Term 4 Week 5: Armistice Day and Berlin Wall 25th anniversary

This week we will catch up on lessons missed when the Seniors were at camp and when the power went off for most of Thursday last week. 

The 11th of November is known as Armistice Day. In the UK and other Commonwealth countries it's also known as Remembrance Day.  In the US it's known as Veterans Day.

At 11:00 a.m. on the 11th of November 1918 the fighting stopped to end World War 1 - known then as the Great War.  It was the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

In many parts of the world, there are ceremonies to remember those who served and died in all wars since - and including - World War 1.  In New Zealand, our main memorial day is Anzac Day on April 25th, but Armistice Day is still observed in New Zealand officially and by all RSA clubs and many other institutions.

Here's a link to part of New Zealand's  official Armistice commemoration in Wellington on Tuesday. The background music  is a group singing the  poem 'Flanders Fields'. 

Here's a video of this year's Remembrance Ceremony in London. You will hear Big Ben chime 11 times then there is 2 minutes of silence. Look at how still everyone is. You have to wait for a while to see someone move so you know that it's not a still photo.  You will also hear the Last Post played and you will see the Queen and others lay wreaths.

 This is a band playing Nimrod Enigma Variations  by Edward Elgar. This music is always played at UK Remembrance ceremonies. We learnt about this music when we were learning about Anzac Day music earlier in the year.

Poppies at the Tower of London

Here's a video of the poppies at the Tower of London.

In London, a special display of ceramic poppies has been at the Tower of London to commemorate World War 1.  Each poppy represents  a British soldier  or   Empire soldier who died in the war. There are 888,246 poppies, each one hand made.

This week also marks the 25th anniversary of the pulling down of the Berlin Wall. The wall was built in 1961 by East Germany to try to stop its people leaving the Communist part of the country to join the democratic western part of the country.  The wall was patrolled by guards who were ordered to shoot anyone who tried to escape.  Finally, in 1989, the wall was pulled down and the two parts of Berlin - and Germany - were reunited into one country. There were many celebrations, including a Beethoven concert conducted by Daniel Barenboim which he did for free for the people who had been on the Eastern side of the Berlin wall.  This is a small part of that concert.   

This is Daniel Barenboim conducting the Allegretto from Beethoven's Symphony Number 7 in A major.  This was also played at the concert, although this is a later recording.

Here's a simple version of the notes and note values (below). This is just one line of music; listen to how the  rest of the music adds more to the tune.

Click on this link to hear  the complete version of the Allegretto, with a bar graph of the different tunes played which combine to form the overall sound.  Try following one particular line each time you watch it.  Can you hear the repeated pattern of the notes in the music written  above?  Can you hear the theme repeated in different ways, especially towards the end?Listen for the change in dynamics, too.  Note where it gets louder and softer.

Here's your air guitar version. Listen to it get louder as it progresses. 

Here's another electric guitar/ heavy metal version. Listen for changes in tempo (speed) and dynamics (loud / soft).

Term 2, Week 7: Ra Whanau - Happy Birthday in Maori

Continuing our  theme of songs that we all sing, here's  Happy Birthday in Maori .




And,  of course,  we always seem to be able to find a cat version of our weekly music theme.
 Cute cats sing Happy Birthday.


 Here's Beethoven's  sixth symphony, called Beethoven' Pastorale Symphony . This is an animated version from Walt Disney's Fantasia movie of 1940.

This is a link to Fantasia. 

Term 2 Week 3: Beethoven Symphony No. 9: Ode to Joy

Here's the link to a site where you can make up your own music and learn about note values. If you are clever with working out things on the computer, you'll work out how to do this by yourself.

Symphony No. 9 in D minor op 125 (Choral Symphony) by Ludwig van Beethoven

This one of the most famous pieces of music ever written and one of the most frequently played symphonies in the world. Many people believe it is Beethoven's best work, and  one of the greatest pieces of music ever written.

A symphony is a piece of music for orchestra.

This was the  last symphony Beethoven wrote.  It is a very long symphony - over an hour - and is  unusual because the last movement also has singing in it: four soloists and a choir.

This symphony has four movements.  The last movement sets the words of a poem called Ode an die Freude ( Ode to Joy) written by  a German poet called Friedrich Schiller. The poem is about living in peace together. It was written at the time when these ideas were becoming very important in Europe.

