Exploring Extremes: Music To The Max!

Students review all four of the musical extremes featured on this CD through John Philip Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever March.

Students learn that composers use musical dynamics or extremes in volume to create music. By listening to Gustav Mahler’s Symphonies No. 2 and No. 5, students also experience the role extreme dynamics plays in expressing big emotions and ideas.

Students will learn about the third extreme composers consider—size—referring to both an instrument’s size and that of an orchestra. Students will also be introduced to the four families or sections of an orchestra. Students focus on Richard Strauss’ An Alpine Symphony.

Students are introduced to two pairs of musical extremes that a composer chooses from his toolbox to create music—tempo and pitch—through the music of Aram Khachaturian’s wild "Sabre Dance."

Students are introduced to the concept of musical extremes and opposites, and how a composer uses these special tools to make their music sound dramatic and powerful. Specifically, students will learn about tempo, pitch, size, and musical dynamics.