What exactly is dialogue? How is dialogue made? Ask your students to construct a brief dialogue between two people. What can they do to alter this dialogue so that one participant becomes a group of people? What are some examples of this type of dialogue in their every day lives? [call and response in pep rallies, church, etc.] Ask your students to imagine what it would be like if each person in the group had an individual response in this dialogue. Would we be able to understand all the responses simultaneously? In music, many different sounds (often called ‘voices’) can be processed simultaneously by the human ear. Because of this it’s possible to have a two part musical dialogue with many individual voices!
Try an activity!
Can we create a musical dialogue? Why not? All we need to create a musical dialogue is to get a sound “conversation” going. This means constructing something that sounds like a question and answer, or statement and reaction. First lead a brainstorming session with your students about ways to make a musical question that needs an answer, or a statement that needs a reaction. List some of these ways on the board. Next, ask your students to work in small groups to create either a question and answer or a statement and reaction. If your students are very efficient, have them also create the other choice so that it compliments their original. This is just one way to extend their musical conversation! Have a few of the groups perform their compositions for the class. Ask your student audience to evaluate the musical elements that seemed to work best for each group. Keep a list on the board or in student journals.
Listening for dialogue in Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3
Listen to the New York Philharmonic radio broadcast of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto #3 and again via recording if possible. Ask your students to listen for musical dialogue in this composition. The most obvious conversation is the one between the piano and the orchestra. What other dialogue do your students hear? Ask your students to list musical elements Beethoven uses to create dialogue in journals as they listen. How did the second activity help your students to better listen for question/answer and statement/reaction in music? Why do your students think it’s important to have dialogue in music, and especially a concerto?
