1. Discuss the nature of dreams (they are often quite surreal or unreal).  

2. Make a list of what people might dream about – e.g. travel, people they know, flying, travelling somewhere, a school event.  

3. Divide into groups of 4 or 5 and write down 4 or 5 words that come to mind when thinking about dreams or the act of being in a ‘dreamlike’ state.  

   a. Allocate each person in the group a word from the list

   b. Experiment with sounds – vocal, percussive or environmental sounds - in order to find a sound that illustrates what your dream word might sound like.

   c. Explore making these sounds for the words in different orders until you find an order that sounds satisfying.  Consider what would be a good introductory sound and what would be a good finishing sound.

   d. Add different dynamics to your performance of the sounds.

   e. Devise a symbol for each sound and draw it in the order the sounds occur in the group composition

   f. Perform your dream sequence for the class.

   g. Discuss the mood or atmosphere the composition has created.

1. Analyse the lyrics from a ‘A Little Night Music’ annotating your observations on the text - in the same way you might analyse a poem in English. 

2. Read the text out loud. Read the lyrics out loud as a class (whilst trying to be oblivious of those around you) and notice that everyone will read the text with different pauses, variation in pitch, emphasis, etc.

3. Answer the following questions: 

   a. What is the structure of the text? Consider both the overall form (e.g: Verse 1, Verse 2, Verse 3 etc) and the smaller phrases within these structures.

   b. Are there any patterns or repetition in the text?

   • Does the text rhyme or have a rhyming scheme?

   • What images are explored? Are there any contrasting images/ideas/words?

   • What’s the overall mood/atmosphere? What meaning do you get from the text? Summarise this using one sentence.

   • Is there a pinnacle or climactic point to the text?

   • Are there any words that stand out/should be emphasised?

4. How does the text of the poem create an atmosphere or mood? 

5. How does it relate to dreams?

Extension Composition Activity

'MUST HAVES' for your composition:

Create the following:

• Introduction/verse and a coda/ending

• Vocal line with lyrics - taken from another song or created by students 

• Accompaniment on a piano, keyboard or guitar

• Melody and chords notated in Sibelius (Lead sheet)

The recording AVÉ have made has a beautiful front cover featuring a Mandala designed by visual artist Danielle Nash based on elements from each of the pieces on the recording.

1. Listen to ‘A Little Night Music’ and watch as the Mandala gradually comes to life in the video below.

2. The part of the Mandala that relates to ‘A Little Night Music’ is:

• the drawing of Saturn to illustrate ‘while new planets burn’

• a palm reader or fortune teller to illustrate the phrase ‘listen I will remind you of what you have never known’.

• ‘Remember me’ – a repeated phrase in the piece

Discuss how these images reinforce the idea of a dreaming state and being ‘out of this world’.

3. Take a song or a piece you know well and discuss with the students the images that occur to them while listening to the piece.

4. Encourage the students to draw one image that particularly appeals to them.

5. Choose one of each image to make a class Mandala by placing the images in a circular fashion on the board.

6. Compare your class Mandala to that of Danielle Nash.

In order to start composing sometimes you need an inspirational idea or be inspired by something someone else has done. At Letter D of ‘A Little Night Music’ Kevin Barker has borrowed an idea from the Opera Dido and Aeneas by Purcell: 

The chromatic melody in the soprano is taken from Dido’s Lament by Purcell. I’ve taken the notes from Purcell’s famous ground bass part, set them in a different rhythm, and transposed them up a few octaves to be the melody in my piece

The ground bass opening of "Dido's Lament" forms a chromatic stepwise descent over the interval of a perfect fourth, the chromatic fourth, (view music extract here)

1. Listen to Letter D of ‘A Little Night Music’. It is the section where all the singers sing ‘Remember me’

2. Trace the pattern that Katie (the top soprano part) sings with your hands. It descends while Katie is singing “re-mem-ber me’ twice.

3. See where it is the same and different from the Dido’s Lament pattern (it is higher and uses a different rhythm pattern). 

4. Draw the descending pattern Katie sings on a sheet of paper.

5. Use this pattern as the beginning of your own composition (you will need to use an instrument that can play sharps and flats – black notes on the piano).  You could use the following ideas:

• repeat it again

• repeat the same descending shape lower or higher on your instrument

• add other notes to it

• do the same pattern ascending 

6. Discuss with the class other stimuli or ideas or material you could use to start a composition.

7. Encourage those who are willing to play their composition for the class.  Discuss how they have used the suggested ideas in their composition and their effectiveness.

Kevin Barker uses a variety of compositional tools in this piece.

