Classical Music for Secondary - Ten Pieces

No-prep independent worksheets for KS3 andThird/Fourth Level, S1-S3 to accompany the introductory and performance films

All the BBC Ten Pieces performance and introductory films are suitable for secondary age students, exploring a range of genres, elements of music and historical periods

No Place Like is about home and place. The song takes inspiration from words submitted by children, giving young people the opportunity to contribute to one of the Ten Pieces.

Bach's famous piece, originally for organ, is written in two sections: the Toccata, a free-form introduction and the second part - the Fugue - with complex overlapping repetitions of a main theme played alongside different counter-melodies.

This piece is a musical palindrome, and just like a palindrome word is spelt the same forwards as it is backwards, the music sounds the same when played forwards or backwards!

Find out how a sea journey between Dundee and Shetland inspired Sally Beamish's piece 'Seavaigers', written for orchestra with solo harp and fiddle.

One of Bernstein's most popular works is a re-imagining of Shakespeare's famous tragedy 'Romeo and Juliet' into a New York gang warfare setting.

'Carmen' is light opera with a serious ending about a beautiful girl who works in a factory. The 'Habanera' and the 'Toreador Song' from the opera are now two of the best known of all operatic arias.

Get to know two variations from Margaret Bond's 'Montgomery Variations', inspired by Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott that became a catalyst in the American civil rights movement.

Explore the busy, hopeful soundscape of spring created by the rhythms and dynamics of Lili Boulanger's D'un matin de printemps.

When Anna Clyne settled on the idea of creating a piece about crossing a stormy ocean, she picked up a paint brush instead of writing music notes on paper and created a graphic score, laying out how she wanted her piece to sound by using swirls and sweeps of dark, violent colours.

Originally composed in 1942 for a ballet called Rodeo, the Hoe-Down features two American square dance tunes and fuses evocative music and dance.

Delia Derbyshire launched a whole new world of music into everyone’s living rooms when swapped traditional musical instruments for electronic sounds in her arrangement of the theme for one of the most famous TV shows ever: Doctor Who.

Elgar's variations show how music can convey personality, an event, a memory or a moment in time.

Learn about Reena Esmail's 'Sun Sundar Sargam' which draws on themes from Hindustani classical music and creates dreamy a conversation between sitar and singers.

Packed with Gershwin’s own dazzling piano solos, Rhapsody in Blue has become one of the most famous orchestral pieces of all time.

Haydn's Concerto for Trumpet in E flat was a ground-breaking addition to the trumpet repertoire.

The inspirational visions and soaring melodies of 'O Euchari in leta via' and other plainsong made Hildegard of Bingen an exceptional character in Medieval Germany.

Explore Cassie Kinoshi's special commission for BBC Ten Pieces with words by poet Belinda Zhawi exploring themes of kindness.

Delve into the musical community and symphonic work of Marianne von Martinez, and the fast, lively tempo and melodies in the 1st movement of her 'Sinfonie' in C major.

‘O fortuna’ is one of the most famous choral pieces in the world. The piece gives us a chance to meet Fortuna, the Roman Goddess of Fortune (also worshipped in Greek mythology) and transports us back to medieval times.

In this concerto, the turntable player used the sounds created by the orchestra and manipulates them, creating a battle of sounds.

Steve Reich mixed together his classical training with his love of African drumming, jazz and pop music, and helped to invent a whole new form of music: minimalism.

Ravi Shankar shared his passion for the sound and traditions of Hindustani classical music with the whole world using the traditional instruments of a large Western orchestra.

Discover Laura Shigihara's 'Grasswalk' from the game Plants vs Zombies including the composer's methods and styles for writing music for video games.

Shostakovich's creativity was restricted by Stalin's regime but when Stalin died, the composer was able to develop his creative freedom and depicted Stalin in his 10th symphony.

The Lark Ascending was inspired by a poem of the same name by George Meredith, which tells the tale of a skylark singing an impossibly beautiful, almost heavenly, song.

'Dies Irae' and 'Tuba Mirum' are sections of a larger piece of religious music called 'Requiem'. Dies Irae is Latin for 'Day of Wrath' and it tells of a person coming before God to receive judgement at the end of their mortal life.

Ride of the Valkyries comes at the beginning of Act 2 of Wagner's epic opera Die Walküre, the second of four operas that make up Der Ring des Nibelungen. The opera cycle took 27 years to compose and takes over 15 hours to perform!

Explore the themes, rhythms and textures of Errollyn Wallen's piece 'Mighty River' which commemorates the abolition of slavery in the UK.

Learn about Judith Weir's inspiration for the magical sounds heard in her depiction of Shakespeare's The Tempest in her composition called 'Storm'.

Zimmer uses driving rhythms, hypnotic chord patterns and electronic samples to create unique and powerful soundtracks that have influenced a whole generation of musicians.