Carnegie Hall

Expressive qualities are the different elements that composers and musicians use to infuse music with an overarching mood and emotional content. Three fundamental expressive qualities are tempo, dynamics, and articulation.

Composers sometimes specify the feelings that they’re trying to convey, using words like con forza (“with strength”) or dolce (“sweetly”) to guide the musicians. It’s then up to the musicians to interpret these words and convey these feelings in the way they play.

Tempo: the speed of music
Common tempo markings include largo (slow), moderato (moderate), and presto (fast).

Dynamics: the volume of music (loud or quiet)

• Dynamic markings include variations of piano (soft, p) and forte (loud, f).
• pp means very soft; ff means very loud
• mp, or mezzo piano, means medium soft; mf, or mezzo forte, means medium loud
• Composers can also indicate changes in dynamics from soft to loud with a crescendo marking (<) or from forte to piano with a decrescendo marking (>).

Articulation: how a note or group of notes should be played or sung
Common articulation markings include staccato (short and detached), legato (connected and smooth), and accented (with more attack than other surrounding notes).

• Play one of the following orchestral recordings from the Link Up repertoire: “Toreador” from Carmen, Symphony No. 5, Danzón No. 2, or “Knitting Nettles” from Wild Swans Suite.
  • What is the tempo? Does the tempo change?
  • What dynamics do you hear?
  • How would you describe the articulation(s) that you hear?
  • How would you move to this piece?
  • What is the mood or feeling of this piece? Why do you think so?
• Listen to the piece again and have the students complete the Expressive Qualities in the Link Up Repertoire activity sheet (PDF). Students can respond first through graphic notation, which can then be identified with appropriate musical vocabulary.
• If time allows, repeat for an additional recording and compare and contrast the students’ responses to each piece.

Just like music, dance uses expressive qualities to convey emotions and tell stories.

• tempo: fast or slow movements
• dynamics: strong or light movements
• articulation: sharp (staccato) or smooth (legato) movements
• Use the graphic notation that your students create for Expressive Qualities in the Link Up Repertoire (PDF) as a map or guide to create a dance for the piece.
• Ask your students to create a movement that corresponds to one element of their graphic notation. Once they’ve created a movement, they can explore ways to vary that movement. For example, when exploring tempo, they can experiment with quick changes in speed as well as gradual acceleration and deceleration.
• For an additional challenge, layer two expressive qualities together within one movement—e.g., a fast, sharp movement or a strong, smooth movement.
• Play the Link Up excerpt that the students notated and ask them to use the movements they created to move to the music, using their graphic notation as their “score.”

• In opera, the characters onstage sing their lines instead of speaking them. The music the orchestra plays and the ways the opera singers move to the music help to illuminate the characters and enhance the story that is unfolding in front of the audience.
• Read the brief synopsis of Carmen.
• Play “Toreador” from Carmen.
  • What is the mood of the “Toreador” aria? What emotions do you think the music is trying to convey?
• Ask students to take turns pretending to be the toreador onstage, portraying a variety of attitudes for the character (silly, scared, brave, sneaky, uninterested, proud, shy, etc.)
  • To whom is your character singing?
  • What is your character feeling?
  • What is your character trying to communicate?
  • How would your character move?
• After several students take a turn, reflect as a class.
  • Which movements seemed to best match the music of the “Toreador” aria?

Georges Bizet’s Carmen

Carmen is a dramatic French opera composed by Georges Bizet that tells a tale of love gone wrong. Carmen is a young Romani who at first falls in love with a soldier, but then falls for the popular toreador—or bullfighter—Escamillo. “Toreador” is an aria from Carmen sung by Escamillo, who proudly brags about his fame and skill.

The activities on the following page are designed to explore the intersection between arts education and social emotional learning (SEL), which is explored in depth in the Center for Arts Education and Social Emotional Learning’s Arts Education and Social Emotional Learning Framework. This framework is intended to enhance arts education by creating opportunities for intentional teaching and learning strategies.

• Review Move Expressively to the “Toreador” Aria. Highlight how the movements the students created expressed the emotions that the Toreador was sharing with the outside world in his song.
  • Sometimes when people brag and show off, they are actually feeling insecure and not so confident on the inside.
  • Have you ever tried to look confident and proud on the outside, but really felt insecure and shy on the inside?
• Discuss the ways in which we show confidence in our posture, gait, and stance. Movement choices can include strong poses, wide stance, straight spine, open arms, and a high level of movement.
  • How would you stand, move, and act if you wanted to look confident and proud?
  • For example, would your posture be tall and straight or crumpled and low? How would you walk? What expressions would appear on your face?
• Listen to “Toreador” from Carmen again and embody these movements that show confidence, swagger, and bravery.
• Now, explore movements that show the emotions that the Toreador may have been feeling on the inside, such as shyness, insecurity, or not wanting to be seen. Movement choices could include enclosed shapes, curved spine, downward gaze, folded arms and legs, or a low level of movement.
  • How would you stand, move, and act if you felt shy or insecure, or didn’t want to be seen?
• Listen to “Toreador” from Carmen again and embody movements that express shyness, insecurity, or lack of confidence.
• Discuss how it feels to embody the contrasting emotions.

Go Deeper

• Brainstorm a list of different emotions and their opposites.
• Repeat the SEL Movement Exploration using different pairs of opposite emotions.

In an Orff Schulwerk classroom, inspiration for composition can come from just about anything: poetry, books, artwork, composers, themes, and especially emotions. After exploring the “Toreador” activities, your students can create their own music to embody the movements they created.

• Have the class select one expressive quality or emotion that they enjoyed exploring in the previous “Toreador” activities along with the related movement that they created.
• Using recorders, voice, or any instruments available, work with the full class to compose a short motif or a longer theme that represents the chosen expressive quality, emotion, and related movement. Jot the ideas down on the board and model the composition process as you work.
• Invite students to share the “why” of their musical ideas. Help students develop the vocabulary to verbalize their thoughts and choices clearly to other musicians.
  • Why did you suggest a certain key, instrument, rhythm, volume, etc. for this emotional quality and movement?
• Break students into small groups and repeat this activity, following the model of the classroom process.
• Encourage students to share their “whys” with their small groups when making suggestions for their pieces. Remind them to keep their explanations simple and short.
• Invite students to share their pieces with the class and ask other students to give meaningful feedback, encouraging descriptive language. For example: I like that you chose to use drums and fast rhythms for strength because it sounded powerful.