done.

Four, one, three, two, five, well done.

One, five, one.

A super well done, if you managed to get all those.

If you want to go back and have another practise.

That's a really good way of learning your intervals.

Well done.

How many different ways are there to tell a story? Take your paper and pencil.

Give yourself 30 seconds to write down as many ways as you can think of to tell a story.

Pause the video now and let's see how many you can get.

How many did you get? Well, of course you can write a story.

You can read one in a book.

You can paint a picture of something happening, a scene from a story.

Maybe you could tell a story through mime.

You can dance a story, that's exactly what ballet is.

Maybe you'll perform a story in a play in a theatre.

Or perhaps write a poem about it.

You may have found even more ways to tell stories but what do musicians do to tell a story? There are a few different ways that musicians can tell stories.

We're going to look at one of them today and that is opera.

So what is opera? Opera is a form of theatre in which music has a leading role and the parts are taken by singers.

You may have seen opera before.

Usually opera is an entirely sung piece in contrast to a play with songs like a musical.

Traditionally opera employs two styles of singing.

Recitative, that's the musical conversation that we talked about earlier, which is a speech inflexion style and arias.

These are self-contained songs, which usually convey the character's feelings at that point in the story.

So now we know a little bit about opera.

We're going to learn about these two musical sung forms. Firstly, we're going to learn about recitative.

It's quite a hard word to say, should we try it? Recitative, your turn.

Perfect, well done.

In opera recitative is sung quite quickly just as you might speak and it moves the story on.

We're going to start by learning about recitative and how to have a musical conversation.

There's no strict tempo in recitative.

It's up to the singer and the orchestra or the accompaniment will keep up with the singer as they perform.

The tonality which is what we're thinking about today.

Will give a clue to the audience about what's happening in the story.

Whether the part of the story is happy or sad.

If it's sad, it will be in a minor key, generally speaking.

Minor is when the music can be gloomy, sad or if it's happy, it will be in a major key.

That usually shows something happy is going on on the stage.

So what we're going to do is have a musical conversation.

We're going to have a major conversation where the answers that you can give, will be happy ones.

And we're going to have a minor conversation where the answers you give will be sadder ones.

So I'm going to use these notes to sing the conversation.

One, three, five.

Do you remember from our warmup, with our voices? One, three, five.

That poses the question, because it goes from the keynote of the scale, up to the dominant which is the one that's going to leave us in suspense as to what's going to happen in the music.

Your answer is going to give the audience that relief they feel as your going to go.

Five, three, one.

And bring us back to a home note.

For example, if I were to ask you Hello, how are you today? That was major tonality.

One major three five.

Hello, how are you today? My answer in the major as well, is going to be a happy one.

I'm fine, thank you.

Five major third, one.

Have a go, I'm going to ask the question and then you're going to tell me the answer.

Hello, how are you today? Well, that's great to hear.

But what if you're not feeling so well, then I'm going to make my question a minor one in the minor tonality.

So these are the notes I'm going to use.

One minor third five.

One minor third five.

Hello, how are you today? And you should already be able to hear the difference between the two.

Your answer will also be in the minor key.

Maybe you're not feeling so well.

I'm very sad.

Let's have a go together.

I'll ask the question and you can give me the slightly sadder answer.

Hello, how are you today? Well done.

We're going to listen to some recitative, an example from a piece by a really famous composer called Bach.

He wrote this piece with German lyrics because Bach was a German composer.

If you speak German, you might know what this is about.

If you don't listen to the tonality of the music.

Do you think the singer is singing about something happy or sad? Does the tonality of the singer and the musicians give you a clue? Let's have a listen.

So what did you think? Was it sad in a minor key or was it happy in a major key? You're going to pause the video now and on your piece of paper or on the worksheet provided you can answer those two questions.

Hello, how are you today? And what did you have for dinner last night? Decide on the tonality you're going to use, decide if you're going to be major, unhappy, one, three, five.

Or if it's going to be minor and a bit sad.

One three minor five.

And the answer in reverse.

Five three one.

Or five minor three one.

Pause the video and have a go at having that conversation.

Maybe you could have that same recitative sung conversation with someone in your house.

We've had a go at recitative, the musical conversation in an opera.

Recitative is used to move the story along like the actors in the play, making sure that everyone in the audience knows what's happening.

We're now going to learn about the other traditional part of an opera, the aria.

The song that one character will sing which tells of their feelings about what's just happened.

The aria we're going to use is actually a Hungarian folk song, it's written in the minor key.

So the tonality is quite sad.

The character in this song, even though they're talking about being in their garden doesn't seem particularly happy.

