John Williams – Home Alone Rhythm Play Along

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:

 

Film Music and Famous Composers

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.

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