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I mun be married on SundaySecondary Resource Pack – by Richard Knight

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Overview 6

LearnIng abOut the muSIc To many people, not just children, learning about the theory and technicalities of music can seem a rather

arcane practice. It can be easy to think that music is for playing and singing, or for listening to, and that the academic stuff is optional and, frankly, only for geeks.

This, however, is to opt out of a much richer experience that music has to offer. If we understand something of how a particular song or piece is put together, why the composer has chosen certain patterns of notes, and what it is that makes the music have its intrinsic character, then we will be much more aware of the multi-dimensional aspects of the piece we are playing, singing or listening to, and its emotional impact on us will be greater.

It is possible to learn the theory of music as a separate, discrete discipline; most find that dull. Far better is to use the music that we know, the pieces that we are currently learning to play and sing, as the basis for our theoretical study. That way the theory that we are told is reinforced each subsequent time we play, sing or listen to the music.

The Friday Afternoons songs contain many ‘jumping off’ points for a teacher who is alive to this way of delivering the practical and the theoretical in tandem. The ‘Learning about the music’ pages of this resource contains some suggestions for such links covering melodic, rhythmic, harmonic, textural and structural topics. Feel free to invent more of your own!

Topics covered for ‘I mun be married on Sunday’ are: •Compoundtime•Perfect4ths•Usingharmonytounderlineclimax

cOmpOSIng prOjectS There is a widespread assumption that composition happens in some mystical way in which the primary

force is inspiration. Inspiration does play a part, but there is a huge amount of technique that is only learned through study and mental perspiration.

The aspiring composer can gain much from looking at the works of great composers and asking him, or herself: ‘how does that work?’. Britten’s music lends itself to this approach, because his is so clearly a creative approach to composition, and each of the Friday Afternoons songs provides excellent examples of specific techniques used skilfully and to good effect.

The‘Composingprojects’pagesofthisresourcehasanumberofprojectsthataredesignedtoincreasethe range of skills that a young composer has in their composer’s kit bag. Most of the suggested projects target some aspect of compositional technique. Exploring these ideas should broaden the reach of a young composer and give their work greater variety and conviction.

For each song, the final composing project is a more ‘inspiration’ based idea, using the song as a jumping off point for a more artistic kind of composition work. Inevitably, different pupils respond better to alternative approaches.

Composingprojectscoveredfor‘ImunbemarriedonSunday’are:•Bookendingapiece•Skippingpiece•Weddingmusic

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Secondary resources

Mar ried- on Sa tur- day,- mar ried- on Sa tur- day,- (etc.)

Born on Fri day,- born on Fri day,- (etc.)

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LearnIng abOut the muSIc Topics to consider for this song: •Compoundtime•Perfect4ths•Usingharmonytounderlineclimax

cOmpOund tIme Compoundtimecanbeaconfusingthingtolearnabout,butitsrhythmicfeelisaverynaturalone.Only

this one song in the Friday Afternoons set is in compound time; it provides a good opportunity to lift the lid on the world of 6/8.

Being married on a Sunday is relatively unusual. You might ask pupils who has recently attended a wedding, and on what day it occurred. Saturday is still the most popular day for such festivities. This is helpful, for consider saying over and over again ‘married on Saturday’. This very much calls for a 6/8 rhythm:

The following sequence of questions should lead pupils to understand what is happening here:

•Howmanysyllablesaretherein‘marriedonSaturday’?

•Areanyofthesyllablesgivenlongerduration,ordotheyallneedequallengthnotes?

•Whichsyllablesareemphasised,or‘onthebeat’?(Iftheyareunsure,tryclappingatthesametimeasreciting the phrase)

Atthispoint,itshouldbeapparentthatwehavesixequalnotes,butonlytwoneedtheemphasisofbeingon the beat.

You may now want to take the opportunity to look a little at the notational issues of this. The main thrust of this will be:

•Ofcourse,wedonothaveasymbolthatrepresentsa1/3ofabeat.

