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Year 5 - Music

Building a minimalist piece

Compose and rehearse: creating and combining minimalist cells

Unit Summary

This unit introduces minimalism with its repetitive, hypnotic, short musical cells. Pupils will use Terry Riley's In C to inspire their compositions. Working in groups, pupils will create short musical cells and decide how to use these to create and rehearse a larger minimalist piece.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to build a minimalist composition creating cells that compliment and connect well to each other.

Key Notes

  • We can create melodic cells that compliment each other with a similar melodic shape but different rhythms.
  • Using notes of a longer duration creates a slower feeling rhythm.
  • Using notes of a shorter duration creates a faster feeling rhythm.
  • As composers, we can select instruments for their timbre when deciding the instrumentation for a new piece of music.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • cell: simple musical patterns that can be rhythmic or melodic (an ostinato in minimalism)
  • melodic shape: up and down movement of pitches in music
  • duration: the length of a sound or silence
  • instrumentation: the combination of musical instruments used in a piece of music

Common Mistakes To Avoid

  • Cells in minimalist music are all new ideas and are not connected.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

1. Explain the lesson in two key points.

We can create melodic cells that compliment each other with a similar melodic shape but different rhythms. Using notes of a longer duration creates a slower feeling rhythm.

2. What does this key word mean in this lesson? 'cell'

simple musical patterns that can be rhythmic or melodic (an ostinato in minimalism).

3. Correct this common mistake.

Mistake: Cells in minimalist music are all new ideas and are not connected. Correction: Even music that can feel 'random' is often born from a single idea. For an effective minimalist piece, use cells that relate in rhythm or melody.

More Lessons In This Unit

Browse all guides in the Year 5 Music guide library.