Program Description:

“Music Paints a Picture”
The Barossa Quintet, a professional, Chicago-based woodwind quintet, uses classical music examples to illustrate how music can evoke images in our minds and thus draw forth a wide range of feelings and thoughts. Through fun, varied repertoire, the quintet demonstrates how musical elements such as melody, harmony, and rhythm “paint” different moods or images, which, in turn, make us feel a particular emotion or inspire us to imagine a scene or story. A key point that this presentation highlights is the crucial difference between hearing and listening, a concept that applies not only to listening to music, but to all areas of learning and relating to others. This program seeks to acquaint audiences with the rich experience of listening to classical music, and to attune them to heeding the ways in which they individually respond when they really listen. In addition to inviting audience participation, The Barossa Quintet encourages good listening skills and appropriate audience behavior during musical selections. The quintet also demonstrates each of the five instruments, illustrating how they produce sound and discussing their roles in the quintet. A brief question and answer session concludes each presentation.

Terms:

Classical music
Oboe
Chamber music
Flute
Woodwind
Clarinet
Brass
Bassoon
Quintet
French horn
Tempo
Reed
Rhythm
Double reed
Harmony
Orchestra
Melody
Composer
Musical piece

Musical excerpts to be selected from the following:

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice - -Dukas
The Flight of the Bumblebee - -Rimsky-Korsakov
Aires Tropicales - D’Rivera
The Nutcracker - Tchaikovsky
Quintet in E-flat - Beethoven
Presto - Haydn
Chorale - Nielsen
Pastoral - Pierne
La Cheminée du Roi - René Milhaud
Milonga Sin Palabras - Piazzolla

GUIDELINE QUESTIONS FOR FOLLOW-UP DISCUSSION:

Q: Name the five instruments of the woodwind quintet.
A: Flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, French horn.

Q: What makes a woodwind a woodwind?
A: It is made out of wood, or was made out of wood in the past (as in the case of the flute).

Q: What makes a brass instrument a brass instrument?
A: It is made out of brass. Other examples include the trumpet, tuba, and trombone.

Q: Which instruments use reeds?
A: Clarinet, oboe, and bassoon.

Q: Which instruments use a double reed?
A: Oboe and bassoon.

Q: Which instrument uses a single reed?
A: Clarinet.

Q: What is the highest instrument in the wind quintet?
A: The flute.

Q: What is the lowest instrument in the woodwind quintet?
A: The bassoon.

Q: Why is the flute a member of the woodwind family even though it is not made of wood?
A: Originally it was made out of wood. Now it is made out of silver or gold usually.

Q: Why is the french horn in the woodwind quintet even though it is a brass instrument?
A: When composers started writing music for the woodwind quintet, they thought the warm, mellow sound of the French horn blended well with the sound of the woodwinds. It is often considered to be a sort of link between the brass sections and woodwind sections in orchestras. The horn is also included in brass quintets, another type of chamber ensemble.

Q: How many people are in a quintet? Quartet? Trio? Duo?
A: quintet (5), quartet (4), Trio (3), Duo (2)

Q: Name the four building blocks of music.
A: Melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo.

Q: What element of music helps to make the melody sound good?
A: Harmony.

Q: What musical element refers to time?
A: Tempo.

Q: What musical element makes you want to clap and dance?
A: Rhythm.

Q: What is the official name of the ice cream truck song? Who composed it?
A: The Entertainer by Scott Joplin.

Q: What do we call a person who writes music?
A: Composer.

Q: Who was the Cuban composer who wrote the Aires Tropicales performed by the quintet?
A: Paquito D’Rivera.

Q: Name two Russian composers.
A: Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky.

Q: Name two French composers.
A: Dukas and Gounod.

Q: Name one African-American composer.
A: Scott Joplin

Q: Name one Cuban composer.
A: D’Rivera

Q: What do we call a classical music selection?
A: A piece of music.

GUIDELINES FOR STUDENT FEEDBACK

What was your favorite piece and why?

What was your favorite instrument and why?

How did the Flight of the Bumblebee make you feel?

The sound of the oboe reminds you of….

The clarinet and oboe look similar but sound different. In what ways do they sound different? How do they produce their sounds differently?

How is classical music different than or similar to popular music?

A few things I have learned about classical music include…

The term chamber music refers to….

Listening to the music of the woodwind quintet makes me feel….

When I hear classical music, I….
Draw a picture of…
Imagine a story about…
Feel the way I feel when….