AS Music students study Mozart’s ‘Jupiter’ Symphony as their set work for the course and the project centred around this. They worked with composer, Gavin Wayte, violinist Gemma Bass and principal French horn player, Naomi Atherton, to create their own large-scale sonata form composition. Students started off in small groups, thinking up musical ideas to add to the composition. They then all came back together and decided the order of these ideas and which instruments should play them. The end result was a large graphic score which the group followed when playing for the final recording. This process linked back to Mozart’s symphonic structure, and so all the way through, students’ understanding of the set work was reinforced. 

 

Music teacher Mrs Shapey said, “The project was practical and fun, and I was delighted with the students’ enthusiasm and level of participation. The musicians who led the project were brilliant, creating a very positive atmosphere. This has certainly helped the students in their understanding of this classical piece of music.” The students thoroughly enjoyed playing their instruments and performing. Loreto student Anna Wood felt she had gained a great deal from the experience, “It was good working with other people in the class and coming up with our own ideas for the composition.”

 

The AS group have now been invited to the Bridgewater Hall at the end of January to hear the Manchester Camerata play Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony.