For this final workshop in music, we delved more deeply into the concepts of music by exploring a variety of music pieces from different genres. We first started with a selection from the "Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Säens, specifically The Swan. Each song from the Carnival of the Animals represents the musical quality of animals and includes humorous and graceful representations of animals such as turtles, kangaroos, elephants, and so forth. In XIII: Le cygne (The Swan), we listened for all five concepts of music and discussed them with increasingly complex vocabulary and terms. The song was played in arpeggio, which meant that the chords were broken up and played individually in sequence. I enjoyed imagining what interpretations could be made from that, and came up with a visual of the ripples of waves emanating from just under the swan's wings as it glided past. In the future, I would encourage students to come up with as vivid of imagery as they could, and I wouldn't be surprised if they could produce interpretations I hadn't even thought about, as long as the music is quality! Another aspect of the song that was memorable in discussion and reflection was the duration and quality of notes - the cello was played in legato, characterized by smooth and connected notes. This gave the piece an overall smooth quality and represented the elongated graceful motions of the swan quite well. Carnival of the Animals would be a great resource in the future to use with students as the pieces would appeal to the interest of the children while containing excellent examples and contrasting styles of the different concepts of music. They are also readily available off YouTube.
We then listened to "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edward Grieg, one of the most recognizable and iconic pieces of our generation. We analyzed the structure of the piece (8 repeating bars throughout), its tone color (more and more layers added with different instruments fading in and out) and dynamics (crescendo from low to high volume). While covering each of these different concepts, interpretations could be made more precisely and easily of this powerful piece.
We also briefly looked at the Ice Dance from the Edward Scissorhands movie. While analyzing the piece, the adjectives I came up to describe it were melancholy, enchanting and whimsical. I would like to engage my future students in coming up with words to describe pieces they hear, albeit using appropriate vocabulary level!
Finally, we looked at how music can be linked to other KLAs. It wasn't too difficult to link English and HSIE since those can both be very interrelated to musical strands via lyrics, culture and historical references. For linkage to science, my group came up with the notion that the basis of all music is vibration of air via different frequencies and wavelengths. Many experiments can be performed to investigate musical sounds and students could even construct their own instruments.
This music worksop greatly enhanced my vision into how to approach primary age students with the strands of music. I hope to be able to use some of the activities and resources we worked with in this workshop in the future.
Resources
Wikipedia. The carnival of the animals. Accessed 10 November 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carnival_of_the_Animals
YouTube. The Swan (Carnival of the Animals). Accessed 10 November 2013 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_niWfQEGvk
We then listened to "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edward Grieg, one of the most recognizable and iconic pieces of our generation. We analyzed the structure of the piece (8 repeating bars throughout), its tone color (more and more layers added with different instruments fading in and out) and dynamics (crescendo from low to high volume). While covering each of these different concepts, interpretations could be made more precisely and easily of this powerful piece.
We also briefly looked at the Ice Dance from the Edward Scissorhands movie. While analyzing the piece, the adjectives I came up to describe it were melancholy, enchanting and whimsical. I would like to engage my future students in coming up with words to describe pieces they hear, albeit using appropriate vocabulary level!
Finally, we looked at how music can be linked to other KLAs. It wasn't too difficult to link English and HSIE since those can both be very interrelated to musical strands via lyrics, culture and historical references. For linkage to science, my group came up with the notion that the basis of all music is vibration of air via different frequencies and wavelengths. Many experiments can be performed to investigate musical sounds and students could even construct their own instruments.
This music worksop greatly enhanced my vision into how to approach primary age students with the strands of music. I hope to be able to use some of the activities and resources we worked with in this workshop in the future.
Resources
Wikipedia. The carnival of the animals. Accessed 10 November 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carnival_of_the_Animals
YouTube. The Swan (Carnival of the Animals). Accessed 10 November 2013 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_niWfQEGvk
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