Melody In Music (1952)

[Music] one day when we were practicing for a program we learned many things about melody in music each time we learn a new piece of music I ask one of the children to play The Melody but jean wanted to know why we played the melody first she felt sure she could play her part but of course the melody in any piece of music is so important that we should listen for it even when we play other parts so I asked Howard to play on the French horn The Melody of the piece we were going to [Music] practice [Music] then I asked Alice to play a Melody for us on the [Music] [Applause] [Applause] Chimes that was something like the melody Howard played wasn't it did you notice how many different notes there were in the melody [Music] [Applause] [Music] listen just four different notes most Melodies use more than four different notes but jean thought of another one that used only four [Music] [Applause] [Music] just four different notes what else goes into a Melody besides different notes well on the marimba we can see that a Melody can go up or it can come down and it can skip around a Melody can have [Music] words [Music] a Melody can be without [Music] words [Music] a Melody can sound high as on a [Music] flute or it can sound low as on a tuba a Melody can sound crisp and sharp or it can sound smooth and [Music] mellow did you know that different Melodies can start off with the same notes listen there are many different Melodies that start off with those [Music] notes [Music] did you notice that the first two notes were faster when Jim played Howard thought of still another tune that started with the same notes [Music] listen yes changing the Rhythm makes a Melody sound quite different listen to a simple eight notes scale now with the same notes but changing the [Music] Rhythm that's quite a different sounding Melody isn't it quite a few Melodies are built on simple scales Mary knows [Music] one the first two notes of the scale are each played three times before we come down and go up [Music] again now if we add a second part to that Melody we have a pretty French folk tune built on a scale the Melodies differ from each other in many ways some Melodies are quite [Music] short some Melodies are [Music] longer [Music] wasn't that beautiful but where do melodies come from well I ask Jim to make up a melody on his [Music] cornet it's fun to make up your own Melody and then you can make up variations change the melody to make it more [Music] interesting you can make all sorts of changes in the same Melody well there are many more things to learn about Melodies but we felt Jean should understand by now why we thought Melodies were so important and she did do you remember what we've learned Melodies use different notes that go up or come down or skip around a Melody may have [Music] words but many do not a Melody can sound [Music] high or it can sound low the notes can be crisp and [Music] sharp or they can be smooth and [Music] sustained different Melodies sometimes start with the same notes in different [Music] rhythms [Music] you can make up your own [Music] Melodies and you can have fun changing your Melody to make it sound more [Music] interesting the melody you make up doesn't have to be long or difficult some of the very finest Melodies are simple let's listen again to The Chimes this is a Melody from the piece we're going to rehearse [Music] that's a very simple Melody isn't it but one of the world's greatest composers Johannes brms used that melody in his great Symphony Number One in c minor listen as Howard plays again A Melody from this Symphony [Music] now that we all know the melody we can enjoy an arrangement of part of the symphony by Brams listen for the melody and how important it is in the [Music] music [Music] la [Music] oh