Seasonal Score Sport
Categories: Music Activities for schools, Vivaldi's Four Seasons Project
Five score-reading activities to set you a-thinking about the music of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.
1. Score-Reading Game
- Get into four teams:- Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
- Each team has a score of “their” concerto from The Four Seasons.
- Compete against each other and/or against the clock to find the following in your concerto.
- Make a note of the bar numbers when you find it, so your quizmaster can check later!
- I wonder what the prize will be for the fastest “finders”!
♦ At least eight repeated notes in the same part
♦ A trill
♦ A major or minor scale
♦ Tremolo or tremolo-like effect
♦ Triplets
♦ A duet or trio
♦ A pause
♦ Music in a minor key
♦ Music in triple or compound time
♦ A chromatic scale of six or more notes
♦ Two notes slurred together
♦ A pedal of six or more bars
♦ A dominant 7th chord
♦ A major arpeggio or broken chord
♦ Double stopping
♦ At least two beats of solo or monody
♦ A sequence
♦ A melody in thirds
♦ A figure in the continuo part
♦ A line of poetry
♦ The interval of some sort of 7th in consecutive notes
♦ A dotted rhythm
♦ Melody and accompaniment texture
♦ A C clef
♦ An Italian word meaning “everybody play”
♦ Two different tempo indications
♦ An editor’s suggestion *
* There may be none, depending upon the edition you’re using.
2. Which Movement…..?….
♦ ends with a chord of F minor
♦ has a general pause in the fifth bar
♦ ends with a 2 1/2 bar phrase repeated one octave lower
♦ has a descending scale in 3rds in bars 4 and 8
♦ begins with an anacrusis
♦ begins with a tonic and dominant pedal
♦ alternates between 4/4 and 3/8 time signatures
♦ has only quavers for the first eleven bars
♦ has a rhythmic ostinato all the way through
♦ has pizzicato
♦ alternates between Presto and Adagio
♦ is only 45 bars long
3. First Page Frills
- Find each of these musical thrills on any of the first pages of the four seasons.
♦ A sign which means ” have a rest now for the length of a crotchet”
♦ A time signature which means four crotchet beats in every bar
♦ A key signature of E major
♦ A sign which means “there are no notes in this bar”.
♦ A word meaning “winter” in a language other than English.
♦ The composer’s name.
♦ Numbers to help the keyboard player.
♦ A C7 chord.
♦ An editor’s suggestion.
♦ Music in F major.
♦ An augmented 2nd, notes played consecutively.
♦ Music repeated an octave lower.
♦ 9 E’s in a row.
♦ Music repeated at a different volume.
♦ A D7 chord.
♦ A diminished 7th chord.
♦ A phrase meaning “lively but not too fast”.
♦ A sign which means “play this note for a little longer than normal”.
♦ A 4-note bassline motif in two separate pieces which is the same except that it’s in a different key.
4. Error Spotting
- Spot the mistakes in the notation of this theme from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
- If you can print this page off, circle all mistakes, then copy out a correct version of the theme on the empty staves underneath.
- Where in the work is the theme from?
- The answers are here!
5. Red Theory Herrings
- Match these musical terms with their definitions.
- They’ll all be useful to you when you begin to study The Four Seasons in more depth.
- Be careful though – there are lots of red herrings.
- Think of musical terms which go with the red herring definitions.
- The answers to this one are here!
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