2015 Term 2 Week 1: Back to School - Anzac Day

Check out this site to find more about many of the activities and  special commemoration events which are taking place over the Anzac Day - Gallipoli remembrance period. 

This year is a very special commemoration of ANZAC Day as it is 100 years since the ANZACs landed at Gallipoli.

Check out this site WW100 New Zealand  ANZAC Connection. It has lots of articles, photos, stories and links to follow. 

New Zealand film maker Peter Jackson restored  rare film footage from Gallipoli to make this short tribute to the ANZAC soldiers.  The film footage was rare because it was in the very early days of moving pictures, and it was  incredibly difficult - and extremely dangerous - to film anything at all in the middle of a war zone, and then get it back to safety to be developed.

The background music is Mozart's Requiem Mass in D minor (K. 626). It was composed in Vienna in 1791. It was still unfinished at the time of Mozart's  death on December 5.  A requiem is a special church service  (called a mass) with special music to remember people who have died.

                                  

The background music to this film  is called Lacrimosa

Most religious music was written in Latin.  If you listen carefully, you can follow the words as they are sung.   Can you hear where the words are repeated?

Lacrimosa
Lacrimosa dies illa
Qua resurget ex favilla
Judicandus homo reus.
Huic ergo parce, Deus:
Pie Jesu Domine,
Dona eis requiem. Amen.

(translated from Latin) 

Full of tears shall be that day
On which from ashes shall arise
The guilty man to be judged;
Therefore, O God, have mercy on him.
Gentle Lord Jesus,
grant them eternal rest. Amen.

Some questions to think about while listening:

- Why do you think Peter Jackson chose this particular music to go with the film?
- What is it about the music that you like or dislike?
- What does Mozart do to make the music sound more interesting?
- Can you hear the sopranos singing the very high parts?
- Can you hear the basses sing the very lowest parts?
- Can you hear parts where just one group (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) is singing, or different combinations of those groups?
- Where are the crescendos and decrescendos?

This is what the part of Mozart's requiem looked like when he wrote it.

There are many stories about Mozart's Requiem. Here's a summary of some of them.

In 1791 a secret messenger visited Mozart in Vienna. He had a note asking Mozart to compose a mass for  a mystery man who wanted a requiem for a loved one who had died, and that Mozart could suggest how much he wanted to be paid. Mozart accepted the offer and asked for 30 ducats, which the mystery man agreed to and promised more money when the requiem was finished (because 30 ducts was not a lot of money for Mozart to request).   

As soon as he had finished a concert trip to Prague, Mozart worked night and day on this project.   He was beginning to become unwell and started to believe that he was writing his own requiem.  He believed he was being poisoned, but it is more likely he had rheumatic fever. He often wrote with tears in his eyes and  was always saying,  “I know I must die. I am writing a requiem for myself.” 

An artist's idea of Mozart working on Requiem with musicians.

On November 20, Mozart was so ill he  had to stay in bed. Even so, he still worked  frantically on the requiem - right up until his final hours. 

At 2pm on December 4, Mozart sang the alto parts of the requiem with his friends and family singing the other parts. They sang through to the Lacrymosa which was as far as Mozart had got composing the requiem. Apparently the last thing Mozart did was to imitate the kettledrums in his requiem.

An artist's idea of Constanza, Mozart's wife, helping him work on Requiem.

Because his illness, Mozart’s body was very swollen, so a doctor cut him regularly so he would bleed ( it was thought to be help lessen the swelling in those days). Mozart died shortly afterwards at 1:00 am on December 5 1791. 

Because they were very poor, he was buried in an unmarked paupers’ grave ( grave for poor people). When his wife went back  with flowers a few days later, she could not find his grave, so it remains a mystery where one of the greatest composers is buried. 

It is thought that Mozart’s wife, Constanza, got several people to help finish the requiem, using notes and drafts left by Mozart, so that she could still get paid the rest of the money from the mystery person who commissioned the requiem.
 