They talk about the blossoms being white and ghostly in the gloom.

And the tonality of the song, the minor key reflects what that person is feeling.

Just like an aria would in an opera.

We're going to learn the song now, so you can have a go at singing it.

So I'll sing all the way through and then we'll learn it line by line.

It goes like this.

♪ Sweet the evening air of May ♪ ♪ Soft my cheek caressing ♪ ♪ Sweet the unseen lilac spray ♪ ♪ With its scented blessing ♪ ♪ White and ghostly in the gloom ♪ ♪ Shine the apple trees in bloom ♪ ♪ Apple trees in bloom ♪ ♪ Apple trees in bloom ♪ So let's have a go at learning it line by line.

My turn, then your turn.

♪ Sweet the evening air of May ♪ ♪ Soft my cheek caressing ♪ ♪ Sweet the unseen lilac spray ♪ ♪ With its scented blessing ♪ ♪ White and ghostly in the gloom ♪ ♪ Shine the apple trees in bloom ♪ ♪ Apple trees in bloom ♪ ♪ Apple trees in bloom ♪ So you can pause the video and go back and have a go at singing that through until you're confident.

And now let's sing it all the way through together.

Off we go.

♪ Sweet the evening air of May ♪ ♪ Soft my cheek caressing ♪ ♪ Sweet the unseen lilac spray ♪ ♪ With its scented blessing ♪ ♪ White and ghostly in the gloom ♪ ♪ Shine the apple trees in bloom ♪ ♪ Apple trees in bloom ♪ ♪ Apple trees in bloom ♪ That was really super well done.

What if our correction was actually feeling really great about being in her garden in May? The first part of the song could be really happy.

Let's have a go at putting it into a major tonality.

So it would start like this.

♪ Sweet the evening air of May ♪ ♪ Soft my cheek caressing ♪ ♪ Sweet the unseen lilac spray ♪ ♪ With its scented blessing ♪ Well that sounds much happier already, doesn't it? But the next line of the lyrics, white and ghostly in the gloom doesn't really fit with our major tonality.

We might need to change it.

We're going to sing the whole song again but learning it in the major tonality because your task is going to be in the major.

I'll sing it first.

Then it's your turn.

♪ Sweet the evening air of May ♪ ♪ Soft my cheek caressing ♪ ♪ Sweet the unseen lilac spray ♪ ♪ With its scented blessing ♪ ♪ White and ghostly in the gloom ♪ ♪ Shine the apple trees in bloom ♪ ♪ Apple trees in bloom ♪ ♪ Apple trees in bloom ♪ Super, so you can pause the video again.

If you want to get much more confident with that major tonality, let's try singing it all the way through.

Off we go.

♪ Sweet the evening air of May ♪ ♪ Soft my cheek caressing ♪ ♪ Sweet the unseen lilac spray ♪ ♪ With its scented blessing ♪ ♪ White and ghostly in the gloom ♪ ♪ Shine the apple trees in bloom ♪ ♪ Apple trees in bloom ♪ ♪ Apple trees in bloom ♪ Well done.

Your task is to change the tonality of this aria using the example on your worksheet or you can go back in the video and note down the first set of lyrics that we just sung.

Find lyrics that fit the pattern of the original words for the second section of the song.

The part where it talks about white and ghostly in the gloom from there to the end.

So that's four lines of lyrics.

Think about the pattern of those lyrics and then see if you can find happier words to fit with our major tonality.

Remember the last two lines are the same where we sang apple trees in bloom, apple trees in bloom.

You can find words that will fit that are the same.

Have a go at performing both your recit conversation, and your aria with someone in your home.

I look forward to seeing everything once it's finished.

Pause the video now and I'll see you after it's done.

What have we learned about opera today? Can you remember what that word is that we used for some conversation in opera that moves the story along, began with an R.

It was recitative, well done.

So then what was the song sung by a single character that explains their feelings in the story? Can you remember? It's an aria.

What is the word we use to explain when music sounds bright and often joyful? What's that word that we use to explain that tonality? The major key.

And lastly, we've got the music which sounds darker and gloomy or even sad.

What was that special word that we used? That's right, it was the minor key.

Well done, if you've got all of those right.

You can always go back in the video and have another look if you're not sure what any of those words mean.

Well, we've come to the end of our lesson.

I really hope you've had fun with me today, learning about opera, recitative and arias.

All that's left for me to say is a really big well done for all your hard work.

If you'd like to, you can ask a parent or carer to share some of your work with us @Oak National #LearnwithOak on Twitter 'cause I'd love to see some of the things that you've been doing.

I look forward to seeing you again really soon for the next lesson, bye everyone.