CMP Teaching Plan

Emily Chiesa

Bugs
David Shaffer
C L Barnhouse Company – 2.5/3:50

Broad Description
Bugs is a multimovement work that introduces young musicians to different styles of music in a fun way. It has four
movements, each introduced by a poem.

Composer Biography
David Shaffer was born in Columbus, Ohio on September 10th, 1953 and is still alive today.
He attended Grove City High School, in Grove City, Ohio. He has a bachelor’s degree from
Ohio State and a Master of Music Degree from Miami University in Ohio. He has taught in
many cities in Ohio including Hamilton, Northridge and Wyoming. He was associated with
the Miami University Marching Band for 30 years in various positions. He was a graduate
assistant director (1978-80), assistant director (1980-97), and director (1997-2009). While
with the band, it performed for seven regional bands of America contests. As a composer,
Shaffer has over 400 compositions and arrangements in print. His compositions are known
all over the world and some of them have even been placed on contest required performance lists in the United States,
Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia. He also has been the recipient of the ASCAP Standard Award in Music Composition for
24 years. Shaffer currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts. He is in demand as a conductor for honor bands, new music
reading clinics, music festivals, and music education seminars.
Background Information
Bugs was a commissioned work for Emerson J Dillon Middle School 6th,7th and 8th grade select band in 2006. The school is in
Phoenix, New York and was under the direction of David Frateschi, James C. DeMaour, Kim A. Gould. It is a piece with four
movements. Each movement represents a different bug, Fireflies, Daddy Long Legs, Butterflies and March of the Ants. Before
each movement is performed, a short poem is read as an introduction.

Elements of Music
Measure Meter Form Melody Rhythm Harmony Timbre Texture Expression
 and
Tempo
4:4, F Major Fireflies
Quarter dancing
1 Mvt 1
=132 through the
night sky
Glissando
3 Starting Beat 4
(Trombones)
Flutes Light and Lightly Dynamic
Bouncy Scored, =Forte
only Flutes, Staccato
5-9
Altos, Articulation
Percussion Phrase lasts
4 Measures
Bass CL, BS, TB Heavy and
and Timpani dark
9 Call
all have
downbeats
TS, HN, BONE, Light with
BARI all weight
9 Response
respond to behind the
downbeats notes
11 FL, OB, CL
AS
Counterrhythm
11 with eighth
notes followed
by quarter
FL New MF
15
Melody
15 Brass Unison

2
 Rhythm
Subito Piano
16
for Brass
WW pp
17
Melody
WW Brass
24
Melody counterline
Flutes
31
Alone
4:4, Brass and Bb Major Light Mp with
32 Quarter Mvt 2 Cls Dance like decrescendo
=120 Quality
AS gets Bb, G#
34
melody
Brass Moving Dark Full Brass Forte, with
37
Line Almost accents
43 Accelerando
Quarter WW
44
=144 Melody
WW pass Falling eighth Accelerando
50
around note line
Brass Quarter notes WW trills Dark F
53 Leads into with accents
54
Quarter
54
=168
AS Melody Text
Painting
56
Spider
Crawling
Bone/TS
60
Glissando

3
 3:4, Prelude Safely P with
61 Quarter Mvt 3 Scored crescendo f
=112
63 Ritardando
Vibes Half notes and Rainstick and Beautiful Thinly A Tempo
65 quarter notes triangle and textured
Flowing
FL Melody AS Singlike Forte
67 Countermelody quality,
warm
Eighth notes CL
70
mostly Countermelody
Chorale Everyone is Mp with
Style in, Brass crescendo
75 enters for
first time in
awhile
Countermelody
78-84 Passed through
WW
79 Tpt
Tpt
89
Melody
Cl Carry
93
Melody
97 FL Melody
Chorale Warm, Molto Rit
101 Dark,
Flowing
102 Fermata
103-104 WW Only Fermata
105 Cut time, Mvt 4: March Quarter notes Brass and low

4
 Half note WW give pulse
=92
107 CL Melody Light
109 FL Melody Light
Flowing
115
WW
Call and Brass
123
Response
WW
129
Flowing
Call and Brass
133
Response
136 Fermata
Half Note Quarters Brass Pulse Light,
137
=152 Dark
FL, OB, Cl,
141
AS Melody
147 Grand Pause
Half Note Unison Rhythm Big, Dark FF
148 Chorale
=180 sound

The Heart Statement

The heart of Bugs is the way the composer used text painting of each individual movement that contrasts and allows for each
section to trade off importance while creating a fun listening environment for musicians and audiences alike.

