Educational Focus

Students learn how a young composer, Kelly-Marie Murphy, approached her first orchestral composition, From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat, and then respond to the music itself using a "See–Hear–Feel–Why–How?" protocol. They learn about specific cultural influences from the music of North American first peoples and listen for its use in the music.

Materials

Flash asset: The Senses and the Music (student copies)
Audio assets: Excerpts I – VI from From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat by Kelly-Marie Murphy
Text asset: Kelly-Marie Murphy: From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat (student copies)

Lesson Map

I. Listen and Respond

• Write on the board: Kelly-Marie Murphy, From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat
• Share the following information:

Some of the loudest, fastest music ever written can be heard in this work. In a pre-concert talk…Murphy announced that this was her first orchestral composition. This being so, it "had all the enthusiasm of being the first of its kind. It was really exciting for me to discover what sounds the orchestra can make." Murphy also related that before embarking on the work, conductor Bram well Tovey had "stressed over and over, ‘Please do not overuse the percussion.' But me being who I am, I came back a year later with a piece called From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat" which inevitably had lots and lots of percussion. "Fortunately it did not damage my career," she quipped. (from Murphy: From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat by Robert Markow)

• Ask: Why would a young composer be likely to use lots and lots of percussion?
• Distribute student copies of the flash asset The Senses and the Music.
• Have students listen several times to the short excerpts and note their responses to the music.
• Teacher tip: Encourage students to record their first impressions, and what it was in the music that communicated those thoughts, feelings and ideas. All ideas should be accepted when students can support their answers with specific reference to something in the music.
• Compare responses with a partner, then with the whole class.
• Discuss with the class how different listeners experience music differently. Some students may have a visualization they could share about the music.

II. Finding Out About the Music

• Distribute student copies of the text asset: Kelly-Marie Murphy: From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat hellip;
• Have students read with a partner: partner A reads a sentence and partner B paraphrases the sense ("I heard that…"). Take turns reading and paraphrasing until the reading is complete.
• Partners compare information from the reading to their own responses on The Senses and the Music sheet.

III. Identifying Cultural Influences

• Listen to the entire composition at the NACmusicbox.ca identifying the influences of First Peoples music:
  • Frequent use of a reiterated pitch, often at the end of the song where the tonal centre (usually the lowest note of the melody) will be reiterated.
  • Flute solo reminiscent of the melodies played on the native flute.
  • Flute characteristics include glides, phrases often ending on the lowest pitch, trills, birdsong-like gestures.
  • Rattle (shaker): This percussion instrument which intrudes on the flute solo from time to time is the most common percussive instrument used by the First Peoples.
• Help students to notice that the First Peoples influence is strongest at the beginning and end of the composition, and that it is more muted by other musical influences in the middle.

IV. Reflect

• Reflect in discussion or in writing using the following prompt: What have you learned about Kelly-Marie Murphy's creative process? How did she incorporate cultural influences from a North American First People in her music? (She was excited by a story, or an image in a story, and the opportunity to write for an orchestra for the first time.)

V. Extend

• Conduct online research on ‘external duct flute', an instrument unique to North America. Do a YouTube search for performances by Timothy Archambault and Mary Youngblood, and visit www.native-drums.ca.

Kelly-Marie Murphy: From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat

KELLY-MARIE MURPHY

Born in Sardinia, Italy, September 4, 1964; now living in Ottawa

Many people wonder just how a composer sets about writing a piece of music – creating something out of nothing, so to speak. In From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat, Kelly-Marie Murphy attempts to describe this process in sound. "Since pulse is a fundamental element of music and life, it seemed plausible to illustrate the idea of energy and catalyst with the drum," write the composer.

From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat was commissioned by the CBC for the Winnipeg Symphony and was premiered at the DuMaurier Festival in January, 1996 with Bramwell Tovey conducting. Of this twelve-minute, one-movement work, the composer has written the following:

"During the early stages of work on the piece, I was reading a Zuni legend called ‘The Four Flutes.' This legend is about how the people wished for new music, but didn't know how to make their wishes become reality. They consulted the elders at the Cave of the Rainbow and were shown music and dancing that began with a drum-beat so loud it shook the cave. For me, this described the creative process I was entering into, and also the physics of bringing energy and substance to something which had been inert. It is not gentle or easy, and it requires a formidable catalyst to move from the desire to create to the act of creation; to make the abstract thought become a solid and tangible sound. Since pulse is a fundamental element of music and life, it seemed plausible to illustrate the idea of energy and catalyst with the drum.

"There are five points where soloists serve to focus the musical attention. Each achieves a different emotional effect. The first is an unaccompanied flute solo, which takes on the character of a soliloquy. The second is a subdued oboe solo, which is the delayed answer to the flute. The third is a solo for the drums, which builds the intensity and energy, and leads the orchestra to the presentation of the main theme. After the loudest moment in the piece, the cello emerges alone to play the fourth solo. This expands, one instrument at a time, to become a string quartet, then leads to the unison tutti presentation of the slow theme. The fifth solo is a return of the flute to end the piece."

The Senses and the Music

Excerpt I from From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat (0:01:13)

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This first excerpt from Murphy’s From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat introduces the excitement and energy of the piece with the timpani and brass, followed by woodwinds.

Excerpt II from From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat (0:01:51)

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Excerpt II of From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat features a solo, unaccompanied flute, whose soliloquy is interrupted from time to time with punctuation from the timpani.

Excerpt III from From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat (0:00:29)

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In Excerpt III of From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat, a subdued oboe is heard.

Excerpt IV from From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat (0:01:41)

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The brass instruments introduce From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat’s Excerpt IV, joined quickly by the timpani, other percussion instruments and voices of the musicians shouting, with all the woodwinds joining as the excitement builds.

Excerpt V from From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat (0:00:46)

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A chime begins Excerpt V of From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat, then the cello emerges alone to play a slow, haunting solo.

Excerpt VI from From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat (0:01:59)

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In this final excerpt of From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat, the orchestra plays loud, fast, crashing music that builds to a climax, then suddenly a solo flute returns, accompanied by some interspersed rattle shaking, and quietly ends the piece.

Credits and Copyright

• Text asset: Learning Activity #1: Influences from the North
  Copyright: NAC
• Text asset: Kelly-Marie Murphy, From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat
  Copyright: Robert Markow
• Flash asset: The Senses and the Music Chart
  Connexionarts
• Audio asset: Excerpt I from From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat
  1995, Kelly-Marie Murphy
• Audio asset: Excerpt II from From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat
  1995, Kelly-Marie Murphy
• Audio asset: Excerpt III from From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat
  1995, Kelly-Marie Murphy
• Audio asset: Excerpt IV from From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat
  1995, Kelly-Marie Murphy
• Audio asset: Excerpt V from From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat
  1995, Kelly-Marie Murphy
• Audio asset: Excerpt VI from From the Drum Comes a Thundering Beat
  1995, Kelly-Marie Murphy