2016 Term 3 Week 7: Last Week Continued

 

Here's a Woody Woodpecker Cartoon based on Chopin's music

 Here's another type of graphic score of Chopin's Opus 66 - Fantasie Impromptu.


Dances: 
Juniors
Skip to my Lou
Fraggle Rock
The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wim o Weh)  
Hot Potato  
Who let the dogs out?  
Hold Still   

Seniors / Intermediates:
Feelin' Good  
Footloose   
Shout! 
We no Speak Americano  

Dynamite  
Limbo - in Spanish (Lyrics and translation here) 
Beat it   

Add bar lines to make five bars with four beats in each bar.

Intermediates: 
This is the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra's version of Peter and the Wolf.  The conductor is also the narrator.   You can see which instruments represent the characters, and see the instruments being played, but you have to make up the images in your own mind. 
 
 Seniors:
Ode to Joy on glockenspiels - Here's a link to the music we are using if you want to practise it at home.
Here's a slow MP3 track of Ode to Joy  (C Major).

Juniors: 
Peter and the Wolf - We will finish watching the ballet from where we left off last week. 
Here's a ballet version of Peter and the Wolf.

Peter and the Wolf matching game  

 

2016, Term 3 Weeks 5 & 6: Dances and Wolves . . .

Mrs Lee and Mrs Vincent are singing in this choir on Sunday 28th August. Do come along and hear them. Afternoon tea is included. 

Intermediate Dances: 
We no Speak Americano
Beat it 
Dynamite 
Happy  
Limbo - in Spanish  (Lyrics and translation here) 
 
 Senior Dances:
It's a Beautiful Life
Feelin' Good 
What Does the Fox Say? 
Hoedown Throwdown  
Love Me  
 I like to move it  

Junior Dances:
It's a Beautiful Life
Shimmie Shake 
I'm Gonna Catch You
Follow the Leader
Hot Potato  
Monkey Dance
 I like to move it  

Add bar lines to make five bars with four beats in each bar. 

Now for the Wolf:
We had a brief intermission  in the story of Peter and the wolf to accommodate Maths week; however, we have returned to Peter when he was about to leave the safety of his walled garden . . . 

 

Peter is represented by the STRING INSTRUMENTS   Peter's theme music 

From Music for homeschoolers

 
The bird is represented by the FLUTE  Bird's theme music  
The duck is represented by the OBOE    Duck's theme music
 
The  cat is represented by the CLARINET    Cat's theme music 
 
The grandfather is represented by the BASSOON    Grandfather's theme
 
 
The wolf is represented by three FRENCH HORNS      The wolf's theme 
 
The hunters enter to a march tune 

The hunters' guns are represented by the TIMPANI (kettle drum) and BASS DRUM    The gun's theme 

                                     


Here is the complete story of Peter and the Wolf, narrated by Peter Ustinov.  There are no pictures - it's much better if you imagine them yourself. 
- Listen for changes in dynamics: when does the music get louder and softer or quieter (crescendo and decrescendo)? 
- Listen for changes in tempo: when does the music get faster and slower?  Which characters' music has a faster  or slower tempo? 
- Listen for changes in pitch:  which characters' music has a higher pitch? Which characters' music has a lower pitch?  
- Listen for the different ways each character's music is played to fit the story. Can you hear changes in the timing, instruments, tempo and tone? How do these changes reflect different parts of the story?

This is the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra's version of Peter and the Wolf.  The conductor is also the narrator.   You can see which instruments represent the characters, and see the instruments being played, but you have to make up the images in your own mind.

Here's a ballet version of Peter and the Wolf.

 

This is a fun cartoon to show you some of the instruments of the orchestra, and then you get to sing "If You're Happy and You Know it" with some musical instrument actions. 

2016, Term 3, Weeks 3 & 4: Musical Maths Week

 Who knew that Gangnam Style could help you with your maths? ("Transformation Style": reflections, rotations and translations)

Check out this interesting video which relates sounds to doodle art drawn  on a grid.  See if you can work out how each sound is represented by the lines and patterns on the grid.  What happens when the lines are erased? How does this combine music and maths? 

Look at the patterns the notes make in this "Synthesia" version of Chopin's Fantasie-Impromptu (Opus 66).

 Which of the symbols below is/are: 
a semibreve, a minim, a dotted minim, a crotchet, a minim rest, quavers, a crotchet rest, a semibreve rest? 

Which ones have 1 beat, 2 beats, 3 beats, 4 beats?
What do you call a note that has half a beat?  
Which ones are rests?  