This site gives you easy to understand background information about Mozart, and includes links to other Mozart activities.  Click on  the Read to Me arrows  and you can listen to the stories being read aloud.


This song is called Beautiful Soldier by singer-songwriter Marian Burns.
Here's a news item about this song. 


Dona Nobis Pacem is Latin for "grant (give) us peace".  This is Part 1 of a very well known round. 
- Can you find crotchets, and quavers (in pairs and a single one)?  
- Can you work out which note would be called a dotted crotchet?
- Which note would be called a dotted minim? 
- How many counts do you think they each have?  
- What do you think the 3/4 time signature means? 

Vocabulary in the context of this week's music lesson:
ANZAC -  an acronym for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps.
acronym - a word made up of from usually the first letters of the words it represents - such as ANZAC
corps -  (pronounced core) from French word meaning a body. In English it means a group of people
organised for a special purpose.
centenary - remembering an event that happened one hundred years ago. Bi-centenary means remembering an event that happened 200 years ago.
requiem - a special church service (mass) for the dead -
mercy - pity or kindness
eternal - forever
grant - give
cinema - another name for movies, or the movie theatre
glimpse - a quick look at something
correspondent - a news reporter
secured - captured,  got control of something
gully - a  small valley, a low area between hills or higher areas
plateau - a high area of flat land
sniper - a person who is hiding and shoots at other people (Photo shows captured Turkish sniper)
Allies - countries who were fighting on the same side as New Zealand
yards - a measure of distance a little bit longer than a metre
periscope rifle -  an attachment was added to a rifle so that the person firing could remain unseen  in a trench and still shoot
mule -  a cross between a male donkey and a female horse. Mules and donkeys were often used in war for carrying people and equipment

Quiz: Term 2. Week 1:
1. What day is Anzac Day?
(a) 25 December   (b) 25 April     (c) 6 February  (d) 29 February

2. In what year did the ANZACs land at Gallipoli?
(a) 1914                (b) 1915           (c)  2015          (d) 1918 

3. What does centenary mean?  remembering an event which happened:
(a) 1000 years ago (b) 200 years ago      (c) 500 years  ago     (d) 100 years ago
     
4. What does the acronym ANZAC stand for?
(a) Australia  and New Zealand Apple Core 
(b) Australia and New Zealand Army Corps
(c) America and New Zealand Army Corps 
(d) Australia and New Zealand Army Corpse 

5. In what country is Gallipoli?
(a) Turkey    (b)  New Zealand    (c) Australia   (d) India

6. How did the ANZACs arrive at  Gallipoli?
(a) parachute   (b) ship   (c) car     (d) walked

7.  A mule is:
(a) half horse, half donkey    
(b) half horse, half zebra  
(c) half donkey, half zebra   
(d) another name for a donkey
 

JUNIORS: 

If you go to an Anzac Day ceremony, you will hear the Last Post played - usually on a bugle, 

This man is playing a bugle that was played by a soldier at Gallipoli 100 years ago.

but sometimes on a trumpet.  

This woman is the first female bugler to play the Last Post at Gallipoli in 2014.

In the army, the Last Post is played at the end of the day to let people know that all the work is done.  

It is also played at military  funerals, and at special events such as Anzac Day. 

It is a very special part of the Anzac ceremony where people stand very still and silent while the flag is lowered.  

This is an Anzac Ceremony in Otago in 2012

After the Last Post is played,  a short poem called The Ode is read, and at the end, everyone says, "We will remember them." 

This is called "The Ode"

Then Reveille is played. That means "Wake Up" in French.  
 

The soldier is blowing the bugle to wake everybody up to start their day.

It is played in the morning to tell everyone it's time to wake up. In the Anzac ceremony, it means the service is over and it's time to get back to normal activities again. 

This is a video of the Last Post being played at the Anzac Memorial in Hyde Park in London.

Here's a video of the Last Post being played at the Gallipoli Dawn Service. Can you see the flags of Australia, New Zealand and Turkey?

This is Reveille played at the 2011 dawn service at the Wellington War Memorial.