Note for the Teacher
The arrangement and letter names of the lines and spaces on the musical
staff are introduced in Third Grade; since fourth graders have not yet
followed the BCP curriculum for Third Grade, this material will be new
to them.
Objectives
Recall the letter names of the notes of the C-major scale (review from
Lesson 1).
Identify the names of C-major scale on a music staff.
Identify names of lines and spaces on a music staff.
Learn to sing a round in 3 parts.
Identify the time signature as 6/4.
Materials
Personal keyboards from Lesson 1
C-major scale notation from Lesson 1 (attached)
"Evening Bells," attached,
1 copy for each student and 1 used as transparency
Procedure
Have the students take out their personal keyboards (from Lesson 1)
and have them tell you what it is (keyboard for locating C-major scale).
Tell them that, in addition to the music syllables do, re, mi that
they have used when they sing the scale, there are 7 letters of the alphabet
that are used over and over again in music. Have the students point to
the letters on their keyboards and sing the C-major scale using the letters
C, D, E, and so on. Have them sing down the scale using the letter names
as well (C, B, A, and so on). Tell them: Since the same letters are used
over and over in the same order, use your pencils to fill in the rest of
the notes on your keyboards with the correct letter names; do the ones
going up first, then the ones going down.
Circulate among the students to make sure they have filled them in
correctly and help those who need it. When they are sure of the order,
show them the scale reproduced below (from Lesson 1), which you have put
on the board and ask whether they have seen it and what it is (yes; C-major
scale in music notation, C-major scale on music staff).
Tell the students to sing the scale using the letter names for the
scale; then have someone come to the board and write them under the notes.
Next, have someone come to the board and write the C-major scale, descending,
on the music staff; then have someone come and write the correct letter
names under that scale. Let the students sing the scale in both directions,
using the letter names, and ask the students: What would be the next notes
if that scale kept climbing up? (D, E, and F) Erase the descending scale
and have someone come to the board and draw in the notes and put the letter
names underneath them.
Tell the class: Everyone who plays an instrument, whether it is a violin,
a trumpet, a piano, or a bass, learns to read music by knowing the names
of the lines and spaces of the music staff, because -- as long as that
treble clef is there (point to it) -- the names of the lines and spaces
will always be the same. Write a new five-line staff on the board with
a treble clef and ask the students to tell you the names of the
5 lines, from bottom to top. Write them along the right or left sides of
the staff next to each line (E, G, B, D, F). Ask for the names of the 4
spaces from bottom to top and have a student write them in the correct
spaces (F, A, C, E). Tell them the way to remember the names of the lines
is to memorize the little sentence
Every Good Boy Does
Fine.
Have them repeat the sentence a few times, then say: The way to remember
the names of the spaces is to remember what they spell, which is? (FACE)
Have them repeat the names of the lines as you point to them, then the
spaces as you point to them, a few times. Congratulate them on learning
the names of the lines and spaces of the music staff and then project the
transparency of the "Evening
Bells."
Ask them to read the name of the song to you, and tell them it is a
round. Ask them: What does that mean? (Everyone sings the same music but
not at the same time.) Ask them what is the first musical sign they see?
(treble clef) Then ask: If that treble clef sign is there, then what are
the names of the lines on the music staff for this song? (E, G, B, D, F)
And what is the sentence that helps to remember them? (Every Good Boy
Does Fine.) What are the names of the spaces? (FACE)
Then what is the name of the first note in this song? (F)
What about the last note? (F)
Tell them: Now you can see that not everything begins and ends on C.
This song has a kind of home base on F.
What is the next little music sign you see that you have not seen before?
(Whatever they call the flat is fine, just so they notice it.) Tell them
it is called a flat, and tell them: Since it appears on the third
line, we can tell what particular kind of flat it is. What is the letter
name of the third line? (B) That's right. This flat is a B Show them how
to write it on the board, just so they recognize it. Tell them that the
B* means that, for the whole of this
piece, the B is a little lower, which singers do automatically to make
the melody sound right, but a piano player will have to be careful to play
the black note between the A and the B, which is the B*
on the keyboard. (You may want to have them look on their keyboards to
see where that note is.)
Ask what the next sign is (time signature, 6/4, tells the meter of
the piece). Ask them: Do you remember the time signature we saw in "White
Coral Bells"? (4/4) And what did that tell us? (4 beats in a measure; quarter
note gets 1 beat) So what do you think the time signature 6/4 means? (6
beats in a measure, quarter note gets one beat)
Ask: What kind of note is the first note? (half note) How many beats
will it get? (2)
What kind of note is the second note? (quarter note) How many beats
will it get? (1)
Say to them: I want you to try to count to yourselves and see whether
you come out with 6 beats for each measure in the first line. After they
have had a few minutes to try, have someone come to the transparency and
move the pointer to each note as they count it. Try the same thing with
the second line, allowing the students time to figure it out before anyone
tries to count it out in front of the class.
