Week 7 ~ Music ~ Appreciating Music

This week’s task involved exploring a range of genres including classical and contemporary for use in appreciating music activities. Within both older styles of music and modern genres there are sophisticated pieces of music that students will be familiar with. For example, In the Hall of the Mountain King is a familiar song for most and features an ongoing ostinato, conducive for exploring the elements of music. Modern film composers such as Danny Elfman and John Williams provide engaging pieces that could be used with the students that they will be familiar with that are sophisticated pieces.  

These pieces can provide quality stimulus for listening activities with the capacity to address Australia Curriculum (ACARA, 2012) key knowledge explicitly such as the elements of music, viewpoints and genres of music. The work sample below demonstrates how a teacher could focus on a particular aspect of music, in  this case 3 of the elements of music in a comprehensive but well scaffolded manner. Lessons such as this should be embedded within a continuous and sequential process which enables acquisition, development and revisits these skills and knowledge with increasing depth and complexity.

Practical implementation of a responding or appreciation listening activity

- Students should listen to a short portion (about 2 minutes, maybe more for older students) of the song and repeated around 4-5 times

- First they would just have to listen to the music on its own with nothing to listen out for.

- Then provide the students with a range of questions, the quantity and difficulty depending on their age/ capabilities.

- They would listen to it a number of times again before being able to answer the questions which they would later discuss, even with a last listening to highlight certain concepts.  

Work Sample

Tone Colour

1.      What do you think the two instruments represent?

Piano- water Cello- swan

2.      Describe how they are played.

Piano- delicate, tinkling, quick, staccato Cello- flowing, soft, long, vibrato, gliding, tied notes- bowed, legato

Dynamics

3.      How would you describe the dynamics of the piece?

Piano (soft) with some gradual crescendos with quick drop offs/ diminuendo, towards the end pianissimo/ piano pianissimo.

Duration

4.      Describe the tempo and rhythms.

Slow- legato, cello-long, slow notes, the piano plays a fairly consistent rhythm (ostinato), faster 

The Swan (Larprunu, 2007)- Video

References:

Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority. (2012). Learning in music. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/thearts/learning-in-music

 Larprunu. (2007, March 19). Carnival of the animals – The swan [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvh4zEKG2zs