2018, Term 3, Week 6: More Mozart - Rondo a la Turca

Maori Language week bonus songs: 
Juniors:
bilingual version of 10 Little Kiwi birds. 
Haere Mai song
Alphabet song
Days of the Week - in Maori 

Seniors: 
A song by Stan Walker for Maori Language Week 2104, called Aotearoa 

       

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27th 1756 and died on December 5th 1791, at age 35. He was born in Salzburg in Austria, where his father, Leopold, was also a musician and composer.

Wolfgang's family called him Wolferl. He was called a child prodigy which means he could do something extremely clever at a very young age. He composed his first piece of music when he was just 5 years old. He was 7 when his first music was published, and when he was 12 he had written his first opera. He was an accomplished violinist and pianist by the age of 6, and he and his sister Maria Anna (called Nanner by her family) travelled around Europe giving concerts and even performing for royalty. Nanner was a very clever musician and composer herself, but she stopped travelling and giving concerts once she reached marrying age.

When he was older, Mozart moved to Vienna to earn a living as a composer and pianist. He was used to being a famous child musician and having a great fuss of him, so it was difficult for him to settle to being an adult performer and not the centre of attention anymore - even though he was still a musical genius.

Mozart married Constanze Weber in 1782. They had six children, but only two survived past infancy. He earnt a lot of money in his life time but wasted it and ended up dying of kidney disease at 35 years old. He was buried in a common grave with no special ceremony.

Mozart composed an enormous amount of music in his short life. It would take over 8 days to play all his music without stopping. He also composed in a wide range of musical forms, such as operas, symphonies, concertos, masses, and chamber music.

This week's music is called: Turkish Rondo - or Rondo alla Turca  from Piano Sonata in A, K. 331. It's also known as Mozart's Turkish March of Rondo alla Turk.  Here is a version played on the piano.  You can find many other versions of it - from glass harps (glasses filled with water) to drum solos, heavy-metal guitars  to  full orchestras.  Chinese pianist Lang Lang is well known for a very fast performance of Rondo alla Turca.   And sometimes, because it's so well known, some musicians like to have a bit of fun and change the way they play it.  In these versions, listen carefully when themes are repeated, you will notice that the second time is usually a little different: often quieter, and sometimes with a rallentando (slowing down) in some places.

This is one person's idea of a listening map for Rondo alla Turca. Can you follow it and see why the images change when they do? Each picture represents a different theme in the music.  

See if you can follow this rhythm pattern for Rondo alla Turca.  This will introduce semiquavers to you.  

This is a five-year-old boy playing Rondo alla Turca. How long would it take you to learn how to play this? 

And this version is a really fast rap full of advice to children - set to Rondo alla Turca. Can you keep up?  

And here's a good reason to keep practising playing the recorder - see what can be done?

Here's something to watch for homework: It's a German animated cartoon series (dubbed in English) based on the life of Mozart as a child (called Amadeus here.) 

This is Part 1: Solo for Amadeus 


Songs: 
Juniors: Scroll down for songs from the past few weeks/ 

Baby Shark Dance has had over one billon views, so let's add another few views to that. 

Notation: 

Here's a song to help you learn the notes E, G, B, D, F on the treble clef. 

Scroll down to the last few blogs for some revision, and then try theses: 

1. Here's a notation game where you click on the note names to spell words. 

2. Now, use the guide  - or your own knowledge - to name the notes and spell the words. 

3.  And here's an interactive game where you can test yourself against the clock. Be careful, it;s easy to make mistakes at speed on this one. 

4. And the test: can you draw (need  data projector on white board)   or indicate where these notes go on the stave.