Introducing the Piece

Affective Outcome:

5
1. Students will discuss and assess the composer’s technique choices for each bug and determine whether they are effective to
an audience.
2. Students will develop specific vocabulary to describe compositional techniques and their effect on listeners.

Strategies
Outcome #2:
Visual Strategy: Students will create posters for the new compositional techniques we learn. The poster will be hung up
around the classroom so the students have a consistent reminder of them.
Aural Strategy: Students will perform parts of their music in small groups. Each performance will be recorded. The other
students not playing will be audience members. After each performance, the audience will discuss how the music made them
feel and what they thought of. Then we will listen to the performance and the performers can provide feedback on their
performance. The parts of the music played will have compositional techniques we have discussed through vocabulary. The
goal is to see if an audience thinks they are played affectively.

Assessment
Paper and Pencil Test: Taking compositional techniques we have learned and applying them to new pieces of music. Students
will be given excerpts from pieces of music they have not seen and will be given the list of compositional terms we have
learned and have to write which term is being used in the excerpts.

Skill Outcome:
1. Students will execute different styles of articulation.
2. Students will compose a piece based on creating an image of a bug.

Strategies
Outcome #1:
Aural Strategy: We will listen to different types of music as a class, listening for the ways in which the articulation is diffe rent.
Then once we have heard an articulation, we will try to create it.
Kinestic Strategy: Students will have input on creating an action for each new articulation we learn so that they will remember
that articulation. The action will not be while they are playing.

Assessment

6
Performance: After learning about different styles of articulation, students will demonstrate their understanding of the
differences by performing different excerpts of their music.

Rubric:
Advanced Proficient Developing No Evidence
Staccato Student performed Student performed Student performed Student could not
articulation correctly articulation correctly articulation correctly perform articulation
all of the time. most of the time. only some of the time. correctly.
Legato Student performed Student performed Student performed Student could not
articulation correctly articulation correctly articulation correctly perform articulation
all of the time. most of the time. only some of the time. correctly.
Marcato Student performed Student performed Student performed Student could not
articulation correctly articulation correctly articulation correctly perform articulation
all of the time. most of the time. only some of the time. correctly.
Tenuto Student performed Student performed Student performed Student could not
articulation correctly articulation correctly articulation correctly perform articulation
all of the time. most of the time. only some of the time. correctly.

Knowledge Outcome:
1. Students will describe the basis form of a symphony.
2. Students will describe characteristic styles of each movement of the piece.

Strategies
Outcome #2:
Kinestic Strategy: Students will break into groups and come up with an action of some type that they can share with t he rest of
the class to describe each movement of the piece.
Visual Strategy: Students will create a scene for each movement of the piece. It cannot be a picture of just the bug the
movement represents but has to have the bug doing something that they feel the music describes.

Assessment

7
Journal Prompt: Describe the ways in which the first movement of bugs is different from the second in terms of style. Use at
least three of the following music terms in your answer
Legato, Staccato, Phrase, Dynamics, Marcato, Tempo, Rhythm

Recommended Recordings

References

Works for Winds

Arabesque
Celestial Legend (2004)
Cermony, Chant and Ritual
Cimarron Trail
Costa del Sol (2009)
Dominion of the Sky (2000)
Fire Dance (2001)
Flying Tigers
Jingle Jazz
Kitchen Can Can
Now the Winter’s Come to Stay
Purple Heart
Rhythm X
Sax Attack!
Triple Treat
Voltage (2011)
Witches Brew

Glossary of Terms

8
Sang through, studied, and marked parts (check off as completed)

Piccolo x Cornets/Trumpets 1st Violins

x Flutes x Horns 2nd Violins
x Oboes x Trombones Violas
English Horn x Euphoniums Celli
Bassoons x Tubas String Bass
Eb Clarinet Harp
x Clarinets x Timpani
Alto Clarinets x Snare Drum Sopranos
x Bass Clarinets x Mallet Percussion Altos
Contra Bass/Alto Clarinet x Remaining Percussion Tenors
x Saxophones Piano Basses