Study the Composers- Link Up (11/10/11)

Entering the Classical Period & Franz Joseph Haydn

 We started into the Classical Period this week. For the introduction, I simply read from A Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers. The kids really wanted to listen to something from the era but since there wasn’t a specific listening selection in the book…well, I made them be content with WCLV on the radio

However, as we moved along through the book we are now onto Joseph Haydn and there were plenty of listening selections to choose from. The one the kids really wanted to listen to though was not linked…I went searching

Le Poule Symphony is what they wanted to hear. Here is one video I found. Watch the performers heads… (just be careful if you choose other videos for this piece- some are not appropriate imho!)

We really enjoyed Haydn’s sense of humor His Farewell Symphony is great piece that shows a small bit of it. There was a youtube video linked in the book and it is the best that is probably out there but it’s not very clear. It would be really neat to see live. Or how about Surprise Symphony- Haydn said, “It will make all the women scream!” (A Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers, 2009, pg. 45)- it made me jump in surprise!

We will ‘finish up’ with Haydn on Friday by reading more about him in Harriette Brower’s book The World’s Great Men of Music found at Project Gutenberg. Also we will do more time lining and map placement (because I don’t think of it as ‘work’- we line up the composer with their country and color the country [if it isn’t already]). We will finish by making our composer info card and putting him in the Classical Period folder

How has your study been this week? Are you wondering how to just get started? Jump in! Check out ~a teaching heart~ for other ‘linkers’ to see what they have been doing.

PS: Thank you very much, Angie from Petra School and especially Barb from Harmony Fine Arts for the mini-unit on Prokofiev and Degas! I cannot wait to get started (I’ve been reading it already and searching for materials). I will add posts as we use it.

Study of the Composers- Thursday Link Up

This is our 3rd week studying the composers. It'll be a short recap this week for us... We are still in the hotel and did not have our 'usual' study. We listened simply to Vivaldi selections. The one we listened to that was suggested from The Young Scholar’s Guide to the Composers was Vivaldi’s Spring, 1st Movement.

We listened to it quite a few times- over and over and over… and repeat that a few times Since we listened to Spring we decided to go through the seasons. It was interesting to think how the music relates to the happenings during the seasons. Vivaldi’s Winter is one of my favorite- because most people like Spring lol but really I enjoy the way it sounds.

We really didn’t do much ‘study’ this week but next week will work better. Actually we will be going over Vivaldi again.

Care to link up or want to see what others have done with composer study? Head to ~a teaching heart~ for more

Study the Composers- Thursday Link Up

Studying Music in the Renaissance. Circa 1350 to 1620.

Philippine Madigral Singers: "Prayers of St. Francis"
*The video may contain images that maybe considered disturbing. It goes through a lot of tragedies faced in our present day (such as the nuclear bomb during WWII).*

We also listened to the other selections from The Young Scholar's Guide to Composers and honestly we didn't 'like' them at first. It took us a few listens to get used to the very high notes. They were so different than the Gregorian Chants! Fox described the chants as “epic” and the Madigrals were…well, not so much.

This one is audio only.

Here is Sumer is Icumen in. We enjoyed seeing the costumes.
I don’t know why it’s larger than the rest, not supposed to be!

Dd had read about this song in History of English Literature, chapter 18, page 77 (in the print version done by Kelly Kenar available from Lulu). When we listened to it the first time she knew it was familiar but couldn’t quite put her finger on it We ended up listening to this one a few times. Also, we looked up the words to “Sumer is Icumen in” via Wikipedia.

After learning how it was so special, we had to find Miserere. They say that the versions today are nothing like the original so we wonder what it truly sounded like. Wouldn’t that have been amazing to hear!

We learned about Vincenzo Galilei, Galileo Galilei’s father, at the end of the lesson.

We haven’t gotten to listen to these selections again (getting stuff sorted for moving and whatnot). We will take next week off from school so there won’t be any Composer Study for us.

I would like to have been able to use the coloring pages in the back of The Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers but they are for the specific composers that we will study starting in the next chapter. I especially like those I love to color!

How do you do Composer Study? Link up with the Study the Composers if you’d like or come see what others have done.

Study the Composers- Link Up!

Join the new link up for Composer Study! You don't have to make a long post (actually you could just browse what others are doing for ideas if you aren't quite ready to 'commit' to Composer Study) just post what you do for Composer Study in your homeschool. The purpose is to give us accountability to get it done in our homes :) 

We use Ambleside Online curriculum mostly and as a Charlotte Mason method of schooling (way of life, really) they advocate the inclusion of Composer Study. We are in our 2 1/2 year of trying to use CM/AO and this is the first year we will include Composer Study on a regular basis (I hope).

From Timberdoodle and Bright Ideas Press I was given The Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers to review.

This week we have been listening to and learning about Gregorian Chants (Ancient Music to Music of the Middle Ages). There were some suggested selections on YouTube and we also looked at others by Googling “Gregorian Chants”.

Saint Gregory, Pope from 590-604, standardized the chants that before were different for different churches throughout Europe. The music that was allowed in the churches followed 3 rules:

1. Must remind the listener of divine and perfect beauty.
2. Must be a servant of religion and instruments were not allowed because words were needed to teach Christian thoughts.
3. No pagan influences- large choruses, “happy” melodies, dancing.

After the music was standardized, they were now sung in unison, used no instruments, were non-metrical, and they smoothly progressed (no jumps from high to low notes, or vice versa). The chants were also sung in Latin except for the Kyrie, which is Greek.

Because we have never been in a Catholic, Angelican or Lutheran church the kids and I were rather unexposed to this type of beautiful music. The closest we’ve gotten is the perhaps the modern music group that I cannot even recall (it was popular in the late 1990s…)

I read the lesson out loud and the kids ‘took notes’ with the “Note-taking Pages” that are included with The Young Scholar’s Guide to Composers.

We listened to:

We recently learned what Agnus Dei means while studying Latin. It is so nice to make the connections in other areas of learning. And although it has been a little while, we studied about Saint Gregory from Saints & Heroes (available to read online at Mainlesson.com).

 

Salve Regina

 

Dies Irae

We plan to listen to these again today (yes, it's already later...but never too late to listen to such beauty) and then tomorrow. Lee said that they all sound the same. But I do think that was the intent. The words are different but the pattern are often the same or similar. They were ‘standardized’. Even though we don’t know what all the words mean, the music is beautiful and they ask to listen to it again and again.

Next week we move on to Music in the Renaissance (circa 1350-1620).