Term 3, Weeks 6 and 7: Daffodil Day

This Friday 29th August is Daffodil Day in New Zealand.  It's the  one of the Cancer Society's major fund-raising events.  The daffodil is one of the first flowers of spring and represents 'hope' for those affected by cancer.  Funds raised on Daffodil Day go towards scientific research, helping those who have been affected by cancer, and other health promoting and education programmes for cancer awareness.   Here's a page of activities related to Daffodil Day.

Here's a short song about a daffodil, written for Daffodil Day, by a New Zealand musician.



The words are:
Dance like the sun
Swing with the breeze
Daffodil,  daffodil, sing with me.
Daffodil, daffodil, daffodil,
So pretty and yellow on my windowsill.


Here's William Wordsworth's famous poem about daffodils - written over 200 years ago - but done in a very modern rap version. 

Here's the poem Daffodils by William  Wordsworth 

Here's a cartoon about William Wordsworth's poem "Daffodils".

This is a short time lapse video of daffodils in a vase over 10 days. Watch how they change from closed buds to full blooms - and then wilt.

And another one. 

This time lapse is even shorter. 


We have been practising our conducting skills; here's how Bugs Bunny conducts. The "Leopold" they refer to in this cartoon is the famous conductor  Leopold Stokowski who was the conductor on Walt Disney's Fantasia movie made in 1940.





Here's a link to another performance of Edward Yudenich (now 8 years old) conducting Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik  (which means "A little night music".)The language written on the video is Russian.

Next week is kite day at school. Here's  our kite song  - or poem

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 9: Mozart's Turkish March - Rondo alla Turk

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 from Piano Sonata in A, K. 331. It's also known as Mozart's Turkish March of Rondo alla Turk.

Here's a version  of it on the  glass harp (glasses of water filled with water). This musician uses sticks instead of wet fingers to achieve his special sound. This piece uses an orchestral backing track.

Here's two people playing musical glasses with no accompaniment.

Here is an orchestra dressed in the clothes of Mozart's time. How many instruments can you name? 

This group is a Russian group called  Soprano 10 and they play violins as well as sing Rondo a la Turque.

This woman plays a jazz version on some of the 50 pianos around the streets of London during a festival.

Here's a jazz version played by a guitarist.

Air guitar time!

Here's the drumming video which we seem to be able to find for most of our music choices.  How many drums and cymbals can you count?

And here's David Garrett playing Rondo alla Turk with  a modern orchestral backing.

This is a clever - and fun - version of the music made by recording men singing different notes then using each note to represent a key on the piano. Which keys are used the most and which are hardly used at all?  At the end, you will hear the two makers of this video talking in Spanish.

Here's a music map of Rondo alla Turk. Can you see a pattern? 

Try this different listening map and see if you can follow it. It shows the rondo form of music. It comes from this teacher's music blog.

This is a powerpoint showing the rhythm pattern of the music in each theme of the rondo. Can you keep up while you are following it?  

This shows you what the music looks like if you were reading it while playing the piano.  

And this one is just a little crazy - and funny. No animals were harmed in the making of this video. 

Here is a video of a violinist and a pianist having a bit of fun with this piece of music at a concert in the Netherlands. The pianist wants to change the key from a minor key to a major key. 

Here are two people playing the this music on the one guitar at a concert in Poland.

Here's very fast song version of the rondo.

Here's the biggest piano keyboard you may have seen.

A 5-year-old boy plays this on the piano.

This is what it looks like when you are playing the piano. Look for the ascending and descending notes. 

And for the adults: This is the group called Beethoven's Wig singing a song to the tune of Ronda alla Turca. It's all about the Mozart effect - where children are supposed to  be smarter if they listen to a lot of Mozart. This is

Here's a game you can play while learning more about Mozart.

This is an interesting site where you can learn a lot more about Mozart.