Point to the third line and ask: What kind of notes do you think these
are? They can't be quarter notes, because they are hollow, but they also
aren't half notes because they all have those dots after them. If each
measure still has 6 beats, how would you count those notes? (3 beats for
each, see if someone will figure that out mathematically and congratulate
them if they do) Tell them: Those notes are called dotted half notes.
Any note that is dotted, gets 2
again its own value. How many beats does a half note get in this piece?
(2) So how many does the dotted half note get? (3)
Tell them that this is a round written for 3 parts, and the numbers
they see above each line tell when each voice part enters. Say to them:
For today, we will learn this song in unison, and
next time you will divide into 3 different groups to sing it as a round.
What does unison mean? (Everyone sings exactly the same music at
exactly the same time.) Tell them that pieces of music written in 6/4 always
have a nice kind of rocking rhythm that they will be able to feel if they
sing the song giving all the notes their full time value. Say: Many lullabies
have a 6/4 time signature, because it makes the music soothing and is a
good way to put babies to sleep; if you have a baby brother or sister,
you should try singing this song for them when it's their bedtime.
Teach the students one line at a time. Begin by singing each line for
them and having them repeat it with you immediately after; then sing each
line for them and have them echo you. Be sure to tell them that they need
to sound like real bells in the last line. Let them experiment with making
a good bell sound with their voices. (Making a good, strong consonant on
the initial D and then singing through the ing sound for
each note is one good way to do it.) Eventually sing all three lines in
succession. If they have a good grasp of the piece by this time, have them
sway back and forth to feel the rocking rhythm as they sing it.
Note: There are a few more musical signs in the piece that someone may notice (the repeat sign and double bar at the end), but if they should ask, tell them you will explain it to them when they sing the song as a round.
Fourth Grade - Music - Lesson 8 - Haydn "Military" Symphony
Objectives
Listen carefully to a movement of a symphony by Haydn (takes ca. 7
min.).
Discuss bass drum, triangle, and cymbals as military instruments in
the 18th century.
Identify bass drum, triangle, and cymbals as members of the percussion
family.
Discuss the difference in sound between tympani and bass drum.
Complete a journal prompt.
Materials
Recording of Haydn's Symphony No. 100, see Suggested Recording
below
Biographical information about Franz Joseph Haydn, see Suggested Books
below
Pictures of tympani and bass drum from one of the books on instruments
listed in the Bibliography or use those attached
Student journals or paper and pencils for each student
Suggested Recording
Haydn, Symphonies Nos. 82 "The
Bear," 96 "The Miracle,"
& 100 "Military,"
Naxos CD 8.550.139
Suggested Books
Ardley, Neil. Music. New York: Knopf, 1989.
Produced originally in England by Dorling Kindersley, this is one of
the "Eyewitness" books, with
its characteristic thoroughness to detail and excellent photographs, in
this case mainly of instruments from all times and all cultures, though
it is predominantly Western. Ardley does an excellent job of telling all
the nuts and bolts of how instruments are made and how they produce their
sounds. Included are "chapters"
on both electric and electronic music. It could serve as a stimulating
review of the families of instruments, reeds, various keyboards and their
mechanics, and many of the other subjects we have covered in the BCP music
lessons for instrumental music so far.
Greene, Carol. Franz Joseph Haydn: Great Man of Music. Chicago:
Children's Press, 1994.
Part of the "Rookie Biography"
series of Children's Press, this is easily readable by fourth graders and
has good reproductions of engravings and paintings from Haydn's time as
well as some photographs of buildings where the composer lived and worked.
Lasker, David. The Boy Who Loved Music. New York: The Viking
Press, 1979.
This is a very accessible storybook recounting an actual incident that
was the impetus for Haydn's "Farewell"
symphony. The main character in the story is a young horn player in the
employ of Prince Nicolaus Esterhazy, in one of his castles in Austria,
where Haydn became Music Director when he was 29. The paintings by Joseph
Lasker are filled with the atmosphere of 18th century Vienna.
Note to the Teacher
The students listened to a movement from another Haydn symphony earlier
this year (see Lesson 4). Both the Background for the Teacher and the first
part of the Procedure included in that lesson can be used for this one
as well, if you do not have access to a biography. It would provide a good
opportunity for review of that material, which includes the definition
of symphony, the names of the 4 families of instruments and those of the
main instruments of each, and the typical European practice of its day
for musicians and composers, which was to be in the service of a court.
(Even a composer as famous as Haydn, had to gain permission from Duke
Esterhazy for both of his London trips, and he was 59 years old at
the time of the first one!) Like the "Surprise"
symphony which they heard earlier, the "Military"
symphony is one of Haydn's
called "London" symphonies.
