This year I taught music history in chronological order to my fifth graders, with Bach in September and Rock in May (”Bach to Rock”). The idea was to give a sense of the evolution of music. Bear in mind that I see them 45 minutes per week, with other agenda items besides history. We’re not going real deep here, folks. Also, I had never taught rock before. It was fun.
In any event, here is basically what we covered. Are you smarter than a fifth grader?
- (Pre-Bach) Why did people think that Guido the monk was possessed by an evil spirit?
- What is a variation?
- What keyboard instrument is impossible to transport because it is part of a building (usually a church or symphony hall)?
- Which composer toured Europe as a child with his father and sister?
- Wagner wrote four operas that go together to tell one really long story. What do we call the entire story?
- Name two Tchaikovsky ballets.
- Who wrote “In The Hall of the Mountain King”?
- We listened to part of the Firebird Suite that was one, big crescendo. What is a crescendo?
- Which two instrument families are featured in “Fanfare for the Common Man”?
- Match the friends: Grieg, Copland, Chavez, Tchaikovsky
- What is the name of Elvis Presley’s mansion that is now a museum?
- Elvis did Elvis serve in the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marines?
- Name the four Beatles.
- On which TV show did The Beatles get their big break?
- Match the song with its possible meaning. (In this format, the titles follow the descriptions…): (A)The lyrics are a poem about overcoming obstacles, (B) This song describes the writer’s idea of a perfect world, (C)The man singing has lost the woman he loved. He wishes he could go back and do things differently. The titles: ”Imagine”, ”Yesterday”, ”Blackbird”.
- What style of music started in Detroit, Michigan?
- What is the name of the duet sung by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder? What is it meant to symbolize?
michael lee 6:31 pm on 19 May 2008 Permalink
OK, I’m going to actually try this, without using wikipedia or anything.
1. He used a dominant 7th in his music?
2. A melodic theme translated into a series of settings with harmonic and rhythmic alterations. It’s really hard to define this without just using the word “Variation”.
3. Korg PS-3300.
4. Mozart?
5. Unendurable.
6. The Nutcracker Suite, Swan Lake
7. Tolkien
The King beneath the mountains,
The king of carven stone,
The lord of silver fountains
Shall come into his own!
His crown shall be upholden,
His harp shall be restrung,
His halls shall echo golden
To songs of yore re-sung.
The woods shall wave on mountains.
And grass beneath the sun;
His wealth shall flow in fountains
And the rivers golden run.
The Streams shall run in gladness.
The lakes shall shine and burn,
And sorrow fail and sadness
At the Mountain-king’s return!
8. It means to speed up the tempo, while ignoring frantic gestures from the conductor.
9. Brass, Percussion
10. I think the have the wrong website.
11. Surprise. No wait, Graceland.
12. Army?
13. Paul Simon, John Fogerty, George Strait, and Ringo Shiina.
14. Ed Sullivan
15. (A) – all of them?
16. MOTOWN, BABY!
17. The Girl Is Mine. It was meant to symbolize that the girl was nothin’ but run-around gutter trash, gold-diggin her way through any celebrity who would have her. Good times.
Chad 10:45 pm on 19 May 2008 Permalink
So, Mike…
What’s the deal with the spammer with a phatty for this blog?
michael lee 10:58 pm on 19 May 2008 Permalink
all the people wants to be linked to from the addison roads.
Paul Reisser 11:38 pm on 19 May 2008 Permalink
1. Wasn’t Guido the cigarette-smoking priest on Saturday Night Live?
5. The name of the Wagner 4-opera story is “The Ring of the Zzzzz”
7. I can’t think of the composer’s name, but the piece goes,
“Doo-be doo-be doo-be doo,
Doo-be-doo,
Doo-be-doo,
Doo-be doo-be doo-be doo-be doo-be doo-be dooooo!” Etc.
Oh, wait, it was Grieg. I knew it was one of those guys who couldn’t speak English.
12. Elvis was in the Army (thus inspiring the events in “Bye-Bye Birdie,” in which rock-idol Conrad Birdie did likewise. Can you imagine Elvis in the Marines??
