Read Usborne - Classical Music and The Orchestra
Watch Piano making video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAInt7hIZlU
Listen to Beethoven, a sonata,
Singing - pitch matching
Glee Karaoke
How it went:
Well this was definitely an overly ambitious plan. Sometimes that happens - I get too excited and forget that we have other things to do. This time, I think I forgot to leave time for RJ to do chores (he has some extras to do since he is working off a shattered globe from our light fixture), so it cut into our activity time.
We did an impromptu review of the previous pages of the The Usborne Story of Music book. This was helpful because I saw how much the kids remembered, reinforced it, and re-discussed what they didn't before moving on to a new period.
RJ remembered more about the instruments than the names of the composers or the time periods. But I was impressed that he remembered that the lowest and largest of the four recorders was the bass recorder. And he read the names of the others for himself. He also led the pitch demonstration on his own accord! RJ and L really like making high and low noises with their voices). L was able to make the sounds of the bass and descant (highest) recorders when we asked him, not just as we were doing it too.
This time, I also took some time to go over geography, since we reviewed that music was being written in Europe. I sent RJ and L over to the wall map to discuss where Europe is. Our map doesn't have the country borders, but at this point, I think knowing that Europe is across the US and across the Atlantic Ocean from us in California is appropriate. RJ was however able to point out where we live in CA on the map on his own.
We read the pages on Classical Music, but they were already loosing interest, so I plan on going over the info in another way, since the page content wasn't inherently interesting to them, other than the picture of the piano.
After reading, we ran out of time and had to go grocery shopping. When we returned, L had fallen asleep and got deposited on the couch, surprising me, because a nap is a rare occurrence So, only RJ got to watch the piano making video when I was making dinner. I will have Logan watch it tomorrow when RJ's not around, though, so not all is lost.
We didn't get to anything else, it was just too busy of a day with both boys busy in the morning with school (RJ) and gymnastics (L), followed by time at the park, followed by homework and chores and the grocery store, and then dinner and gymnastics for RJ.
Concepts Covered:
See previous post on Renaissance and Baroque Music for full content.
We mostly reviewed the instruments pictured - flute, lute, bass viol, viol, recorders, wooden flutes vs. modern metal flutes, Stradivarius Violin
Classical Music
- Classical is often used to describe all music that isn't pop, folk, or jazz, but it really means music from late 18th, early 19th centuries.
- Baroque concertos and sonatas developed into the forms we know today during this classical period
- Haydn
- Worked for the Esterhazy family in Hungary (I showed RJ & L approximately where Hungary was on the map)
- Mozart
- Mozart played difficult pieces on a harpsichord and organ by the time he was 4
- Harpsichord and Organ have keyboards like a piano
- He spent his life composing, teaching and conducting his works throughout Europe
- Beethoven
- Developed a way of writing that inspired composers of the Romantic period (which is next)
- People thought his music was very complicated
- Piano
- Invented in Italy around 1700 by Bartolomeo Cristofori
- Proper name - pianoforte, meaning soft-loud in Italian
- Unlike a harpsichord, you can play both loud and soft
- forte - Italian for loud
- piano - Italian for soft
- Concerto
- Developed from the Baroque concerto
- Piece for orchestra with one or more soloists
- Music played by the soloist is often more difficult and exciting than that played by the orchestra
- Sonata
- In Baroque period, Sonata described many different types of instrumental compositions
- Classical Sonata developed from this into a piece for one or two instruments
- Most sonatas are for pianos alone or for another instrument accompanied by a piano
- Sonatas are usually in three or four sections called movements
- The Symphony
- Means sounding together
- Developed from the Baroque sinfonia
- Sinfonia - piece played at the start of an Italian opera
- Classical symphony - piece for orchestra with four movements
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