Song 9: The useful plough

[A] Learning about the music

Topics to consider for this song:

·  [Link] Chord inversions

·  [Link] Tied notes and syncopation

Chord inversions

Many pupils will understand that ‘normal’ chords require three notes: the root, 3rd and 5th. On the stave, this means either three adjacent lines, or three adjacent spaces. At a keyboard, this can be reduced to ‘play a note – miss a note – play a note – miss a note – play a note’.

This leads to the standard triad layout:

Whilst these triad patterns make a good harmonic effect, they can also be a limiting factor on texture if every chord is presented in the same way. There are many ways in which the composer can use chords with greater sophistication and subtle nuance. One way that is available when writing for the piano is to space out the notes more so that the three notes of the triad appear in different octaves.

A very useful technique is to change which of the three notes is put at the bottom of the chord. This can change the strength of the chord:

·  If the root is in the bass, the chord will have a strong, bold character; this is called root position

·  If the 3rd is in the bass, the chord will have a milder, more subtle character that lets the chord blend into the flow of the music more; this is called first inversion

·  If the 5th is in the bass, the chord will stand out more, but probably because it sounds unstable and in need of resolution; this called second inversion

Using a mix of these three different options is a first step towards making harmony have a profound expressive role in a composer’s style, and prevents this important element of music from being monochrome.

In ‘The useful plough’ Britten sets out to capture a tranquil mood in order to convey the ‘country life’; indeed, the song barely goes above p, and it ends ppp – just about as quiet as one can go. A subtle, but highly appropriate detail is the way the first chord is organised:

This is a tonic chord of D major: the chord as Ds, F#s and an A. However, rather than having the D in the bass to make a bold root position chord, Britten goes for the subtle option of F# in the bass and therefore a first inversion chord. There is also a fairly wide spacing to the chord, and the blend of notes is well chosen: 3 x D; 2 x F#; and only 1 x A.

More unusually, Britten uses exactly the same first inversion tonic chord for his very soft final bar. Nearly all pieces end with a root position tonic chord, but Britten realises that this faint first inversion chord works perfectly in this context – like a gentle scent of D major hanging in the rural air at the end of the day (or song).

One other aspect of mixing inversions that you might point out is that a composer who can use all three positions of chords gets more control over the bass line. If one only uses root positions, the bass line will be governed by the chord progression; by mixing them one can write a smooth stepwise (conjunct) bass line (which in turn sets up a potential for making a leap in the bass a feature at some point).

Throughout ‘The useful plough’ the bass line in the piano part is nearly always conjunct. In addition, most of the time the bass line moves in contrary motion to the top line in the piano texture, especially effective from b.17.

Britten uses a variety of chords, not all of them easy to analyse; however, you may like to point out examples of each of the chord positions for standard triads. For example:

·  b.72 : D major in root position

·  b.171 : A major in first inversion

·  b.93 : F# minor in second inversion

Tied notes and syncopation

The rhythm of this song is not complex (especially in the piano part), but there are a couple of features to the vocal line that are well worth a little focus.

It can be very instinctive to feel that the downbeat is the most important moment in a bar and that something significant therefore needs to happen on it. Britten shows more imagination here and the second note of the tune lasts for so long that it continues after the next barline; something that is achieved through use of the tie:

Here the long note helps to establish from the outset the relaxed and peaceful mood; the tie is a good idea because it prevents the syllable ‘-try’, which in natural speech is unstressed, from occurring on the strong downbeat.

It can be a very pleasing effect to have a long note held in the melody whilst the harmony underneath changes chord. The most obvious place for this to happen is at the downbeat, and this will require the use of a tie in the melody.

A few bars later a similar occurrence is extended a little by Britten with the result that the melody does not move on the beat for several chords. However, rather than this being achieved with just one very long note, Britten makes the melody change on a half beat, thereby emphasising it in a way that we refer to as ‘syncopation’:

[A] Composing projects

There are two composing projects for this song:

·  [Link] Melody and chord progression

·  [Link] Countryside music

Melody and chord progression

The piano accompaniment of ‘The useful plough’ is a purely chordal one. Some of the chords become quite complex and even dissonant; however, the opening four-chord pattern occurs several times in the piece:

Suggest to your pupils that they invent their own four-chord pattern to be the basis of a composition. Britten’s pattern actually makes the second and fourth of these chords the same; your pupils may like to borrow this idea, or they can invent a pattern with four unique chords.

Once they have decided on their chord progression, they can compose a melody to fit with it. Points to bear in mind are:

·  Play the chord progression twice before the melody starts; this forms a simple introduction and helps the listener to get used to the harmonic aspect of the piece

·  The chord progression can be played by piano or guitar; the melody can be for another instrument of the pupil’s choice

·  Most of the notes in the melody will belong to the chords at each given point

·  The rhythm of the melody should be more varied than the rhythm of the chords

·  The chord pattern could continue after the melody finishes

Here is an example:

Countryside music

‘The useful plough’ is a song all about life in the countryside. There are many wonderful pieces with a countryside element to which you might like to link this: a long list might be headed by Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Concertos.

Some of your pupils might like to try their hand at writing a piece of music about some aspect of rural life. This might be based on the seasons, aspects of the farming year, or the various birds or animals that one might find in the countryside.

In order to focus the project, once a pupil has chosen their topic tell them that it will be played to the class with three possible titles and that everyone will try to work out what title the composer chose. So if one pupil chooses ‘Spring’, you might suggest ‘Autumn’ and ‘Winter’ as alternative titles: the pupils will then need to consider carefully just what it is about spring that they are trying to capture in music, and what compositional choices (tempo, key, dynamic, etc.) are needed to make the music convey their title with conviction.