15. A-3, B-1, C-2. Perfect world? Yeah, right.
Sharolyn 3:07 pm on 20 May 2008 Permalink
1. Guido is said to have been possessed because he could make groups of people sing the same notes based on his hand motions (conducting). It’s hard to tell for sure, but he supposedly came up with what evolved into our notation system. He was eventually forgiven and blessed. He later appeared regularly on SNL. :)
2. We just say that a variation is the same thing said in a different way.
7. Paul, I was right with you with your syllables. A+.
10. Grieg and Tchaikovsky were friends; Chavez and Copland were friends. Just as friends dress alike (just look around the mall), friends compose alike. There were lots of similarities between Grieg and Tchaikovsky – accelerando at the end… favored meters of three… instrument choices… can’t remember the others right now!
I was surprised at how much these students, born in the 1990s, knew about the Beatles. I’m sure American Idol played no small part in that.
Paul Reisser 12:12 am on 21 May 2008 Permalink
Grieg and Tchaikovsky also could have used a little Prozac.
Congratulations on your efforts to increase musical literacy. I bet one in ten randomly selected adults wouldn’t get five of your questions correct.
Eric 6:15 am on 21 May 2008 Permalink
1. Because he had weird satanic symbols tattooed on the palms of his hands.
2. Variation is when you keep playing the same thing hoping for different results – a sure sign of insanity.
3. The theatre organ in Wanamaker’s department store, Philadelphia, PA.
4. Zart. Moe Zart.
5. The Ring of the Nibelungen (a German compound word meaning “of interminable duration, bring snacks”).
6. Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and backstage at the 1812 Overture.
7. Edvard Grieg (but the tune was made famous by Frank Sinatra).
8. It means to get louder (also usually faster and sharper).
9. brass (Hatfields) and percussion (McCoys).
10. I don’t know if Grieg & Tchaikovsky were friends, but they copied each other’s piano concertos. Copland & Chavez were drinking buddies.
11. Disgraceland.
12. Army – We love you Conrad.
13. Don’t they already have names?
14. Ed Sullivan.
15. A – Blackbird, B – Imagine, C – Yesterday
16. Mo-mo-mo- (how do you like it) town.
17. Ebony and Ivory. Paul could only play on the white keys and Stevie only played the black ones. So betwixt them both, you see…
Sharolyn 12:21 pm on 21 May 2008 Permalink
Thanks for the encouragement, Paul
You are funny, Mike and Eric.
Apparently Tchaikovsky wrote in his diary, “It is Grieg who has altogether won my heart.”
I’m pretty sure I scored some major points with my students when at the end of class one day (and after studying the Lennon version) (and with the enthusiastic blessing of my principal) I showed this.
Chad, I am wondering, since you’ve watched American Idol more than I have this season,
1) Who do you think should win?
and
2) Who do you think will actually win?
Eric 4:59 pm on 21 May 2008 Permalink
How can you teach Bach to Rock and skip Bacharach?
Gwen 3:01 pm on 12 June 2008 Permalink
Sorry, I know nothing about music, but is there then a story behind why the Tchaikovsky’s Danse de Cygnes from Swan Lake sounds just like Grieg’s In the Hall of the Mountain King?
Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader, 2.0 | Addison Road 8:36 pm on 2 February 2009 Permalink
[...] Sharolyn ⋅ February 2, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment Last time it was Bach to Rock. This time it’s Jazz [...]
Sharolyn 8:48 pm on 2 February 2009 Permalink
Gwen, here is belated answer – they were friends. I ask my students, “Have you ever looked around the mall, and noticed that friends dress alike? Friends compose alike, too.” My ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS came up with similarities between these composers (with the help of some awesome CD Rom “animated listening maps”): They liked triple meter, liked to speed up at the end, didn’t mind grand pauses, used similar instrumentation. Kids can be pretty insightful. I am proud of my students.
june 10:10 pm on 2 February 2009 Permalink
Really, really cool Shar. And also so sad…only 45 minutes a week?! Sigh. Though, I think our second grader gets music for about half an hour every other week. Hey, but it’s SUPER COOl that they keep him in from BOTH recesses if he doesn’t do well enough on the math assignments and quizzes every freakin’ day!!!
I have issues.
He no longer misses any recess as per his crazy parents request.
Really great stuff Sharolyn!
sharolyn 8:01 am on 3 February 2009 Permalink
June, you care deeply about your boys and they are lucky to have you!
I’m sure this is of not concern to anyone, but I feel the need to explain that sometimes I see 4th and 5th graders together, so do an every-other-year curriculum with them. In other words, the fifth graders last year aren’t getting something completely different. It’s just that there’s no show entitled “Are you Smarter than a Fourth Grader”.