National Symphony Orchestra Young People’s Concert

Ankush Kumar Bahl, conductor Marissa Regni, NSO violinist and host

David and Alice Rubenstein are the Presenting Underwriters of the NSO.

Performances for Young Audiences is made possible by

When it comes to creating music, composers like to push the limits. Get ready to hear how!

musical opposites

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The Power of Music

Strings Woodwind Brass Percussion

Triangle

Castanets

Xylophone

ChimesBass Drum

Timpani

Trumpets

Alto Sax

Trombones

Tuba

French Horns

Bassoons

Piccolo

Clarinets

Oboes

Flutes

Double Bass

Cellos

Violas

Snare Drum

Tam Tam

Second ViolinsFirst Violins

Harps

Piano

Baton

Conductor’s Stand

An orchestra is extremely powerful. It can capture a specific time or place, inspire an emotion, tell a story, or paint a picture—all with music. It can sound big and grand—and then small and soft. It can switch in an instant from super-slow to super-duper-fast. It can reach deep down for low notes or soar way up for high notes. How can an orchestra have such incredible powers?

The answer is…it’s all in the music. Composers, the people who write or “compose” music, use a special toolbox to make their music sound as dramatic as possible. Throughout our Learning Activities and at the concert, you’ll hear more about these unique tools and how composers use them to explore musical extremes.

musical opposites

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The high and low of PitchThe second tool a composer uses is pitch—selecting high notes and low notes and many notes in-between—and stringing them together. When you hum or sing to music, you are following the melody, or the pitch, of high notes and low notes.

Sometimes a composer moves from one note to another by taking simple steps up or down the scale. Other times, the melody leaps to a much higher note or drops to a much lower one. You might also hear the notes slide up or down from one note to the next.

If the melody contains notes that are really high or really low, the composer can pick from all the musical instruments in the orchestra to reach these notes. Certain musical instruments handle pitches better than others, just like singers. Some are high; some are low.

Tempo is a tool composers use to control the speed of the music. It might be fast, slow, or anywhere in between. The tempo can stay the same—or it can change again and again before the music ends. Composers put directions in the sheet music so the conductor and the musicians know the right tempo to use. For example, they use Italian words like:

adagio (ah-DAH-zhee-oh) for slow

allegro (ah-LEY-groh) for fast

presto (PRES-toh) for super-fast!

The Power of Music

Dancing with SwordsArmenian composer Aram Khachaturian (A-ram kah-chuh-TOOR-ee-uhn) wrote his “Sabre Dance” to describe Russian warriors who danced with their swords. A sabre is a curved sword with a fancy handle. Since then, “Sabre Dance” has been used to capture the crazy energy of circus acts, acrobats, magicians, and jugglers. During the concert, listen carefully for extremes in tempo and pitch during “Sabre Dance.”

Khachaturian’s music was greatly influenced by the folk music he heard during his childhood.

The Fastand slow of Tempo

meet the orchestra

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The Power of Musicians

The string section is made up of violins, violas, cellos,and basses. These instruments can sound soft and sweet, or soaring and majestic.

The woodwind section gathers flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons. Woodwinds can carry the melody over the quietest and the loudest parts of a piece. Some think they come closer to the human singing voice than any of the other instruments.

The brass section includes horns, trumpets, trombones, and tuba. Brass

instruments are important in the

loud, exciting parts of the music. They

also can be used to create epic swells and

sudden bursts of sound.

The percussion section is home to drums, chimes, gongs, cymbals, and whistles. These instruments are used to provide pounding rhythms, booming drum rolls, and driving energy.

Wait, What Is a Soloist?Many composers write music to feature one instrument over all others. When that happens, an orchestra can showcase a particular member or include an additional musician who is not a regular member. Even though a soloist is only one person compared to a big orchestra, he or she performs with extraordinary skill.

When it comes to writing music for an orchestra, composers have another extreme tool to choose from—size. They can go big by writing music for a full orchestra—sometimes as many as 120 musicians. Or, they can go small—by writing for a smaller orchestra or a soloist.

A composer picks from many instruments in an

orchestra—from extremely big ones to extremely small ones.

There are lots of choices because an orchestra is big. In fact, it

is so big that is divided into four sections, or

families:

Calling All Players

tape

balloon

thwack!

thwack!

Thunder Mountain!Here are five easy steps to building

your own thunder machine. (Make

sure you get a grown-up to help!)

1. Take a cardboard tube from an empty paper towel roll and stretch a rubber balloon over one end.

2. Stand the other end of the tube over a piece of cardboard. Trace the round outline of the tube’s end. Cut out that circle and poke a small hole in the center.

3. Unwind the wire spring from an old spiral notebook. Insert one end of the wire spring through the hole in the cardboard circle. Twist it four or five times so the spring is divided into a short end and a long end.

4. Use glue to attach the cardboard circle to the open end of the tube so the short end of the spring is inside the tube and the long end outside. Let it dry overnight so the circle is securely attached.

5. Paint or decorate the tube. Once dry and secure, hold the thunder tube so the spring hangs downwards. Shake the tube. The spring inside will vibrate creating a thunderous sound!

glue

cardboard tape

balloon

pencil

wire spring

scissors

cardboard tube

What You’ll Need:

glue

meet the orchestra

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The Extremely Talented ViolinThe violin might well be the favorite instrument for composers because it sounds so much like us. And even though it is the smallest of all the stringed instruments, the violin makes the highest sound.

