Stepney Park Primary School

When creating the graphic scores for this minute, students at Stepney Park Primary School first experimented with winding and meandering shapes and how best to translate them into a musical performance. They then moved on to looking at different shapes that the watery ripples might make. Obstacles such as boulders and fellow aquatic musicians such as shoals of small fish provided the final inspiration for the shapes of the graphic scores before all four were combined, collaborated on and performed.

Music and geography share some interesting and fruitful common points, which can be great conversation starters in a teaching scenario utilising both subjects, such as this. The physical nature of sound pairs well with an exploration of either the built or natural landscape, and shapes and textures from nature pair well with the use of graphic scores. See below for resources exploring the links between Geography and Music.

Natural water sources, such as seas and rivers, have inspired some of the western tradition’s most recognisable pieces of classical music. Two of the most famous are Strauss’s ‘The Blue Danube’ and Handel’s ‘Water Music’. See below for some more examples.