In order to develop better understanding of the tradition of abstract music, first study Document 1f  62kb. This is a unit of work designed to help Year 9 pupils explore the conventions of abstract musical thinking in contemporary classical music. It uses the game of chess as a starting point to explore a range of ways of organising musical ideas and sounds; but then branches out to explore how contemporary classical composers use abstract techniques to structure their ideas. As a support, it uses a resource from the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group – ‘Exchanging Notes’.

You can then either:

a) take an existing unit which is already close to the idea (perhaps a unit on cyclical musical forms: ostinato, ground bass, riffs), and adapt it to focus more clearly on:

• a wider range of starting points;
• specific compositional techniques with clearly defined expectations to challenge the pupils;
• providing some kind of steer towards a sense of communication without losing the abstract nature of the work;

or:

b) for a particular year group, devise your own version of SCAA’s Optional tests and tasks, Unit 2: Musical ideas.