Carnegie Hall

Composers use a variety of techniques to make their music rock. Discuss examples of these techniques below with your students.

• Power of large forces
  • Does the piece have a large and powerful sound?
• Timbre
  • Which instruments do you hear? Do they create an edgy sound?
• Volume
  • Are the dynamics forte (loud)? Are there dramatic shifts in the volume?
• Driving beat
  • Does the music have a strong pulse? Which instruments are creating that pulse?
• Prominent rhythm and accents
  • Do you hear accents, syncopation, and rhythmic elements that create a groove?
• Select three or more works from the Link Up: The Orchestra Rocks repertoire. Prompt students to actively listen for any rock-like features that they hear by considering the techniques and guiding questions above.
• After listening, students can reflect in pairs or as a class.
  • Which rock-like qualities did you identify when listening to the pieces?
  • Which piece did you think sounded the most rock-like and why?

Explore Timbre

• Listen to any of the rock songs in The Orchestra Rocks playlist and identify the different sounds you hear that give rock its “edgy” sound.
  • What instruments and sounds do you hear?
  • What do the voices sound like?
  • What do you notice about the volume of the music?
• Discover how orchestra instruments produce different timbres when they are played in different ways.
  • String techniques include
    • ponticello: a “scratchy” sound produced by bowing on a different section of the strings
    • pizzicato: plucking strings instead of using the bow
    • patting or tapping the body of the instrument like a percussion instrument
  • Wind and brass techniques include
    • mutes: placing a mute in the bell of a brass instrument to muffle the sound
    • flutter tonguing: rolling the tongue while blowing into an instrument
  • Percussion techniques include
    • bowing instruments—such as marimbas, cymbals, or glasses of water—with a string bow
    • utilizing nontraditional instruments such as found objects or toys to produce unusual sounds
• Explore other ways that musicians can produce edgy sounds by watching “Exploring Timbre.”
• Invite students to use classroom instruments, objects, and even their voices to experiment with how they can change the timbre that is produced to create different sounds.

Explore Sound Through Interpretation

Musicians and composers create their own individual sounds when they interpret an existing piece of music in their own way. “La Follia” is a folk song that has been interpreted by more than 150 composers over three centuries. It is one of the oldest European melodies on record. The first published composition using this melody dates from the mid-17th century, but it is also recorded in a 1577 book by Portuguese music theorist Francisco de Salias. Vivaldi himself created 19 variations on this melody.

• Using the “La Follia” Graphic Score (PDF) listen to Track 17 “La Follia” (piano vocal).
  • What musical elements does Vivaldi change from his original melody to produce each variation? Consider rhythm, dynamics, tempo, etc.
  • How do these changes affect the character or feeling of the music?

• Notice how the theme and first two variations on the “La Follia” Graphic Score include graphic notation to represent the expressive qualities in the music.
• As you listen to the piece, ask your students to create their own graphic notation for the rest of the variations. Consider color, shape, line, connection, and weight of the notation.
• Students can also check off which of the variations have play-along recorder parts using the circles next to each variation.
• After completing their graphic scores, ask students to explain why they chose to represent the music with their chosen graphic notation.

Go Deeper

• Using the links on the Supporting Resources page, you can listen to other composers’ versions of “La Follia,” including those by Corelli, J. S. Bach, and Rachmaninoff.
  • What is similar to Vivaldi’s version?
  • What is different than Vivaldi’s version?

Create Your Own “La Follia” Variation

• Listen to and perform the theme of Vivaldi’s “La Follia,” found in measures 1–16 in the music.
• Investigate with your students the different ways they can change the theme. Suggestions include
  • changing the expressive qualities such as articulation, dynamics, or tempo
  • changing the melody by using repetition, inversion, or a different set of notes
  • changing the rhythm
• Students can notate their variations on the Create Your Own “La Follia” Variation worksheet (PDF).
• Play your new variations using the accompaniment in Track 19 “La Follia” (continuo only).

Rock and roll was born in the United States in the 1950s. Its roots lie in African American music traditions, including gospel, blues, and rhythm and blues, as well as country and folk. One of the early pioneers of rock music is Sister Rosetta Tharpe, “the Godmother of rock and roll.” The signature rock and roll sound is the amplified wail of the electric guitar, combined with electric bass, drum kit, and sometimes keyboards and saxophone. Its signature rhythm is the backbeat, with a driving accent on beats 2 and 4. Over the decades, many kinds of rock music grew out of these early rock and roll roots, from “British Invasion” bands like The Beatles to heavy metal to punk.

In rock music, a cover is a new performance or recording of a song by someone other than the original recording artist that allows the performer to interpret the piece in their own way. Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” has been covered more than 40 times by other famous artists such as The Beach Boys, The Beatles, and Jimi Hendrix. An important part of rock music history, covers pay tribute to the original artist while offering a fresh interpretation of an existing melody.

• Compare Berry’s original recording of “Johnny B. Goode” with any of the covers available on the Supporting Resources page.
  • What is similar to Berry’s version?
  • What is different from Berry’s version?

Create Your Own “Johnny B. Goode” Cover

• Using Tracks 34 and 35, your students can create and perform their own covers of “Johnny B. Goode.”
  • Track 34 provides a slower version of the accompaniment.
  • Track 35 is more up-tempo. You can use classroom instruments to augment the accompaniment tracks.

Go Deeper

• Change some of the lyrics to make the song a class anthem, or tell the story of a person other than “Johnny.”

Chuck Berry’s Legacy

Chuck Berry is known as the father of rock and roll. A self-taught musician who began playing guitar in junior high school, Berry was among the first to evolve rhythm and blues into rock and roll, particularly through his dynamic guitar solos and showmanship, which was emulated by the artists who followed him. Berry was the first Black rock and roll musician who found popularity among both white and Black audiences in the 1950s, when the US was deeply entrenched in segregation. Berry’s music was deemed so important that a panel of NASA scientists chose to include “Johnny B. Goode” along with works by Beethoven, Stravinsky, and Mozart when they launched the Voyager Golden Records into space. If extraterrestrial life ever encounters this vehicle, they too will hear Berry’s music!