Jacob Lehman's General Music Class
Music in the Digital Frontier: Three Pieces for Band and Electronics by Steven Bryant
This unit, which covers three pieces written by contemporary composer Steven Bryant for band and electronics, is used in my general music class as part of a larger unit on composers and artists from Arkansas. The unit discusses three pieces: "Ecstatic Waters", "The Machine Awakes" and "Solace." All three pieces covered in the unit were written after 2009, the latter two written in 2012, making the material remarkably fresh for the students (and the teacher!).
The individual lessons cover various aspects of each piece such as melody, harmony, texture, form, and other expressive elements. Difficulty of the pieces is also discussed in the lessons. "The Machine Awakes" is written for a young band and electronics, while "Solace" was written for an upper-tier university. These lessons have numerous assessments and hands-on projects for students to stay engaged and for the teacher to track their classes' progress.
Links:
1. The Machine Awakes 2. Ecstatic Waters 3. Solace
Below is a score video of "Suite Dreams" by Steven Bryant, another (non-electronic) piece of his for band: (this piece uses several extended techniques used in the other pieces)
Here's the MP3 audio to "The Machine Awakes" by Steven Bryant (Lesson 1). A really fantastic piece that's a ton of fun for students and sounds really cool!