Head of Music Mrs Jones set a remote learning ‘stretch and challenge’ task for one of our gifted musicians in Year 7, Alexander Taylor in 7R. In his email to Mrs Jones, Alexander said: “I have attached the music and recording of my finished piece inspired by Debussy. I have named it ‘Waves’ following the way in which Debussy named a lot of his piano pieces. Here’s why I have named it this; Since there are lots of broken chords used as harmony for the melody that repeat, they sound peaceful - like the smaller, more gentle waves that sometimes constantly are coming in to the shore - and this idea of them ‘constantly’ doing this or ‘repeatedly’ doing it is why I have chosen to repeat the notes used in the harmony for a few bars before changing. There are a couple of moments in the piece where I have had a sudden change in dynamic and pitch in the left or both hands. These moments illustrate how large and great waves can be, and sometimes how unexpected this is. I have tried to recreate some of the aspects of Debussy’s music, including using whole-tones and having a more experimental approach to composition.”

You can listen to the piece on our Twitter account at www.twitter.com/strsglos.