Compose an Eight Measure Chance Piece.
- Artistic Process
- Creating
Responding - Anchor Standard
- Cr1 - Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
Cr2 - Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
Cr3 - Refine and complete artistic work. - Grade Level
- 5-6
7-8
Accomplished
Advanced
Proficient
- Process Component
- Evaluate & Refine
Imagine
Plan & Make - Primary Strand
- General Music
- Additional Strand
- Composition/Theory
Harmonizing Instruments
Technology
Traditional/Emerging Ensemble
Procedure
• Teacher plays examples of chance music and explains why it is
chance music.
• Teacher shows pictures of Jackson Pollock’s art and compares the
process and product to chance music.
• Students create 2 written keys associating the numbers on a 12-sided die (virtual or actual). One key corresponds to the 12 pitches of the chromatic scale and another corresponding to 12 basic rhythmic notation symbols (e.g., quarter,
half, eighth, notes/rests, etc.).
• After completing the two keys, students take turns rolling the die to
establish the initial rhythmic figure. If the figure that comes up is a
sounded one, student rolls the die to establish the initial pitch.
• Students could enter composition into a notation software program.
• Students continue rolling until their eight measure chance piece is
completed.
Standards Code
MU:Cr1.1
Suggested Assessment
Does the chance piece have musical interest? Why or why not?
How could the piece be refined and/or extended to create musical interest?
Enduring Understanding
The creative ideas, concepts and feelings that influence musicians' work emerge from a variety of sources.
Essential Question
How musicians generate creative ideas?
Additional Instructional Ideas
This process could be further explored by creating an ABA form by using inversion,
retrograde, augmentation, etc., for the B section.
• Students suggest other ways to compose chance music: graph of a
city skyline (x axis = time, y axis = pitch); dart games; 12 tone row;
computer-generated random number sequence—with pitch and
rhythm assigned by a numeric value.