Beethoven  started to write the symphony in  1817 and he finished it in 1824 when it was played for the first time - in Vienna.  It was the first time Beethoven had been on stage for twelve years, and it was the biggest orchestra he had ever used.  Beethoven conducted the performance but he couldn't hear the audience applaud because of his deafness. Someone made him turn round, and he saw that people were applauding enthusiastically.  It was customary at that time for the Imperial couple (Emperor and Empress)  to have three standing ovations when they entered a hall. When Beethoven  had five standing ovations, police tried to stop them because he was receiving more than the Emperor. People waved their handkerchiefs and hats in the air so Beethoven could see their enjoyment - because he couldn't hear them.

The main tune of the last movement is one of the best known tunes in the world. Many children like to play it on instruments because the first part of the tune only uses five notes (it can be played on C, D, E, F, G).


The Ode to Joy was adopted as Europe's “National anthem” in 1972.

The Symphony No. 9 - with the chorus - is traditionally performed throughout Japan during its New Year celebrations.  It was introduced to Japan by German soldiers held at a prisoner-of-war camp in World War 1, when Japan was an ally of Britain. Japanese orchestras started performing it and it became more popular in during World War II  when Germany was an ally of Japan.

When compact discs (CDs) were first being made,  different companies  had different ideas about what size they should make CDs.  Someone suggested that a compact disc ought to have the capacity to contain a complete performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony - about  65 to 74 minutes which requires a 12 cm diameter, the size of a CD.

Here's the Muppets version of  Ode to Joy

Here's David Beckham doing an advertisement using the music of Ode to Joy.

Here's a rock version of the  European Union Anthem of Ode to Joy

Air guitar and air drums version with Wes Borland (Ex-Limp Bizkit) and Richard Fortus (Guns n Roses)  and this version by Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord of Deep Purple.

David Garrett starts a very serious Ode to Joy - but listen to how it ends. 

Here's a flash mob version. Watch the young girl.
Glass harp version of Ode to Joy.

Here's a girl doing a mix of classical and jazz singing of Ode to Joy.

Rowan Atkinson doing a humorous version. You may not understand all of the jokes, but you will get the idea.


Here's 10,000 Japanese performing  part of the Ninth Symphony.   You can see how impressive it is to get this many people to perform together.

Here's the full version of Beethoven's 9th Symphony with conductor Daniel Barenboim. 

Here's a version with English subtitles.

Here's the European Anthem version on karaoke German.

Here's a graphic representation of the orchestra playing Ode to Joy.

A cats' chorus of Ode to Joy.

Here's a colour-coded score for the music of Ode to Joy

Link

Here's a join-the-dots picture of Beethoven you can print and complete.

Here's a song based on the Ode to Joy tune, and written about the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz. 

Here's a Horrible Histories meeting between Mozart and Beethoven...

2014 Term 1, Week 10: Beethoven's 5th Symphony

Ludwig van Beethoven

 Ludwig van Beethoven was born in December 1770, in Bonn in Germany.
His exact birthday is not known but he was baptised on December 17th, 1770. 

Beethoven's  mother's name was Maria Magdalena Keverich. His father, Johann, was a musician  and singer who worked at the court of the Elector of Cologne, in Germany.  Beethoven had two brothers who survived to adulthood. His father taught him to play the violin and piano, but he was very cruel and would punish young Ludwig whenever he made mistakes. He wanted his son to be like Mozart and would make him practise  the piano for hours.   Young Beethoven struggled with spelling and mathematics at school  - and throughout his whole life - and said that music came to him much easier than words.  He left school at age ten to study music.  By the time young Beethoven was 12 he was earning money composing and playing the organ.

Beethoven at age 13

Like Mozart, Beethoven was a child prodigy - but he didn't travel until he was 17 and went to Vienna where he had a few music  lessons from Mozart. He returned to Bonn  to help look after his siblings when his mother died and his father became an alcoholic. He played the viola in the orchestra for court and started to compose music. He was a also a very clever pianist.

He moved to Vienna again in 1792 and stayed there for the rest of his life.  He became very popular with the wealthy and important people.

