John  Williams is an American composer, conductor and pianist. In a career that has spanned seven decades, he has composed some of the most popular, recognisable and critically acclaimed film scores in cinema history. His compositions are often considered the epitome of orchestral film music and he is considered among the greatest composers of all time. Williams is most well-known for his collaborations with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas but he has worked with many diverse directors. He has a very distinct sound that mixes romanticism, impressionism and atonal music with complex orchestration.

One piece of music that we have learned about this term was the main theme of the film Home Alone. In the clip below, you can see half the class at a time using their chairs as drums to tap the rhythms which were displayed using music notation. This advanced rhythm play along includes sixteenth, eighth, quarter notes and rests.

Here is a link to the advanced rhythm play along:

This term we have been learning about film music and famous composers, focusing on the work of John Williams and Hans Zimmer.

Hans Zimmer could be classed as a ‘trailblazer’ of the film music world. He uses all sorts of techniques to create music and he has helped to shape the sound of today’s film, tv and games music.

He wrote a piece called ‘Earth’, especially for BBC Ten Pieces, which draws upon the soundworld he used for Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II – two of his most popular scores. The class listened to the ‘filmic’ style music,  performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus, and reflected on it by  creating art work based on their thoughts and feelings while listening.

Here are a few photos of some of the illustrations they created.

Tuesday 30^th January 2024 was a special day at Sound Primary School as we were visited by both the Junior and Senior Jarl Squads of 2024.

The Junior Jarl Squad, led by Guizer Jarl Skeppare Nokkvesson (aka Oran McCulloch), were in fine voice during their time with us, supported by a group of young local musicians who did a brilliant job. ‘Yes Sir, I can Boogie’ was definitely a highlight! The clip below shows all the pupils from p1 to p7 joining in with the Up Helly Aa song.

The Senior Jarl Squad, led by Guizer Jarl King Harald Olafsson (aka Richard Moar) were also pretty spectacular both in sight and sound. A fantastic line up of local musicians provided the music for the Up Helly Aa song and also their squad song which made us all want to get up and dance! Here is a clip of all the pupils from p1 to p7 joining in with the Up Helly Aa song. The Jarl commented how loud and enthusiastic our singing was. High praise indeed from a ‘King’!

As part of our learning journey through the history of music, P6 have learned about a Russian composer called Piotr Illyich Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky composed many pieces in his time and one of the most famous pieces is ‘The Nutcracker Suite’ which was written for the ballet in 1892.

The class learned a chair drumming routine to the Russian dance ‘Trepak’ and below is our first go at the routine. They did really well considering the composition’s tempo of ‘allegro’.

This term we have been learning about the history of music, particularly the development of classical music across Europe and the Western World. So far we have learned about three periods on our historical journey – Medieval and Renaissance, Baroque and Classical. We have listened to music from these eras and have discovered how music changed and evolved during that time. We have enjoyed listening to and appraising compositions by Beethoven, Mozart and Bach. We have also learned a little about these composers lives and how important music was to them from a very young age.

We were treated to a performance by the Shetland Youth Orchestra last week in the Sound Hall. The orchestra is made up of children from all over Shetland including both primary and secondary, and their musical talents are amazing!

We were introduced to all the different instrument families including brass, woodwind, strings and percussion. We listened to a mixture of music including classical, swing and even a theme tune or too. We particularly liked the Wallace and Grommit theme tune which they played as we were leaving the hall.

What a very enjoyable way to spend a Friday afternoon!