Great Choral

Classics
GCSE Music: Listening and
Appraising
Unit 5: Western Classical Music

1
Dot’s, Tie’s and Triplets Case Study: And The Glory Of The Lord (Messiah)
Time Signatures The Romantic Period
Sharps, Flat’s and Rests Case Study: Prelude No. 15 in D flat Major
Intervals, Chords, Triads and Inversions Opera and Oratorio
Modulation Expressionism
Cadences Case Study: Peripetie
Decorating Music Minimalism
Texture Songs from the Musicals
Woodwind Instruments Case Study: Bring Him Home (Les Misérables)
Stringed Instruments Case Study: Defying Gravity (Wicked)
Brass Instruments The Blues
Percussive Instruments Jazz Music
Dynamics and Timbre Case Study: All Blues
Harmony and Tonality Rock Music
Structure and Form Pop Ballads
Rhythm and Metre Dance/Electronic Music
Melody and Texture Case Study: Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?
The Great Choral Classsics Introduction to Dance Music
Case Study: Carmina Burana Waltz
Baroque Music Salsa
Classical Music Tango

Course Checklist 2
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
What do the bold words mean?

• The first choral pieces were sung in churches in the 14th Century. Before that, monks used to
sing plainsong.
• Most choral music in Renaissance and Baroque times was sacred?
• Masses were sung in catholic churches. They were part of the church service. Choral music
was also played at Requiems.
• Oratorios and bible stories are set to music. Masses, requiems and oratorios are all sacred
music.
• The main secular choral music were choruses in operas. Operas told love stories.

3
DEVELOPING CHOIRS
• Baroque choirs were fairly small. They’d sometimes have just one singer on each part. Only
men would sing as women were banned from singing in church.
• Most choir music was written for 4 different voices:

S Soprano
A Alto
T Tenor
B Bass
• By the Victorian era choirs were huge. They’d often have over 100 members.

4
MODERN DAY CHORAL SINGING
• 20th and 21st century choirs are generally quite small compared to the large Victorian choirs.
Though they’ll often have around 80 members, some can have as many as 130.
• Lots of 20th century choral works are written for chamber choir and chamber orchestra. These
are just small versions of choirs and orchestras.
• They’yre called ‘chamber’ because they used to perform in rooms or chambers, rather than a
concert hall. Chamber choirs normally have 20-25 members.

5
 SET WORK:
CARMINA BURANA

6
• Set works are pieces you are expected to know about in great detail. Not only will you be
asked to identify features from listening to the piece in the exam, you will be asked questions
about the pieces background!

• There are 8 Set Works (Or case studies) that you need to know.

• 2 Set Works will appear in the exam!

WHAT IS A SET WORK? 7

 Carmina Burana was written by Carl Orff. It’s based on 24 medieval poems

Carl Orff wanted Carmina Burana to be performed with
lots of speech, movement and dance. He called this idea
Theatrum Mundi. It made the work even more dramatic
and expressive. It’s hardly performed like this today.
The chorus mostly sing in unison, parallel thirds or major
or minor triads.
The poems are on secular topics like money, drink, gambling and lust. Most of
them are in Latin.
It was written in Nazi Germany. It was immediately popular.
It was quite controversial as it went against the values the Nazi’s
Were trying to promote. After WWII it was seen as Nazi Music,
but people still liked it.

CARMINA BURANA The most famous piece of Carmina Burana is called ‘O Fortuna’.
It starts and ends the whole thing.

The texture is mainly homophonic (all parts moving together in chords) It’s written for a huge orchestra, a main choir (SATB), a chamber
Choir (SATB) and a boy’s choir. The chamber choir sits within the
main choir. It’s a choir within a choir. There’s a lot of solo parts.

The piece has a lot of time changes. In O Fortuna it changes from 7

beats to 5 to 4. The Rhythms follow the words and make it sound very
exciting.
The piece requires 8 timpani’s and a lot of percussion. It’s very dramatic 8