•Instead,wemakeabeatthatisthesumofthreequavers.

•Asacrotchetisworthtwoquavers,incompoundtimewewillneedacrotchetandahalfasthebeat.

•Thenotevalueforthisisthedottedcrotchet

The following phrase might help you to highlight the difference between subdividing the beat into two for simpletimeandintothreeforcompoundtime(asabove):

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Born on Fri day- morn ing,- born on Fri day- morn ing,- (etc.)

Rois

L

ter

L

- Dois

R

ter

R

- is

L

my

L

name;

R

Rois

R L

ter

L

- Dois

R

ter

R

- is

L

my

L

name,

R

A

etc.

lus ty- brute I am the same, I mun be mar ried- on Sun day.-

Skipping:

Alternatingthe‘BornonFriday’phrasewiththe‘marriedonSaturday’phrasewhilstmaintainingthesamepulse should demonstrate the two different ways of subdividing the beat:

•In2/4eachquaverisworthhalfabeat(andthebeatisacrotchet)

•In6/8eachquaverisworththirdofabeat(andthebeatisadottedcrotchet).

Onefurtherphrasethatmightbehelpfulatthispointisthefollowingone:

Here,asinthe‘MarriedonSaturday’phrase,therearesixsyllables,eachofthesamelength.However,the stress requires a beat divided into half to emphasise each alternate syllable, and therefore we need a metre of three beats of simple time, rather than two beats of compound time.

Oneofthereasonswhycompoundtime(and6/8inparticular)hassuchanaturalrhythmicfeelisthatthe beat can also be dividing into long plus short, which is notated as crotchet plus quaver. This is the rhythm of skipping: one of those things most children seem to take to very easily. In ‘I mun be married on Sunday’ the music of the verse is largely built from this rhythm pattern. You may feel that there is a benefit to letting pupils sing and skip at the same time for this phrase:

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Secondary resources

Who so- ev- er- shall come that way, I mun be mar ried- on Sun day.-

X X X X

X = right hand chord built from 4ths

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perfect 4thS Withtheexceptionofthemajor3rdeachtime‘Sunday’issung,thevocallineislargelystepwise

(conjunct).However,therearesomesignificantperfect4thstowardstheendoftheopeningrefrain:

4thsareastrong,muscularkindofleapinamelodicline,anditisusefultobeabletospotthemandsing them confidently. You might like to ask your pupils to identify other places in this song where the melodyleapsbya4th.Thenextplaceisatb.20on‘amthesame’.

Youmightalsoliketolinkthistolisteningto‘Jupiter’fromHolst’s The Planets Suite, listening out for thisthemeonthehornsthatfirstoccursearlyoninthemovement(b.29),andwhichisbuiltfromtwosuccessive4thsinthesamedirection:

Ratherthanplayingtwoleapsofa4thsuccessivelyaspartofamelody,Brittenchoosestoplaythemsimultaneously as chords in the following passage of the piano part which accompanies the ‘Roister Doister’lineatb.15:

Unlikethemorestandardkindoftriadicchordsthatarebuiltfrom3rds,chordsbuiltfrom4thssoundrather brittle and harsh, but they can be just the right effect at times. You may like to encourage your pupils to experiment with these chords. This kind of harmony is described as being quartal.

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uSIng harmOny tO underLIne cLImax There are many ways to make a climactic moment stand out in music. The simplest is to make it the

loudest moment in a piece; another is to use the highest note.

Themostsignificantmomentofthissongoccursveryneartheendinb.63.Itusesboththesetechniques:the music is marked both D and s F,andthesingerisgiventhehighestnoteofthesong(whichwasalsoheardinb.11),butthereissomethingmorethatmakesthedownbeatofb.63standout:thechord.

For most of the song, the piano part is quite simple in terms of harmony. For the opening refrain the piano justdoublesthemelodyinoctaves;thereaftertheaccompanimentislargelydiatonic(keepingtothenotesof F major) with some use of EH s where Britten wants to bring some modal G minor colour to the verses.

