Lesson Plan for The Moldau by Bedrich Smetana Standards Addressed: Standard 3 Theory of Music 3. Analyze vocal and instrumental examples 4. Identify and aurally recognize melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic patterns Standard 4 Aesthetic Valuation of Music 2. Comprehend and respect the musical values of others considering cultural context as an element of musical evaluation and meaning Performance Indicators: Students Will: Use appropriate terms to reflect a working knowledge of the musical elements Through listening, connect clips of music to scenes and stories Objectives: To encourage active listening in preparation for the Discovery Concert To connect music to nature that students see every day Materials: Method of playing YouTube clips Sights and Scenes Along Boulder Creek Handout Listening Repertoire: Clips from The Moldau by Bedrich Smetana Vocabulary: Dynamics: degrees of loudness and softness; common markings are the Italian words piano (soft), forte (loud), and crescendo (gradually increasing in volume from soft to loud) Instrumentation: The act of arranging a piece of music for an orchestra and assigning parts to the different musical instruments Rhythm: The arrangement of the relative durations of and accents on the notes of a melody Tempo: Timing or speed of the music Procedures: Discuss with students that some music is written as descriptive music. It paints a picture. Explain that Smetana wrote music that he felt described a river in his home country. Discuss the Boulder Creek (see Wikipedia article below), and discuss what might be seen when traveling down a river. You can hand out the picture of the river and have students draw or write what they think they would find along Boulder Creek. Hand out the Draw What you Hear handout and play the following four clips from the YouTube video.

o Springs: 0:00-0:14 o Fox hunt: 3:27-3:41 o Peasant wedding: 4:26-4:52 o Rapids: 9:53-10:34 Play each clip several times to give students time to draw what they think they hear in each of the scenes. Have students share their thoughts on sound components that make the music suit the pictures they drew. Dynamics, instrumentation, rhythm, and tempo (speed) are elements that can be discussed. Link Up! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/boulder_creek_(colorado) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/m%c3%a1_vlast

Sights and Scenes along the Boulder Creek Draw or write sights and scenes that you expect to find along the Boulder Creek

What Jeff Midkiff wants you to know about From the Blue Ridge, his Mandolin concerto The mandolin, historically, was an instrument used in Italian classical, and now it is used in modern bluegrass improvised music. It has 8 strings tuned in 4 pairs. From highest to lowest. The pairs are E A D G: the same as the violin! It has frets and you use a pick to play it just like the guitar. You strike each pair like they are one string. A concerto is a composition for orchestra and a soloist. My concerto has a mandolin solo part and is in a traditional 3-movement form: Fast Slow Fast It is subtitled From The Blue Ridge because I live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia (in the Appalachian Mountain range) and the music I write reflects that influence. I can imagine that if I lived in Boulder, I would have written a concerto called From The Rockies! There s something about Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia living in the mountains! 1st movement has an introduction then is in A (4/4 time) B (3/4 time) A (4/4 time) form. I started composing the piece in November 2011 and it was getting cold and the wind was blowing the leaves around my house. The introduction (opening) uses fast notes that depict those swirling leaves. 2nd Movement: Probably the most personal of the 3 movements. The opening used the melody of two songs I relate to my upbringing in the Appalachian Mountains: The Carter Family s Wildwood Flower and Bill Monroe s instrumental Roanoke (slowed down!). Listen to the piccolo solos! I wrote this movement to represent home going away - and then returning home. The 3rd movement is sort of a controlled jam session. It s a lot of fun and the orchestration includes a drum set. There is a cadenza (a virtuoso solo passage inserted into a movement in a concerto or other work, typically near the end) for mandolin, violin (concertmaster), bass and drums.

Lesson plan for Jeff Midkiff s From the Blue Ridge Standards addressed: Standard 1 Expression of Music 2. Perform a variety of rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic patterns Standard 2 Creation of Music 2. Notate simple musical selections Standard 3 Theory of Music 1. Application and demonstration of the use of more advanced dynamics, tempo, meter and articulation using appropriate music vocabulary 3. Analyze vocal and instrumental examples 4. Identify and aurally recognize melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic patterns Standard 4 Aesthetic Valuation of Music 2. Comprehend and respect the musical values of others considering cultural context as an element of musical evaluation and meaning Performance Indicators: Students will Have an understanding of time signature and will be able to tell the difference between four-four and three-four meter Obtain a knowledge of the history and present day use of bluegrass music as well as vocabulary associated with the genre Learn how to use different elements of music to reflect thoughts on their home Objective: To introduce bluegrass music as both a historical genre and a modern day genre To understand four-four meter versus three-four meter To identify the instrument(s), dynamics, and other musical elements to reflect students homes and describe why they are appropriate, using correct musical vocabulary Materials: Method of playing YouTube clips My Home Handout Listening Repertoire: Movement I Majestic Mountains from Bravo! Colorado by Jeff Tyzik YouTube clips of instrument families (below) Carter Family s Wildwood Flower Bill Monroe s instrumental Roanoke

