Music
“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything” – Plato
“The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you” – B.B. King
Purpose of study
Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity. A high-quality music education should engage and inspire pupils to develop a love of music and their talent as musicians, and so increase their self-confidence, creativity and sense of achievement. As pupils progress, they should develop a critical engagement with music, allowing them to compose, and to listen with discrimination to the best in the musical canon.
Aims
The national curriculum for music aims to ensure that all pupils:
- perform, listen to, review and evaluate music across a range of historical periods, genres, styles and traditions, including the works of the great composers and musicians
- learn to sing and to use their voices, to create and compose music on their own and with others, have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, use technology appropriately and have the opportunity to progress to the next level of musical excellence
- understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated, including through the interrelated dimensions: pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, structure and appropriate musical notations
At Merton Park we want all pupils to:
- have a sense of enjoyment whilst developing an interest in and love of music
- be inspired by composers, musicians and those in the wider music industry
- appreciate the diversity of musical genres across cultures and time periods and have an awareness of how past events and key figures have shaped these
- understand the key musical elements (dynamics, duration, tempo, pitch, timbre, texture and structure)
- be able to understand and use musical vocabulary
- create, compose, listen to and perform a variety of music
- be able to understand and explore how music is created, produced and communicated
- have the opportunity to learn an instrument in some depth
- recognise cross curricular links such as with history, geography, art and literature
- have an understanding of musical notation
- develop creativity and expression through music
- be mindful of the positive link between music and emotional well-being and mental health
- be able to link their own life experiences to music composed by others as well as themselves
- appreciate and evaluate music in terms of their musical understanding and personal preferences
- use technology and understand its role in music production
Curriculum documents
For more information on the substantive knowledge, please refer to our knowledge organisers on the year group pages.