Student Guide

for

By Thomas Duffy

Guide by Adrienne Etienne

Learning Goals:

In participating in all of the following activities you will:

o Gain a better understanding of the melodic content of Snakes!

o Learn about abstract paintings

o Recognize artists’ ideas in their paintings

o Learn new terms such as aleatoric music, niente, and program music.

o Learn new techniques to use when practicing to prepare yourself for Snakes!

o Learn about Thomas Duffy, the composer, and the composition Snakes!

o Discover the various rhythmic patterns to this piece

o Apply through-composed form with artwork

o

Activity #1: Historical background and cultural context of Snakes!

Materials needed: pencil, markers (optional), worksheet, computer with internet access

Procedure: Answer the questions on this worksheet. You will need to use a computer with internet access. If you do not have it at home, come see Ms. Etienne and she will give you an alternate way to finish this assignment. The website which you should use is www.duffymusic.com. You will be using the various links on the left hand side of the page. All of the answers to these questions are located on this website. Good luck!

Name:

Worksheet for Snakes!

1. What instrument did Thomas Duffy play in college?

2. For which college is Duffy currently the director of bands?

3. What year was Snakes! published?

4. Which school was this piece commissioned by?

5. What kind of snakes are represented throughout this piece?

6. What is the term for a type of music which represents something?

7. If you have a question about Snakes! and why it was composed the way it was, how can you get in contact with Mr. Duffy?

8. Art Connection: Draw a picture of two snakes. These two snakes need to be very different from one another. For example, you can draw one big snake and one small one, or one mean snake and one nice snake. Do not worry if you are not an artist, the idea of this question is for you to see the differences between your two snakes.

Example:

VS.

Dark Snake Light Snake

Activity #2: Rhythm- Make your own rattlesnake shaker!

Materials needed: empty toilet paper roll or paper towel roll, bagged beans or peas, two small pieces of paper, scotch tape, pencil, and large piece of paper

Procedure: Create your own instrument! Take the empty roll and put a small piece of paper on one end and tape it shut. Make sure you tape it very well, so that there are no holes! Then put a handful of peas or beans in the roll and tape another small piece of paper at the other end of the roll. Again, double check that the ends of the roll are taped very well, so that the paper will not come off. Now try out your new rattlesnake shaker! This next step requires a lot of creativity. You will compose a four bar rhythmic pattern using quarter notes, eighth notes, half notes, whole notes, and all of the corresponding rests. Make sure that you have only four beats per bar and that you have composed four full bars.

Once you have completed your snake-inspired composition, you will play it for everyone in the class. Everyone will have a turn to play his/her own composition.

Questions to ask yourself:

§ Is your composition four bars long with four beats per bar?

§ Are the correct note values used?

§ Was your composition performed correctly?

Art Connection:

The percussion parts in this piece are based off of patterns. For instance, one of the patterns the maracas play is:

There are patterns in artwork as well. This work

is called “Trillium” by Hal Higdon. The patterns

are obvious in this work, with every other square

being painted a solid color. The same picture of

seagulls is painted every other square as well. The

colors are the only aspect of the painting which

change.

Activity #3: Melody

Materials needed: paper, pencil, your voice

Procedure: Snakes! is a piece which does not contain any specific melody. There are a number of melodic motives which are used and exchanged between instruments. There is abnormal melodic content in the vocal lines which are used. In one section of the piece, a majority of the band has:

You will be put in pairs. Your assignment is to write a vocal composition using names of various different kinds of snakes. These compositions can be either sung or spoken. Do not forget to use dynamics. Remember: One syllable per note. You and your partner will perform this composition for the class. Everyone will present his/her own composition. Your composition should be four bars long, with four beats per measure.

Questions to ask yourself:

§ Is your composition four bars long with four beats per bar?

§ Was your composition performed correctly?

§ Did your group stay on task?

§ Did you use appropriate snake names?

Art Connection: Snakes! is a twentieth-century work which uses some untraditional instruments. One of these instruments is the voice. In most band literature, the voice is not used. This is a painting by John Barton entitled “Adam and Eve in Despair”. This painting may look normal, but it is moderately abstract and instead of being painted on canvas, it is painted on masonite, which is like fiberboard. So there are nontraditional ways to paint paintings as well.