In 1801 he started to lose his hearing, and by 1817 he was completely deaf and could no longer play in concerts, but he continued to compose.  Some of his greatest works were composed after he became deaf.

Beethoven in 1803

He is one of the best known composers of all time, and he wrote music for the piano, orchestras, and other groups of instruments. He wrote symphonies, sonatas, concertos,  chamber and choral music, and an opera. Many people are familiar with much of his music - even if they don't know that he wrote it.

Beethoven's music was very different to music that had been composed and played before. It was so original that other composers and musicians were inspired to change the way that they composed.

Beethoven never married. He proposed many times but was turned down every time  - possibly because he was very bad tempered and scruffy, and because he was of 'low birth' status.

 One of his favourite foods was macaroni and cheese, and he loved strong coffee - with exactly 60 beans to one cup.

Beethoven's funeral procession

Beethoven's Grave in Vienna

 

He died on March 26th, 1827 - in Vienna - and many thousands of people  lined the streets to pay their respects.

This week we are looking at Beethoven's Symphony Number 5 in C Minor - the first movement.
This movement is written in a very common format in classical music called sonata form. Sonata form has roughly four sections.

The first section is called the Exposition. The main themes of the symphony are laid out. Then we move into the Development, where the themes are broken down and played around with (a bit like improvisation). Then we come to the Recapitulation where the main themes return again (slightly different, but mostly the same). Finally, there is a Coda, which is the ending where the whole movement is wrapped up.

 This is a live performance of  Beethoven's Symphony Number 5 - first movement.  This conductor is Gustavo Dudamel.  Watch for all the different ways he uses to get the orchestra to play louder or softer, stronger, smoothly,  or faster or slower.
- Can you hear a person in the audience coughing occasionally?
- Can you see how the orchestra and the conductor could find this distracting?  
- What sounds and patterns can you hear repeated?
- How does Beethoven make the repeated sounds different each time?

Here is a black and white video  of  the conductor Arturo Toscanini conducting Beethoven's fifth symphony - first movement. There is a commentary written along the bottom of the video explaining what is happening.


Look at pages 4 and 5 on this pdf to see a listening map for Beethoven's 5th Symphony.

Here's a bit more of a complicated listening guide with lots more music vocabulary and symbols.
And here's the answers to the questions in the listening guide. 


 Here is violinist David Garrett playing a modern arrangement of this - with dancers in the performance as well. How many instruments are there playing which would not have been around for Beethoven?

Here's another modern arrangement - Beethoven's 5th in salsa.

Here's the music - changed round a bit - with krumping / hip hop.  

Here's a fun version. Timon  is trying to conduct Beethoven's 5th, but Pumba keeps changing it to a different style. Watch how Timon conducts.

Here's another fun version where some musicians are using boomwhackers on plastic drums to beat out the rhythm of Beethoven's 5th.

Here some singers have made up a song about pumpkins  (called gourds here) to promote their churches Great Pumpkin Giveaway.

And this is just someone having a bit of fun making silly sounds into music.

Here's a group called Beethoven's Wig - and they've made up a song about Beethoven's wig. 

Here's Rowan Atkinson (Mr Bean) conducting an (invisible) orchestra. What makes it funny?

Air guitar time - to Metallica! These are just still photos, but you can see some pretty good moves to follow.

And here's Swedish guitarist and songwriter Yngwei Malmsteen with a classic guitar version - from 1985, so the video quality is not thaaat great.

This is quite a bit longer, but funny- especially if you understand anything about music and sport.  There are two commentators talking over the top of the music as if they were  the commentators at a sports event.

Here's a graphic score of Beethoven's Fifth. Can you see the patterns of the short, short, short, long?

Here's the score  of the beginning of the this music. Can you follow it?

Here's Walt Disney's Fanstasia version of Beetoven's 5th symphony.

This is a fast version - played, apparently, at the speed Beethoven intended it to be. the conductor is Benjamin Zander.

 This movement is written in a very common format in classical music called sonata form. Sonata form has roughly four sections.

The first section is called the Exposition. This is where the main themes of the symphony are laid out. Then we move into the Development, where the themes are broken down and played around with (a bit like improvisation). Then we come to the Recapitulation where the main themes return again (slightly different, but mostly the same). Finally, there is a Coda, which is the ending where the whole movement is wrapped up