Vocabulary: Mandolin: historically, it was an instrument used in Italian classical, and now it is used in modern bluegrass improvised music. It has 8 strings tuned in 4 pairs. From highest to lowest. The pairs are E A D G: the same as the violin! It has frets and you use a pick to play it just like the guitar. You strike each pair like they are one string. Concerto: a composition for orchestra and a soloist Cadenza: a virtuoso solo passage inserted into a movement in a concerto or other work, typically near the end Bluegrass music: a form of American music related to country music. Bluegrass was inspired by the music of Appalachia. It has mixed roots in Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and English traditional music. Procedures Time signature activity o Listen to or sing a song that is in four-four, such as Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star or Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Have students clap or count out loud to the beat. Then listen to or sing a song that is in three-four together, such as Happy Birthday. How does the song sound different? o Ask kids if they can hear when the strong beat is in each of the songs. Have students stand up and sing the songs. When they think they hear a strong beat, have them stomp their foot. Then for each song, count how many weak beats follow the strong beats. Explain to them that the four-four songs have 1 strong beat followed by three weak beats, and the three-four songs have 1 strong beat followed by 2 weak beats. Go over the What Jeff Midkiff wants YOU to know about his concerto handout o Have students try to clap and stomp along with the first movement of the Mandolin concerto to see if they can hear the four-four time and the three-four time. o 2 nd movement: create a story to go along with the first minute of the music. Have students try to compose their own music that would reflect their own home/mountains/feelings of home etc using the handout on the next page. o What instruments would they use to represent their feelings of home? o What instruments would they use to represent the landscapes around their homes? The people? How about the weather outside today? o Would the music be fast, slow, loud, soft, happy, or sad for each of these things that remind them of home? o Would it have a lot of quick notes or very few sustained notes? o Ask students if there are any songs that remind them of home (just like how Carter Family s Wildwood Flower and Bill Monroe s instrumental Roanoke

reminded Jeff Midkiff of his upbringing) that they would incorporate in their music Link Up! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mandolin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bluegrass_music

My Home by Composer (Your Name) Things that remind me of home (for example: mountains, weather, people, feelings) Instruments I would use to represent these things that remind me home Would the music be fast or slow, loud or soft, happy, or sad for each of these things that me of home? Would the music have a lot of quick notes or very few sustained notes? Other things I would include in my song about home

Concert Manners Going to a concert may be a new experience for your students. The following guidelines will help them and those around them enjoy the concert more fully. Concert manners begin the moment your bus drives up to the Macky Auditorium. A volunteer will lead you from your bus to the Theater. You will be asked to walk in a single-file line to your seating area. Please stay together. After you are shown to your seats, all teachers and students are asked to remain seated. When people are standing and talking in the aisles, it takes us much longer to het everyone seated. At this time, you ll notice the musicians warming up onstage. Just as an athlete before a big game, the musicians have to, also. Watch them to see if they do anything you don t expect. Then the lights will go down and you ll know the concert is about to start. When the concertmaster walks onstage, clap enthusiastically! He will help the orchestra tune. After the concertmaster sits down, your conductor, Michael Butterman, will walk onstage. Again, clap loudly for Maestro Butterman and the musicians. Then get ready to listen! While the music is playing, listen and watch carefully. Think about things you learned from the lessons in this packet. Keep your hands to yourself and do your best to sit still. Sometimes Maestro Butterman might ask the audience a question. This is your turn to add to the concert experience! Please answer him so he knows you are listening. When he turns to face the musicians, you should be silent and get ready to listen actively again. If a neighbor is talking, try to ignore them, or quietly get the attention of your teacher. After the orchestra plays the last piece, someone will walk onstage and give a brief closing comment and begin dismissing you. When you leave to find your bus, please stay together in a single-file line. On your way back to school, talk to your friends about what you saw and heard. Tell them your favorite piece and ask them what their favorite piece was. Maybe your teacher will quiz you on instrumental families! You can write a letter to the Boulder Philharmonic when you arrive back in your classroom. Be sure and tell your parents about the concert when you get home. Please share this information with all adult chaperones. No audio or video recording and no photography (flash or otherwise) No food or drink (exceptions are made for diabetic students or teachers)