Made of wood with four metal strings, musicians play the violin using a bow (a wooden stick strung with a tight ribbon of horsehair in their right hand and pressing the string with the fingers of their left hand. The body of the instrument has a hollow center. This center is called a resonating chamber, and it makes the sound of the strings loud and strong. That sound comes out of the two f-shaped holes. During the concert, watch for NSO violinist Marissa Regni perform and listen how a small instrument can make such a powerful sound.

The Power of Musicians

When Big Is BetterIn An Alpine Symphony, German composer Richard Strauss (REE-card STRAUS) describes a difficult mountain climb that begins before dawn and ends just as night falls. In between, the climb is filled with beautiful sights, adventure, and a terrible storm. Strauss chose a full orchestra to recreate this journey. He even added instruments not usually part of an orchestra including cowbells, a glockenspiel (GLOCK-en-shpeel) which is like a large xylophone, and wind and thunder machines.

Strauss remembered his own childhood experiences in the extreme sport of mountain climbing to write An Alpine Symphony.

Extreme Emotions Austrian composer Gustav Mahler (GOOS-tahf MAH-ler) is celebrated for tackling thoughtful ideas and emotions in his music. His music often considers the biggest questions: What is life? What is death? What is love?

Mahler is considered one of the greatest Romantic composers, but the word “romance” here doesn’t mean hearts and flowers. In Mahler’s case, it describes a musical style that is filled with thoughts and feelings.

During the concert, you will hear excerpts from Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 and Symphony No. 5. In both pieces, the composer expresses his concern over life’s extreme conditions. Listen how Mahler uses musical dynamics to make the music more emotional and thought-provoking.

Mahler’s own life was filled with extremes—from great success to tragic heartbreak. It is what inspired his music.

Making Music Matter

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The Loud and Quiet of Musical DynamicsWait, How Do Musicians Know How Loud or Soft to Play?Just like choosing tempo, composers include directions for musicians in the sheet music. And again, just like with tempo, different Italian terms are used to describe musical dynamics. For example, here are a few:

Another tool in the composer’s toolbox—musical dynamics—controls whether music is loud or quiet. While dynamics focus on the music’s volume, there’s more to it than simply sliding the dial on the volume control.

The funny thing about music is that sometimes loud is fun and exciting, but it can also be dramatic, or sad, or spooky, or any number of things. In the same way, quiet music can be soft and gentle, but also dramatic, or sad, or spooky. It all depends on the types of dynamics used when musicians perform the work.

(kreh-SHEN-doh) becoming louder

(dih-min-yoo-EN-doh) becoming softer

(FOR-tay) loud

(for-TEE-see-moh) very loud

softly

(ahl- knee-EN-tay) fade to nothing or silence

Making Music Matter

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The Loud and Quiet of Musical Dynamics

The string bass, the harp, and the timpani are among the largest instruments in the orchestra. The smallest instruments include the triangle, castanets, and the piccolo. The piccolo is a smaller version of a flute, but don’t let its size fool you! Piccolos are powerful!

Strike Up the BandAmerican composer John Philip Sousa (SOO-zuh) is most famous for his rousing march, The Stars and Stripes Forever, which was recognized by the U.S. government as the official march of the United States. It’s not a long piece of music—but its belting brass, crashing cymbals, and piercing piccolos are sure to get any audience clapping and cheering.

Sousa is also the only

composer to have an

instrument named after

him. The sousaphone is a

large brass instrument like

a tuba that wraps over

the musician’s shoulder.

You often see a sousaphone

in a marching band but

not in an orchestra.

Did You Know?

From Bigto Small

Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever is the perfect example to hear all of the composer’s tools: tempo, pitch, dynamics, and size.

For more about Exploring Extremes, visit: artsedge.kennedy-center.org/students/kc-connections

David M. RubensteinChairman

Deborah F. RutterPresident

Darrell M. AyersVice President, Education

Christoph EschenbachMusic Director National Symphony Orchestra

Ankush Kumar BahlConductor

NSO Young People’s Concerts are made possible in part by the generous support of The Clark Charitable Foundation; Kaplan, Inc.; Mr. James V. Kimsey; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; Park Foundation, Inc.; U.S. Department of Education; and The Volgenau Foundation.

Major support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by David and Alice Rubenstein through the Rubenstein Arts Access Program.

Education and related artistic programs are made possible through the generosity of the National Committee for the Performing Arts and the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts.

Your classroom teacher may have shared a Concert CD with you so that you could listen in advance to the music included in the Exploring Extremes program. Listen to the CD and do all the activities. You will enjoy the concert more if you are already familiar with the music.

Things to KnowAn orchestra is a group of musicians who play different instruments. There are 96 members of the National Symphony Orchestra. Many of them will be playing at the concert.

The conductor is the person who leads the orchestra. Using hands and sometimes a thin white stick called a baton (buh-TAHN), a conductor sets the tempo for the musicians. Notice how the musicians stay focused on the conductor and are able to start or stop at the conductor’s command. The best conductors bring out the emotion in the music to make the orchestra’s performance more enjoyable for the audience.

After an orchestra is seated, the leader of the violins, known as the first violinist or concertmaster, bows to applause and

takes his or her seat. This person then asks the principal oboist to sound an “A” note, to which the entire orchestra tunes. Watch for the first violinist at the beginning of the performance and clap to welcome him or her to the stage.

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© 2014 The John F. Kennedy Centerfor the Performing Arts

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