Attheendthough,heprovidesahugeharmonicsurprise,withthechordonthedownbeatofb.63.WithinF major, there were three obvious options available to Britten for harmonising the high F in the melody here:

•HecouldhavewrittenanFmajorchordinwhichthemelodicFwouldhavebeenthetonic

•HecouldhavewrittenaDminorchordinwhichthemelodicFwouldhavebeenthe3rd

•HecouldhavewrittenaBH majorchordinwhichthemelodicFwouldhavebeenthe5th

Instead he spreads his harmonic reach further and writes a DH major chord. It doesn’t make for a change of key – there are no other chords to confirm a modulation – it is just a very resourceful and highly effective chord to use at this point. The chord requires two accidentals in this context – DH andAH – these make the chord an example of ‘chromatic harmony’. Remember that ‘chromatic’ means ‘colourful’: this is certainly a vivid moment in the music.

Making a climax from just a loud dynamic and/or a high note, can be rather blatant, and also quite a shallowwayofachievingtheeffect.Usingaspecial,colourfulchord,reinforcestheclimaxinafarmoreprofound way.

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cOmpOSIng prOjectS There are three projects for this song: •Bookendingapiece•Skippingpiece•Weddingmusic

bOOkendIng a pIece The structure of ‘I mun be married on Sunday’ is interesting. There seems to be both verse and refrain

sections, but not in the usual verse–refrain–verse–refrain alternating pattern.

Instead, Britten presents the refrain first, followed by the four verses, with the refrain rounding off the song. Details are as follows:

1–3 Shortintroduction

4–12 Refrain

13–14 Shortlink

15–22 Verse1

23–24 Shortlink

25–32 Verse2

33–34 Shortlink

35–42 Verse3

43–44 Shortlink

45–52 Verse4

53–54 Shortlink

55–64 Refrain

65–66 Shortcodetta

This plan enables Britten to have the same music at the start and end of the song, rather like bookends attheendsofashelfofbooks.Choosingtodothiswiththerefrainofthesongisacleveridea,butonedoesn’t need words to achieve the same effect. Mendelssohn’s short Song without wordsinAmajorOp.19b,No.4(Moderato)doesasimilarthing.

Suggest to your pupils that they compose a short piece that has a sense of bookend at the start and end of the music. This could be done for any instrument.

In order to make the ‘bookend’ phrases at the start and end sound ‘bookendish’, they should be short, sturdy and end on the tonic in some way. The central section – the ‘shelf of books’ – should be rather longer and self-contained: in other words it will probably end with a perfect cadence.

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Hereisanexampleforpiano:

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Allegretto

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The Sun will shine on MondayRichard Knight

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SkIppIng pIece

Goodmusicforskippingtoisgoingtobein6/8:thetwobeatsofthebar(remember:thesewillbedotted crotchet beats) providing the ‘left-right’ pattern of all walking and marching, whilst the compound subdivision of the beat lends itself to the ‘long-short’ pattern that matches the rhythm of skipping as each foot touches the ground twice before changing foot.

Agoodskippingtunethereforewillhave:

•lotsofcrotchet-quaverrhythms

•somedottedcrotchetnotes(orcrotchetplusquaverrest)tocreateasenseofphrasesending

•occasionalpatternsofthreequaversinabeattopreventmonotonycreepingin

Hereisanexample:

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WeddIng muSIc Thecharacter(‘RoisterDoister’)ofthesongiseagertogetmarried(onSunday!).Someofyourpupils

mightlighttocomposesomemusicfortheoccasion.Possibleoptionsinclude:

•Excitedmusicrepresentinggettingreadybeforethewedding

•Grandmusicfortheentryofthebride

•Solemnmusicforthemiddleoftheservice

•Celebratorymusic(perhapswithchurchbells)forthemarriedcoupletowalkoutto

•Happybackgroundmusicforthereception

•Musicforeveryonetodancetointheevening