1. As a class identify and discuss the following compositional tools employed in ‘A Little Night Music’:

• Borrowing – Letter D - borrowing from Dido’s Lament

• Echoing– Letter C – ‘Late, late this night I’ll find you…where any page you turn… is first sung by the two upper parts and then echoed by the two lower parts 

• Solos – Letter A – Andrew, the Bass, sings a solo in his head voice while the other parts are singing a repeated pattern (ostinato); Letter E – the Alto (Fiona) sings a dreamy lyrical melody over the others singing an ostinato pattern.

• Changing Dynamics – Letter F – they start singing ‘I will be your dream’ softly and get gradually louder and then softer with each repetition. 

• Dissonance - is used to create a satisfying, interesting sound rather than an ‘ugly’, sound. Tree chords do not necessarily resolve. This is particularly obvious at the very end, when the word stars hangs in space and does not resolve (Bar 80); or in Bar 15 – where in the last phrase of the ‘I will be your dream’ section the melody Katie sings ends on the note B, while all the other singers are singing the notes of the F7 chord.  You would expect this to resolve to the note A but it does not, thereby holding the tension.

• The different voice qualities of the four singers are celebrated – sometimes in pairs sometimes as solos. 

• Repetition – the words that are repeated are the ones the composer wanted to emphasize – listen, I will be your dream

• Some of the words are extended or sustained on an m or n sound – for e.g. dream(m) listen(n) rather than extending the vowel sound.

• Changing from major to minor key in order to enhance the dreamlike state. The foundation is not solid – it is shifting

2. As a class choose three of these tools and explore what you could do with this short poem:

Dream softly in your comfy bed

And let the sleeping clear your head

Dream of riding a star so bright

That you have little need for light

3. Record your new version and identify the changes and tools you have used, as you listen one week later.

1. The piece starts with the word ‘Listen’ whispered, which is followed by lines of text from the third final stanza (not the first stanza as might be expected). These words are spoken by the four members of Avé in their own time very very softly. This sets the scene beautifully. Discuss how this adds to the ‘dream-like’ quality of the piece.
   

2. The melody that follows is sung by Andrew, the bass, in his head voice – which is not what you would expect! Kevin Barker says of this:

‘It's a unique, ethereal sound and I wanted to start with him doing that to immediately give an otherworldliness to the soundscape, and quickly bring the listener that unearthly feeling of dreams. The melody would be more natural in Katie's or Fiona's range, but if I'd written the phrase for them it wouldn't have "set the scene" as well as having it in Andrew's special voice.’

How do you feel this ‘sets the scene’? 

3. In this work Kevin uses the Curlew sign which was devised by the composer Benjamin Britten (who wrote a lot of choral work). It is placed over a note or a rest, not so much as a pause, but as a place of resynchronisation. The note or rest under the Curlew sign is designed to be held only until all performers have caught up, then all move together onto the next section. 

Try to identify where this is happening (at the end of the phrases at the beginning where they are whispering different lines in their own time).  

4. Devise a composition that has a surprise!

Listen to the whole work and try to identify the different sections using these descriptions

Introduction - Begins with the whispered word ‘Listen’ over which the words of the final stanza are whispered by the singers, one after the other, in their own time very softly. The words use lots of sibilants – geese, ghosts, sleepless which further helps to create atmosphere. It draws the listener in and sets the scene.

Letter A - The top three parts sing the word ‘listen’ as an ostinato over which Andrew, the bass, (in his head voice) sings the beautiful melody based on the beginning of the poem.

Letter B – The phrase ‘I will be your dream’ is shared amongst the parts and repeated for emphasis. The melody is lilting – a kind of lullaby. This section ends with the phrase ‘a ravishing latecomer underneath your handsome skin’ sung canonically.

Letter C - The thoughts are shared between the two top parts and the two bottom parts gradually getting louder - all coming together on the phrase ’will have lost its meaning’ at ff (very loud)

Letter D – ‘Remember me’ is repeated and sung antiphonally by all parts as a form of emphasis and references Dido’s Lament. It ends sharing the lyrical phrase ‘music melts you to understanding’

Letter E – An ostinato (sl-eep, sl-eep) is sung by the soprano, tenor and bass parts illustrating a sense of solidarity. Over this ostinato the alto (Fiona) sings a lyrical melody that has a dreamlike quality or sense.

Letter F – the phrase ‘I will be your dream’ is repeated, referencing the earlier section of the music (Letter B slightly altered). This repeated melody gives a sense of how internal memory binds the piece together.  This section ends in rhythmic unison.

Letter G - the word ‘silence’ is repeated – with spaces in between - this indicates a sense of closure, over which Katie sings a lyrical melody. This illustrates returning to the original state and that the dream is fading.

Letter H – the word silence is shared getting softer, as if they are fading away. The piece finishes in a breathy, almost spoken, manner on the phrase ‘extends the stars’. It does not resolve – so hangs suspended.... like a star that keeps twinkling.

Discuss with the students the effect of these different techniques and tools both the composer and the singers have used to create a mood or atmosphere.