Functions in music

Music is not only for entertainment and for pleasure. There are lots of functions in music. The most important are:

• Commercial. Jingle. 

• Emotional expression. How deep is your love. Bee Gees 

• Symbolic. National Anthem. UK 

• Ceremonial. Wedding March. Lohengrin. R. Wagner. 

• Social identification. Good Vibrations. The Beach Boys.

Music genres: art, popular and traditional music

Art music (classical music). It´s a written musical tradition. It tends to be considered as an elitist expression.

• Symphony nº 5. L.V. Beethoven (also instrumental, orchestral, absolute).

Popular music. It is music that is accessible to the general public.

• Le freak. Chic (also vocal accompanied).

Traditional. It´s music learned through singing and listening. Traditional music is part of the traditions of a particular region.

• Morris dance (also instrumental).

Music genres: absolute, programme and theatre music.

Absolute music makes sense without accompanying words, images, drama, dance or other kinds of extra-musical ideas.

• String quartet nº 3, op. 76. Franz Joseph Haydn.
• Sonata in C K545. W. A. Mozart.

Programme music is descriptive music, it interprets an object, landscape or emotional experience.

• The Moldau. Bedrich Smetana.
• Italian Symphony. Felix Mendelssohn.
• Scenes from childhood. Robert Schumann.
• The planets. Mars. Gustav Holst.
• The carnival of the animals. The aquarium. Camille Saint-Saëns.

Theatre music includes a variety of subgenres designed to form part of a drammatic performance (opera, cabaret, ballet, film or television program).

• The magic flute. Opera. W.A. Mozart. 
• The rite of spring. Ballet. Igor Stravinsky.
• Cats. Musical. A. Lloyd Weber.
• North by Northwest. Opening titles. Film music. Bernard Herrmann.

Music genres: vocal & instrumental music

The term genre is used to identify particular categories of arts. Music can be divided into many genres according to a number of criteria such as instrumentation, musical contents and so on.


Instrumental music. Night train, Duke Ellington

• Orchestral music. Symphony Nº 4. London. Franz Joseph Haydn. 
• Chamber music. String quartet op 59, Nº 1. Razumovsky. Ludwig van Beethoven.

Vocal music. Firework. Katy Perry.

• A capella (without instrumental accompaniment). Star Wars.
• Accompanied (with instrumental accompaniment). Route 66. Manhattan Transfer.
• Choral. Performed by a choir. Slaves chorus. Nabucco. Verdi

«¡Despegamos!», the concert. First year class A, C.

Last Tuesday, the 28th of March all the first year students went to the Príncipe de Asturias auditorium. There, we enjoyed an amazing concert, ¡«Despegamos»!, that was performed by the OSPA. The conductor of the orchestra was Rosen Milanov. He conducted the orchestra very well. First, the conductor introduced the different instrumental groups and musical instruments and, after that, the performance started. It was very interesting, because they played music related to space like Moonlight by Claude Debussy or Blast Off by Daniel Dorff. In this piece Ana Pérez, student of the ESAD acted as narrator and told us that we were going to go to space. We heard the instruments imitating the sound made by the engines of the rocket that was supposed to take us to space. 

The orchestra also played some themes that everybody knew from the Star Wars soundtrack, like the Main titles, the Imperial March and Princess Leia´s theme, all of them composed by John Williams. At the end of the performance some players dressed up as the main characters of Star Wars. They performed one of the most popular scenes of Star Wars, when Luke Skywalker fights against Darth Vader, who says «Luke, I’m your father».

At the end, when we were leaving, a journalist asked Jorge questions about the concert and he said: the concert was awesome and very interesting, and we had a lot of fun. We enjoyed it a lot!

Alba Álvarez García, 1º ESO A
Cristina Álvarez Rodríguez, 1º ESO A
Jorge Carretero Pérez, 1º ESO C
Clara Inclán González, 1º ESO C

Blast off: the concert. First year class E

On Tuesday, the 28th of March we went to the Principe de Asturias Concert Hall. There we listened to some pieces of music played by the OSPA (Symphony orchestra  from Principdo de Asturias). The conductor was Rosen Milanov. During the concert  the musicians played some musical pieces related to space and the planets like Moonlight, by Claude Debussy and Blast Off by Daniel Dorff. In addition, they played some melodies of Star Wars such as Main titles, the Imperial March and Princess Leia's theme . It was very fun because some players dressed up like the main characters of the film. Then, we went back to the high school.

The concert was fun and great. We really liked it, we recommend it because it was very interesting and cool.

Paula Fernández Fernández

Javier  Menéndez Osendi

Álvaro Vijande Alonso