It received its first performance in London in 1794, during Haydn's second
visit to the city. What makes this symphony so unusual -- especially audible
in the second movement -- is the pounding bass drum, jangling triangle,
and crashing cymbals, which we nowadays associate with marching bands,
military parades, and such; in the 18th century these kinds of percussion
instruments were never heard in a classical music performance at court
or concert hall. They still sound pretty raucous to our ears as part of
a symphony; the students will need to be reminded that orchestras at that
time were much, much smaller than what came afterwards with the symphonies
of Beethoven, Brahms and on into 19th century music.
Procedure
Review the materials from Lesson 4 mentioned above, but do not tell
the students anything about the instruments in this particular piece. Tell
them that they will hear the second movement of a symphony by Haydn. (You
could also review the term movement as a section of a piece of classical
music. Another way that might help them to understand the term is to tell
them that a movement in a piece of music is like a chapter in a book.)
Say to them: This movement is quite short, and I want you to listen very
carefully so you can tell me after you've listened why people gave this
particular symphony of Haydn's the nickname "Military
Symphony."
After they have listened, ask them the question again. (Accept any
answer that shows they have listened to the piece and thought about the
question.) If no one names the loud sounds of the bass drum, triangle,
or cymbals, ask: Which percussion instruments did you hear in the piece?
Show them a picture of a bass drum from a book, or use the one reproduced
here.
Ask them if they have ever seen a drum that looks like this and, if
so, where (a jazz band, a marching band, a parade).
Ask them the name of this drum (bass drum) and whether this drum is
large or small (very large).
Ask: If you saw someone playing a bass drum in a parade or military
marching band, how would the person play it and carry it? (A strong strap
attaches to the big drum, so the player can slip it around his body; it
is usually played with a stick with padding at the head, and sometimes
with two big sticks so the player can bang it with both hands, alternating
them in rhythm.)
Tell the students that drums like this were used in the American Revolution
as well as in European wars, because they made it easier for the soldiers
to march and urged them to move into action. Say to them: This kind of
drum didn't usually appear at the court of Duke Esterhazy, where Haydn
was in charge of music. The kind of drum used in orchestras at the time
were softer and sweeter in sound like the one pictured here. (Show them
a picture of a tympani or kettle drum in a book or show them this one.)
Ask them whether they have ever seen this drum and, if so, where (concert,
concert hall).
Ask whether they know its name (kettledrum or tympani). Point out the
6 little handles at the top and tell them: This drum is not only for keeping
a steady beat for marching. A kettle drum can actually be tuned to be in
tune with the particular piece the orchestra is playing. Usually there
are two kettle drums in a symphony orchestra -- they come in pairs-- and
each of them will have a different tone to play.
Ask the students how they think kettledrums are played (The drums sit
on the floor supported by the kind of pedestal seen underneath in the picture.
The player stands slightly behind and between the 2 drums holding two sticks
with soft, fuzzy heads and goes back and forth between the 2 drums so that
it looks almost as though he or she were dancing.) Tell the students that
the next time they go to a concert they should locate the tympani player,
who is always way at the back of the orchestra, in the middle or at the
left, and watch to see how much action the person has. Sometimes they cross
hands, sometimes they do a long, slow drum roll, and sometimes they play
unbelievably fast.
Tell the students to listen once more to the second movement of the
Haydn "Military" symphony and
then tell you what other 2 instruments they hear that are always a part
of a marching band in a parade. Say: You will hear a loud trumpet towards
the very end, playing a kind of "call
to battle," and the trumpet would certainly be part of a marching band,
but the 2 instruments I'm thinking of are part of the percussion family,
and they are not drums. One of them is small with a small, tinkly sound,
and the other makes a huge, crashing sound. Hopefully, they will hear the
triangle and the cymbals.
If there is time, discuss with them how the triangle is played (small
triangle of metal hangs freely from a small strap held in one hand and
tapped lightly with a metal wand in the other hand). The cymbals they will
probably know about (come in pairs and different sizes; leather straps
attached to the slightly raised "dimple"
at the outside center of each is held in each hand and the cymbals are
crashed together by bringing arms together with a strong, free motion,
keeping cymbals vibrating after bringing them together so as not to stop
or mute the sound). Ask them: Do you think the cymbals in the Haydn piece
were large or small ones? (very large) Could you imagine how it would feel
to be a soldier in a strange field and have a whole regiment come towards
you with its front line manned by uniformed players with a huge bass drum,
enormous cymbals, and a triangle? How about if you were marching behind
them? How would that feel?
Have the students write 5 or 6 sentences in their journals or on writing
paper, beginning:
I think Haydn used these military instruments because. . . .
Or
I would love to play one of these military instruments, because.
. . .