The 2019 Ten Pieces are here!
Looking for some inspiration for the new school year? Well, look no further. The new BBC Ten Pieces Trailblazers are designed to help challenge the way young people think about orchestral music and 2019’s list features composers that led the way in introducing new cultures and sonic delights to the orchestral world!
Each piece comes with a video, a whole host of six week lesson plans and multi-ability arrangements.
At Figurenotes HQ we have been busy creating some Figurenotes arrangements for a selection of the BBC Ten Pieces. These are now available to download in PDF format on the BBC Teach Website. Also, for you lucky Resource Base subscribers, you can download editable versions of these pieces and alter them using Figurenotes software.
We kicked things off this year with an arrangement of the Doctor Who Theme by Ron Grainer and Delia Derbyshire. One of the finest television theme tunes of all TIME (see what we did there?) and great fun to play! This song provides a great opportunity to experiment with digital sound effects. Why not check out the bank of sound effects available on the BBC website.
Next we have Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians. This is a great piece, perfect for group lessons as it consists of two bar phrases layered over each other. You can break it into manageable chunks and experiment with call and response.
Hungarian Dance No. 5 in G minor by Johannes Brahms is one of the more tricky Figurenotes arrangements but it is a very recognisable melody line with a more simplified bass part taken from the Tuba line.
This year’s commission does not disappoint. It is a truly majestic Hans Zimmer all over piece! The title Earth is very topical and you can connect loads of exciting Earth related resources in the classroom and beyond! We have been experimenting with using images of Earth to create graphic scores.
Get creative with these resources and more by visiting the Ten Pieces site and the Figurenotes Resource Base.