music matters Issue #03 Nov/Dec 2012 Issue #03 Nov/Dec 2012 Issue #03 Nov/Dec 2012 ST. JOHN’S PREP SCHOOL’S MUSIC MAGAZINE FEATURED ARTISTE OF THE MONTH Meet one of Hollywood’s most successful composers HISTORY OF CAROLLING How it started and why we sing carols FESTIVE HAPPENINGS Discover what is happening in and around London this Yuletide season SCHOOL SCHOOL SCHOOL TRIPS TRIPS TRIPS We go to the Primary Proms and The Lion King musical PLAY A PLAY A PLAY A CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS TUNE TUNE TUNE Take on Jingle Bells this month CHRISTMAS EDITION
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FESTIVE HAPPENINGS Discover what is happening in and
around London this Yuletide season
SCHOOL SCHOOL SCHOOL TRIPSTRIPSTRIPS
We go to the Primary Proms and
The Lion King musical
PLAY A PLAY A PLAY A CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS
TUNETUNETUNE Take on Jingle Bells
this month
CHRISTMAS EDITION
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Editor’s
MESSAGE
Dear pupils,
Welcome to another new edition of Music Matters.
How time flies, the autumn term is approaching its
end now. I hope everyone is getting into the
Christmas spirit and enjoying the season’s festivities.
As usual, there will be plenty of performances going
on, both music and theatre.
And with Christmas coming up, you can be sure to
find a favourite pantomime of yours to enjoy! In
fact, instead of a wrappable gift, why not ask Santa
for a front row ticket to the circus or theatre this
Christmas? (With popcorn and snacks thrown in, of
course). There is a two-page guide to some of the
highlights this Christmas, and it would be a shame
to miss out on all of them.
In this issue we also discover an instrument from the
Far East - the Chinese dulcimer, or yangqin. It
makes the most astonishing sound, apart from
looking rather impressive. We also find out more
about John Williams, one of Hollywood’s most
successful and famous film composers.
We have also had two music trips in the past
month: UTs and F1s were treated to music at the
Royal Albert Hall for the Primary Proms, whilst the F2s
and F3s had a fantastic day out at the Lyceum
Theatre in London for the Lion King workshop and
musical!
All in all, a very busy month indeed. To conclude, I
would like to wish all pupils a very Merry Christmas
and Happy New Year! May you have a wonderful
time celebrating with family and friends this festive
season.
MR. JONATHAN ANG
Editor
Music Matters
CONTENTS
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Instrument of the Month
Play a Christmas Tune
Featured Article:
The History of Carolling
School Trip: The Lion King
What’s On: Christmas Edition
Lower School Corner
School Trip: Primary Proms
Young Musician of the Month
Artiste of the Month
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Featured Instrument
of the Month Every month we will feature an instrument, which might be a common instrument, or
sometimes a strange and mystic-looking one instead! If you would like to see it in
action, simply visit YouTube and type in the instrument name, and there you have it! If
you would like to learn a new instrument, simply speak to your music teacher and
they will point you in the right direction.
YANGQIN
扬琴 The yangqin is a very unique instrument, and belongs to a family of instruments called dulcimers.
The yangqin is similar to a harp, except that it is laid
out horizontally as if on a table, and the strings are
not plucked but hammered. The yangqin used in
Chinese music today originates from Iran, and
dulcimers like these are now very popular not only in
China, but also in the Middle East and Eastern
Europe.
A modern yangqin usually has 144 strings in total, and each note
consists of 5 strings. This makes the yangqin a rather loud instru-
ment - in contrast, the piano only has, on average, three strings
per note! This means for every note that is hit with a hammer on
the yangqin, five separate strings will vibrate in the same pitch.
The hammers are made of flexible bamboo, and one end of
each hammer is half-covered by rubber (see picture below).
This instrument has also often been called the
“Chinese piano” as it plays a very important
role in accompanying other Chinese wind
and string instruments in Chinese orchestras.
Traditional Chinese music uses a notation
system which involves numbers, rather then
the Western staff notation. This is called jianpu
(简谱), and you can find an example below.
Jianpu literally means “simplified notation” in
Chinese. Try and see if you can decipher it!
THE JIANPU SYSTEM
Note: C D E F G A B
Solfège: do re mi fa so la si
Notation: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Row, row, row your boat
|1· 1· |1 23· |
Twinkle, twinkle little star
|1 1 5 5 |6 6 5 - |
Frere Jacques
|1 2 3 1 |1 2 3 1 |
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PLAY A
CHRISTMAS TUNE! With Christmas quickly approaching, this is now the perfect time to pick up some festive tunes! In this edition of Music Matters, an easy Christmas tune has been featured. This month’s carol is Jingle Bells, I
am sure all of you will be familiar with this number! The music here is written mainly for piano, but if you
play another instrument such as the violin, ask your instrumental teacher and they will adapt the
music for you so that you are able to play it on your own instrument!
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FEATURED ARTISTE
OF THE MONTH Every month this newsletter will feature a musician, artiste,
composer or singer for you to discover. Remember, if you want to
know more about the featured artiste of the month, you can
always find more on the internet, especially on YouTube!
