Family Concert | Close Up: Music for Curious Young Minds - Live from Wigmore Hall

Becoming Musical Detectives

• 💡 The concert invites the audience to become musical detectives to discover the essential elements that make a perfect piece of music.
• 🎯 Featuring Ensemble 360, specifically a wind quintet comprising a flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, and bassoon.

Unpacking Core Musical Elements

• 🎶 The first element explored is rhythm, defined as music's pattern in time, demonstrated with a thrilling rhythm from a Haydn Divertimento.
• 🔊 Dynamics are introduced as the "louds and softs" in music, with examples from Bachovich's wind quintet showcasing changing volumes.
• 🎵 Melody, a series of strung-together sounds that create memories and feelings, is illustrated with Malcolm Arnold's Sea Shanties, including the tune "Drunken Sailor."

Expression and Structure in Music

• ✨ Phrasing is highlighted as the way musicians shape a melody with expression and emotion, demonstrated by a solo flute piece.
• 🤫 The concept of mood and atmosphere is explored, including the use of silence to create tension, exemplified by György Ligeti's Six Bagatelles with contrasting staccato and legato notes.
• 🎼 Articulation refers to how notes are played (long or short), combining previous elements in Enzo's wind quintet and Stravinsky's solo clarinet piece.

Harmony and Instrument Roles

• 🤝 Harmony is defined as playing multiple notes simultaneously, demonstrated through audience participation and a piece by Gustav Holst.
• 🎷 The wind instruments (flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, bassoon) are examined, noting how instrument size correlates with pitch (e.g., flute for highest, bassoon for lowest).
• 🦋 Music's ability to tell stories is shown with Anna Meredith's piece depicting a moth, featuring an alto flute for lower sounds.

Collaborative Musical Creation

• 🔄 The concepts of convergence and divergence are introduced, demonstrating how musical parts can come together and move apart.
• 👏 The audience collaboratively creates a perfect piece by combining all the learned musical elements, including rhythm, dynamics, melody, and harmony.
• 🎉 The concert concludes with a celebratory performance of Valerie Coleman's "Mojo" for wind quintet, emphasizing that music is a gift for everyone to share and love.