From  O for Tuna 

 Show your answers as a single note. Are there any other ways you could show your answer? 
 

Follow this link for extra practice with note values. 

What's the time?

Add five bar lines to make 5 bars of 4 beats in each bar. Remember that some notes are longer than one beat and some notes are shorter than one beat.

 

And now for some pirate maths: 

When You Subtract with a Pirate  

When You Add with a Pirate  

and a pirate dance (with lyrics) 

 A Pirate You Shall Be (Just Dance HD)

This is the Auckland Symphony Orchestra playing the theme music of Pirates of the Caribbean.   

 - What instruments can you identify? 

- How many different ways are the instruments played? 

- Where does the music change in tempo (speed/timing) or dynamics (loudness and softness)? 

- What instruments can you hear but not see played? 

Finally, Shiver My Timbers  from the Muppet movie Treasure Island.

Fibonacci Sequence in Music

Here is a piece of music based on the Fibonacci Sequence.   

Learn your 3 times table (multiples of 3) with a little help from a parody of Uptown Funk.  

 

2016, Term 3, Weeks 1 and 2: Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev

Peter and the Wolf

Some digitally animated pages from an original version of the story.

The story and music of Peter and the Wolf were written and composed by Sergei Prokofiev, a Russian composer. He was born in Ukraine in 1891, and learnt to play the piano at a very young age, with his mother as his first teacher. Like Mozart, he was a "child prodigy", and he wrote his first music at age 5 and his first opera at age 9. When he was 13, he began studying at the St Petersburg Conservatory of Music. 

He was a modern-style composer, but believed that music should be for all people, not just  the rich or those who were were good at it themselves. He travelled to London, Paris and the United States several times and was one of the few artists who continued to live in Russia when many had left after the Russian Revolution in 1917 and other political changes which followed.

Prokofiev wrote Peter and the Wolf in 1936 when he returned to Russia after his travels. He wanted to introduce children to the instruments of the orchestra, and he worked with Natalia Satz, the director of the Moscow Children's Theatre, to create  the characters, and how music would express their personalities. 



Peter is represented by the STRING INSTRUMENTS   Peter's theme music 
The bird is represented by the FLUTE  Bird's theme music
The duck is represented by the OBOE    Duck's theme music
The  cat is represented by the CLARINET    Cat's theme music 
The grandfather is represented by the BASSOON    Grandfather's theme
The wolf is represented by three FRENCH HORNS      The wolf's theme 
The hunters enter to a march tune 
The hunters' guns are represented by the TIMPANI (kettle drum) and BASS DRUM    The gun's theme 

Vocabulary:
Russia - see map
Ukraine - see map
prodigy- a very clever young person
meadow - a field or a paddock
chirp - the sound a bird makes
waddle - to walk like a duck
shrug - to lift and drop the shoulders
stealthily - in a quiet and sneaking way
velvet - a soft material that feels a bit like fur
gulp -  a big swallow
lasso - a rope with a loop in it
triumphant  - feeling very proud after winning
procession - a lot of people walking together like a march
discontentedly - unhappily 
narrated - a story read aloud by someone 

Here is the complete story of Peter and the Wolf, narrated by Peter Ustinov.  There are no pictures - it's much better if you imagine them yourself. 
- Listen for changes in dynamics: when does the music get louder and softer or quieter (crescendo and decrescendo)? 
- Listen for changes in tempo: when does the music get faster and slower?  Which characters' music has a faster  or slower tempo? 
- Listen for changes in pitch:  which characters' music has a higher pitch? Which characters' music has a lower pitch?  
- Listen for the different ways each character's music is played to fit the story. Can you hear changes in the timing, instruments, tempo and tone? How do these changes reflect different parts of the story? 
  

And now for something completely different:  

Add five bar lines to make four bars in 4/4 timing.

A Scottish version of Rachel Platten's Fight Song

This is filmed in  Eilean Donan Castle in Dornie, Scotland - one of the most well-known castles in Scotland. If you don't recognise it, you will the next time you see it. 


More vocabulary: 
bagpipe  a wind instrument, associated with Scotland. 
cello   member of the strings family; bigger than a viola, smaller than a double bass
snare, tenor and bass drums different types  of drums used in Highland bands (with bagpipes) 
grand piano  a big piano with horizontal strings and frames and a lid which can be raised, usually used in concerts
tartan  a pattern of criss-crossed lines on material - usually wool - and associated with Scotland.