JOHN WILLIAMS John Williams is an American film music composer,
and is widely known as "one of the best known,
awarded, and financially successful composers in
US history."
In a career that has lasted for more than sixty years,
he has composed music for some of the most popu-
lar films in Hollywood, including all the Star Wars
films, Superman, War Horse and the first three Harry
Potter films. He has also written the theme music for
four Olympic Games in history!
Williams’ massive success is reflected in his numerous
awards - he has won five Academy Awards, four
Golden Globe awards and seven BAFTA awards. Try
searching for some of his film music on the internet,
you are bound to recognise many tunes by John Williams! He frequently works with very
popular film directors, such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Chris Columbus. Below is
a list of films that Williams has composed music for, see how many you can recognise!
- Film Music composed by John Williams -
The Adventures of Tintin:
The Secret of the Unicorn
Indiana Jones and the
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull War of the Worlds Harry Potter & The Prisoner
of Azkaban
Star Wars Episode II: Attack
of the Clones
Memoirs of a Geisha Jaws E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Jurassic Park Home Alone
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HISTORY OF CAROLLING Ever wondered where the tradition of carolling came from? Why do we sing for others during this festive season? Read more to find out.
There have been many proposed theories as to how carolling originated, but alas they are all unclear. What we know for sure is that carolling is an oral tradition, passed down from generation to genera-tion. Carols were first written in Europe in the 4th and 5th centuries, but they were not at first associated with Christmas. According to historians, they were sung to celebrate the Winter Solstice, which is the shortest day of the year and usually around 22nd December. It was only in the 13th century did Saint Francis of Assisi, the Roman Catholic saint of animals and the environment, start to incorporate these carols into Christmas celebra-tions. He created the concept of spreading these carols to celebrate Christ’s birth, encouraging these en-ergetic, joyful songs to be sung so as to liven up the sombre Christmas celebrations of that day. In fact, from 1649 to 1660, the anti-royalist leader Lord Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas celebrations in England as he believed Christmas should be a serious holiday. Imagine that! Today, many carolling groups sing for charity in churches and neighbourhoods. Some historical ac-counts claim this is rooted in olden-day societies, where poor citizens would “sing for their supper” in ex-change for food and drink.
Another theory is that carollers travelled door-to-door because they were not originally allowed to perform in churches. A common legend says that Christmas carols were named after Carol Poles, a little English girl who supposedly went missing in London during the holiday season in the late 19th century. Peo-ple supposedly searched for her by going door-to-door, singing to declare their good intentions. Although it may be a nice story, it unfortunately has no factual basis.
Interesting facts about Christmas you never knew
900 years ago, the
first Christmas trees
were hung upside
down!
Father Christmas has two
addresses: Edinburgh and the
North Pole. Letters addressed
to ‘TOYLAND’ or ‘SNOWLAND’
go to Edinburgh, but letters
addressed to ‘THE NORTH
POLE’ have to be sent there
because there really is such a
place!
Since 1900, snow has only fallen in England three
times on Christmas day: 1938, 1976 and 2004!
The first Christmas card appeared
in 1843, designed by J. C. Horsley.
The world’s largest Christmas present is the Statue of
Liberty. The French gave it to the Americans in 1886. It is
46.5 metres high and weighs 225 tons!
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THE LION KING
In October, Forms 2 & 3 were treated to the glorious spectacle of musical theatre that was The Lion
King, one of West End’s most acclaimed and successful musicals. They were also given a pre-show
puppet demonstration, where they had the opportunity to learn how the show’s exquisite puppets
worked, have a feel of several masks and puppets, and watch an actor act out scenes from the
show using a variety of different puppets. It was a wonderful learning experience for pupils and staff
alike, and the show itself certainly exceeded everyone’s expectations!
PUPPETS & MASKS
PRE-SHOW DEMONSTRATION
We arrived at 12:45 for a little talk about The Lion King. James, the puppet supervisor, showed us how two
animal puppets worked, they were Timon and Zazu. After that he showed us what some of the masks were made of, such as the giraffe, Nala, Scar and Mufasa. We then had our packed lunch before going to find our seats and get seated for the show to begin!
Rachel Hill, F2
The Lion King is both heart-warming and moving. It is a family production about a family of lions who start to grow apart,
but then, during the show they come together as one. My favourite part of the show is when Mufasa, Simba’s father, gets pushed off the mountain by his brother Scar. I enjoyed watching this scene because you can see the dramatic expression on his face even if you are not right down the front.
It was even more amazing because it hap-pened in slow motion and there were lots of flashing colours going everywhere. Also, there were people at the sides of the theatre who played the African drums. You can see them pour their heart and soul into their music. One day, I would like to be as passionate about music as they are when they play the drums. I was also lucky enough to get an autograph from Zazu! Here are some pupils’ opinions from F2 Raleighs about The Lion King in one word.
Holly White: Spectacular Alex M.N.: “Lionriffic” Theo Thomas: Unbelievable Andreas Koureas: Fantastic Andrianna Josif: Extraordinary Harry Ourris: Fabulous Alex Spelman: Amazing Rachel Hill: Unreal