how do composers use musical cliches and conventions?
(1) Activities Watch an early silent film that uses music to reflect the action. Discuss the ways the music is used, eg to heighten the sense of excitement, to show anger or love, to suggest impending danger (listen for tremolo strings, particular melodic patterns, harmonies, especially the diminished seventh chord, rising sequences, a sudden change of dynamics, accented dissonances, etc). Identify three musical cliches from the film and ask pupils, in pairs, to create their own musical cliche based on one of those identified. Show the silent film again, this time with the sound turned off. Ask selected pupils to play their musical cliches at the appropriate points in the film. Discuss the success of the effects and how they were created. Outcomes identify and describe, or demonstrate, specific descriptive musical features create a musical cliche Objectives that music can be used to increase the dramatic effect of a film use notes and appropriate vocabulary to identify/describe specifi