Activity #4: Harmony

Materials needed: your instrument, you

Procedure: You will be contributing to a class soundscape. The harmonies in Snakes! are never very well defined. They are not like most music, in that cadences can be heard. This piece is very unpredictable. Therefore, you will join with the rest of the class to make a soundscape. The main rule for this project is that you have to use your instrument in a nontraditional way. So, basically, you can use your instrument to make any sound, except for the sound you usually make. For example, you can click your keys, you can do valve murmurs, or glissandos. There are many different ways to produce a sound on your instrument. The number one rule is that you do not damage your instrument or any classroom materials. Be careful and have fun! Once you have discovered the sound you want to produce on your instrument, your director will point to each section to produce their sounds. She may add other sections in. Just listen to the sound that is being produced. It is unplanned and random, which is similar to the harmonies in this piece.

Questions to ask yourself:

§ Did you pay attention and follow the teacher’s instructions?

§ Did you think of a creative way to produce sound on your instrument?

Art Connection:

This is a piece by Victoria Arico entitled “Peace Flees From Chaos”. There are so many different colors and shapes and they are all intermingled. This artist still manages to maintain each individual shape and color, without making the painting fully abstract. The harmonies in the piece Snakes! are similar to this painting. There are a number of harmonies produced by each instrument group and they are all played at the same time. Somehow, Duffy keeps it so that each section still retains its individuality, but blends with the band well.

Activity #5: Form – you’re the artist!

Materials needed: Markers, crayons, colored pencils, paper, Snakes! recording

Procedure: Snakes! is not only dissimilar to other “classic” band pieces in that there is not just one clear melody or harmony, but also that the form is odd. This type of form is called through-composed. No sections of the piece are repeated. The main form of this piece is: Section 1 (mm 1-21), transition (mm 22-28), section 2 (mm 29-55), section 3 (mm 56-59), and coda (mm 60-65). Notice that section 1 never returns, nor does section 2 or any of the sections. That is what makes this piece through-composed.

On to the assignment: Divide your piece of paper into five sections by drawing a line to separate them. You will listen to each section of the piece of music. After one section is played, the music will stop and you will draw what you think the music represents in that particular section. The next section will then be played and you will draw a contrasting picture. You will continue this until you have heard the entire song. The product should be five different pictures of what you think the music represented.

Questions to ask yourself:

§ Did you listen to each listening excerpt?

§ Did you follow directions and have five separate boxes?

§ Did you draw contrasting pictures?

§ Do you have reasons as to why you drew the pictures the way you did?

Art Connection: You were the artist for this activity. Look at your artwork and decide if you have truly drawn what the music is representing. This is how artists paint. They decide what exactly they want to depict in the painting, then they paint their masterpiece. Congratulations, you have just created your own masterpiece!

Practice Idea #1

In Snakes!, Mr. Duffy uses the chromatic scale quite a bit. For example, measure 48 in the flute part.

In order to practice the fingering for all of these chromatic notes, play a one octave chromatic scale beginning on concert C. Go slowly at first, practicing with a metronome, and gradually increase the tempo so that you are playing up and down the chromatic scale quickly.

Practice Idea #2

Articulation is another thing to focus on. There are a lot of accents in this piece. For example, measure 12 in the trumpet part.

So practice playing the concert Bb Major scale accented. Play each note six times, as if playing eighth notes in 3/4 time. Play up the scale and down the scale, focusing on having a good tone and accenting the very beginning of each note. Do not play the entire note loudly, just the attack.

Practice Idea #3

Diminuendos are a large part of the effect of this piece. If they are not performed correctly, the piece would seem very bland and boring. One example is in the clarinet part at measure 22.

This is quite a large diminuendo: going from fortissimo to nothing. Therefore, pick any note from the c natural minor scale and play it for three measures and two beats; starting from fortissimo and diminuendoing slowing until nothing. Keep your ears open when playing this exercise. The fortissimo should not be insanely loud, but should be strong with a good tone. And watch out for your intonation as you become quieter. Your tone may want to go flat, so keep the pitch up by keeping your embouchure strong.

Practice Idea #4

The only diatonic scale that is somewhat used in this piece is the concert c natural minor scale. Practice this scale ascending and descending slowly and work up your speed.

• Aleatory music: Music in which the composer introduces the elements of chance or unpredictability with regard to either the composition or its performance (See measures 55-60). This type of music originated in the 18^th Century with dice music. Performers would roll the dice to see which measure they would play.

• Half-valve murmurs: Blowing in a brass instrument to make a normal tone, and slightly pressing down various valves rapidly to produce a murmuring sound.

• Niente: (Italian) nothing, as in diminuendo a niente, sound dying away to nothing

• Glissando: A rapid ascending or descending of the scale. On trombone, this is done by moving the slide inward or outward. (See measure 56)

• Programmatic Music: Compositions with extra musical content that directs the attention of the listener to a literary or pictoral association. For example, Snakes! was written about various different types of snakes. One of the goals of this piece is to produce a mental image of snakes when hearing it played.