Teacher’s Guide for the Portland Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Concert Series “Sounds Like Art: Painting, Poetry and Performance”

Materials created by The Center for Excellence in Music Education University of Southern Maine, School of Music

©January 2010

“Winter” from

Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons

The Center for Excellence in Music Education was established within the School of Music at the University of Southern

Maine in 2009. Under the leadership of Dr. Michele Kaschub and Dr. Douglas Owens, the Center draws together pre-service

and in-service music educators for the creation of teaching materials and resources for PK-12 classroom and ensemble

instruction. 

The Center for Excellence in Music Education is delighted to enter into partnership with the Portland Symphony Orchestra and to contribute to the creation of the Teacher’s Guide for the Portland Symphony Orchestra’s 2010 Youth Concert Series

“Sounds Like Art: Painting, Poetry and Performance”

EXPANDING MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT

The activities of the lesson are designed to develop the three capacities foundational in all listening: attention, impressivity and aural craftsmanship.

1. All listeners must chose to pay “attention” to the music. The questions that teachers use to guide children before they are asked to listen help students focus their attention of particular aspects of the music.

2. All listeners are impacted by the music that they hear. This impact is called “impressivity”. The music presses inward as we hear and feel sound. Questions that ask students to think about how music “feels” and why composers shape music as they do help children develop their awareness of how music impacts their lives.

3. While all listeners hear music, attentive listeners also pay attention to particular features of the music. The brain then uses such observations to make connections and attribute meaning to the way the music is heard and felt. The process of hearing features and recognizing relationships between features is called “aural craftsmanship”. Teacher can help students develop control over this natural process by asking questions that require students to focus their attention particular musical events or on the ways that a composer crafts sounds.

Teacher’s Guide for the Portland Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Concert Series “Sounds Like Art: Painting, Poetry and Performance”

Materials created by The Center for Excellence in Music Education University of Southern Maine, School of Music

©January 2010

PURPOSE This lesson is designed for classroom instruction with students who are able to

use small classroom percussion instruments, can recognize and identify string instruments by sound, and can identify duration (long/short sounds), pitch (high/low sounds) and melodies.

MATERIALS Teachers and students will need variety of small classroom percussion

instruments (shakers, metallophone, triangles, jingle bells, and any other metallic/tinkle-y sounding instruments that are available), chalk/white board or large piece of paper and chalk/pen, a recording of Vivaldi’s “Winter” from The Four Seasons, and paper and pencils for writing poetry.

LEARNING GOAL At the completion of this lesson students will be able to identify how the

composer uses the musical principals of motion/stasis and unity/variety to organize sounds evocative of the season of winter.

Notes on principals: Motion/stasis: forward motion achieved by starting in lower pitches instruments, added higher pitch, repeating pitches several times, and then melodies where violin plays very short notes changing pitch quickly

Unity/variety: unity created by use of short, detached sounds; variety found in pitch placement (high/low)

Teacher’s Guide for the Portland Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Concert Series “Sounds Like Art: Painting, Poetry and Performance”

Materials created by The Center for Excellence in Music Education University of Southern Maine, School of Music

©January 2010

ACTIVITIES OF THE LESSON Part I: Hands-on Composition Engaging children in creating their own music through composition allows them

to readily identify with the work of other composers. The following activities will create a foundation that will allow the students to connect their work with the work of Vivaldi.

Introduction: Let’s think a little bit about winter and about snowstorms. 1. Ask students to describe how a snowstorm begins, how it builds/changes over time, and how it ends. As children describe the snowstorm, draw it organized beginning-middle-end on the board.

2. Ask students to describe what winter sounds like (falling snow, breaking icicles, blowing cold wind, etc.)

3. Ask the children to suggest instruments (that the teacher has already laid out) for each section of the snowstorm).

4. Distribute instruments and perform the storm. After the first performance, ask children what worked well and what changes they might make. Perform the composition a second time.

Suggested transition to listening activity: Wow! That was quite a snowstorm. Many composers have considered what snowstorms and winter might sound like as songs or pieces of music. Vivaldi wrote a piece of music about winter much in the same way we just did. Today, we are going to listen to his composition. It is called “Winter”.

Teacher’s Guide for the Portland Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Concert Series “Sounds Like Art: Painting, Poetry and Performance”

Materials created by The Center for Excellence in Music Education University of Southern Maine, School of Music

©January 2010

ACTIVITIES OF THE LESSON Part II: Ears-on Listening As listeners need to hear a piece of music three times in order to be able to

organize and process it meaningfully, this lesson divides “Winter” into short excerpts in the information gathering stage and then presents the whole piece as both conclusion of listening and transition to poetry writing.

1. Focus attention on music (goal: identification). As we listen to just little bit of Vivaldi’s “Winter”, let’s try to figure out what instruments he used. Try to remember the name of at least one instrument that you hear. (Play 0:00-0:37 and collect responses verbally.)

2. Narrowing focus (goal: identification). Let’s find out what else Vivaldi did. As we listen again, let’s try to find out if instruments are used to play both long and short sounds or just one or the other. (Play 0:37-0:54 and collect responses verbally.)

3. Seeking details (goals: identification and comparison). As we listen this time, let’s try to figure out how Vivaldi uses pitch. Are most of the sounds high or low, or does he use high and low together? (Play 1:00-1:25 and collect responses verbally.)

4. Specific details (goals: identification and comparison). Vivaldi doesn’t always present his musical ideas in the same way. Let’s listen to how he uses the orchestra. Do all the musicians play all the time? Are any instruments featured separately from the orchestra? If so, what instrument or instruments are featured? (Play 0:00-1:00 and collect responses verbally.)

Teacher’s Guide for the Portland Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Concert Series “Sounds Like Art: Painting, Poetry and Performance”

Materials created by The Center for Excellence in Music Education University of Southern Maine, School of Music

©January 2010

ACTIVITIES OF THE LESSON Part II: Ears-on Listening (continued) 5. Synthesis (goals: understanding craftsmanship and making meaning). As we

listen one last time, let’s do two things. First, as we listen, let’s think about why Vivaldi used different sounds - high/low, long/short, repeated/changing, and solo instrument versus orchestra – create the feeling of winter? And, second, as we listen, let’s each write down a list of two or three words (related to winter) that come to mind as we listen. (Play full piece and collect responses verbally.)

Suggested transition to poetry writing activity: Now that we’ve got such a collection of words about winter, we should write a poem! Poets use words to create a feeling of an event or time or place much in the same way that Vivaldi used musical sounds. The main difference is that poets have words and Vivaldi had an orchestra.

Part III: Writing Poetry Synthesis and transfer: Let’s try to write some poems about “Winter”. As you

create your poem, think about your own experiences of winter as well as how our class and Vivaldi both used repeating sounds, rapidly changing sounds, short sounds, and high and low sounds to capture the feeling of winter in sound. Try to include words in your poem that remind the reader of winter. Remember that words, just like musical sounds, can be repeated, changed quickly, and used to create feeling. Write a poem that is at least 2-4 lines long (for Grs. 3-4; lengthen to 4-8 lines for Grs. 5-6 and 8-12 lines for Grs.7-8).

Teacher’s Guide for the Portland Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Concert Series “Sounds Like Art: Painting, Poetry and Performance”

Materials created by The Center for Excellence in Music Education University of Southern Maine, School of Music

©January 2010