Teaching
Masterworks
Through
Known Songs
A
by Georgia A. Newlin
s music educators, one of our many common goals is to
teach our students great masterworks in order to create
an understanding and appreciation of the western classical tradition. With limited teaching time (combined
with the desire to achieve many other goals in music literacy,
vocal and instrumental production, improvisation, world music,
creative movement, quality performance, and more) one way to
help students of any grade level begin to listen to masterworks is
through songs they already know.
FIRST GRADERS
For example, first graders can sing and play games to these traditional children’s songs: “Baa, Baa, Black Sheep,” “The Farmer
in the Dell,” “Little Bo Peep,” “London Bridge,” “Oh, Dear, What
Can the Matter Be?,” “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star,” and James
Pierpont’s “Jingle Bells.” Once they can each be performed by the
students without teacher help have the class devise one specific
motion representing each song. Over a number of days, play different sections of Harl McDonald’s Children’s Symphony on familiar tunes 1 and instruct the children that as they are listening they
should make the specific motion for each song when it is heard in
the recording. Over the course of time the class can create a road
map for the entire piece by using icons for each song (black sheep,
farmer, Bo Peep, bridge, Johnny, star, jingle bells), allowing you
to discuss form in an elemental way.
SECOND GRADERS
Teach the beautiful tune “The Little Birch Tree” 2 to second
graders until they can sing the song independently. They can
even be challenged to sing in canon or learn the Russian text.
Next, play Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, Op. 36, IV and have
students move to the music differentiating between the known
parts (“The Little Birch Tree” melody) and unfamiliar parts.
During the beginning of the introduction have students show
the beat as they wish but have them stay in one place. Very soon,
one complete playing of the tune occurs and students can move
around the room with the rhythm of the melody in their feet.
Next comes about 90 seconds of intense musical build up—again
60 Southwestern Musician | November 2012
the students can show the beat in various ways but must be stationary. Four playings of “The Little Birch Tree” melody occur
in succession beginning with the flutes and working its way
down through the orchestra to the very low brass. Students are
instructed to tiptoe with the light, high instruments and change
the way they move their feet as the melody gets lower and heavier.
With repeated hearings and guidance from you, students actually
figure out ways to convey four different weights (rather than just
tiptoe and stomping). Once they know it well, the students can
move and sing along with each playing of the folk song melody.
THIRD GRADERS
Third graders can sing the song “Bought Me a Cat” along
with the book Cat Goes Fiddle-I-Fee, humorously illustrated by
Paul Galdone. Once they know the song well, listen to Copland’s
Old American Songs, No. 5, I Bought Me a Cat and have the children describe the differences between the ways in which they
sing the song versus the more formal arrangement by Copland.
In particular, draw their attention to the use of instrumental timbre for each animal sound. Connecting this activity to teaching
the instruments of the orchestra creates a tie between orchestral
instruments and the human voice. Although commonplace for
mature musicians, it can be students’ first association among the
two seemingly separate entities.
FOURTH GRADERS
Using Aaron Copland’s Billy the Kid with fourth graders gives
them a chance to sing the following folk songs: “Git Along, Little
Dogies” (Street in a Frontier Town), “Goodbye, Old Paint”
(Mexican Dance and Finale), and “Great-Granddad” (Street in
a Frontier Town). Follow each listening session with discussions such as how Copland transformed the tunes rhythmically
or melodically, and why the students believe the composer chose
certain instruments to play each folk song.
FIFTH GRADERS
Fifth-grade students can use the tune “Frere Jacques” to consciously learn to move between major and minor. First, students
sing “Frere Jacques” and then read the solfège (s, d r mf s l) from
the staff in F major. By adding three more flats to the key signature (A-flat major), students then sing it in minor (m, l td r mf)
from the same staff but now in F minor. Play Mahler’s Symphony
No. 1, III “Feierlich und Gemessen, Ohne Zu Schleppen,” and
ask students to count how many times the tune occurs in canon
(11). While easy at first, this activity rapidly becomes challenging
because the entrances progressively get closer together.
Once the students have heard Mahler’s version of “Frere
Jacques” in minor, they can be led to identify that his tune has
rhythmic and melodic modifications from their minor version:
l t dt l | l t dt l | d r m | d r m | mf mr dt l | mf mr dt l | m m, l | m m, l ||.
Once they derive the tune, divide the class into eleven equal parts
allowing each group to sing in solfège showing hand signs.
MIDDLE SCHOOL
A fascinating long-term activity for middle school students is
to compare a known song across multiple settings. For example,
God Save the Queen (America), has been used in about 140 different masterworks, 3 six of which are: Variations on “God Save the
RBC
MUSIC COMPANY INCORPORATED
Southwestern Musician | November 2012 63
King” (Beethoven), Wellington’s Victory (Beethoven), Symphony
No. 3 (Clementi), Preludes, Book 2, No. 9: “Pickwick” (Debussy),
Variations on America (Ives), and Variations on “God Save the King”
(Paganini) as well as being masterfully performed by Queen on
their album A Night at the Opera. Begin by singing multiple verses
of America and God Save the Queen and then work on reading it
in solfège and rhythm names to establish a baseline of musical
understanding. The students can compare and contrast the slight
rhythmic variations created by the differences in texts as well as
learn about the historical significances of each text setting.
Then, during each class period, the students concentrate on
one of the masterworks by listening to the recording and comparing each variation or setting of the tune with their knowledge
of the solfège and rhythm of the melody (thus increasing their
music literacy skills). While students do not always use musical terms in their descriptions, they often find creative ways to
explain what they are hearing. It’s exciting for the class when
you identify the proper music terminology for their imaginative
explanations. Be sure to lead students to discuss many facets of
music such as form, texture (monophonic, polyphonic, homophonic), rhythm, melody, harmony, timbre (tone color of voices
and instruments), meter, dynamics, tonality (major, minor,
modal, atonal), and tempo. Students could keep a chart on each
masterwork that includes the title, composer, and information on
the particular recording you play as well as their notes from the
class discussions.
After exploring the variations and settings within each piece,
compare the pieces to each other. One of the most clearly defined
ways to begin is with large form. Ask questions such as, “How does Beethoven use the
tune differently in Variations on ‘God Save
the King’ versus Wellington’s Victory?” (The
first is theme and variations and the second is used in a programmatic way.) And,
“How do Beethoven, Ives, and Paganini
create different variations on the same
tune?” (This can lead to a discussion of style
period and availability of different instruments to each composer.) Or, “Why does
Debussy use a brief introduction of the
tune in his Prelude compared to its use late
in the fourth movement of Clementi’s Great
National Symphony?” (The Debussy prelude
is an homage to the Samuel Pickwick character from The Pickwick Papers by Charles
Dickens.4 Clementi’s work is a rousing tribute to his adopted homeland, England.5)
Ending this unit by playing Queen’s version
of God Save the Queen (or other rock adaptations)6 can lead to an understanding of the
timelessness of the anthem and its musical
role in the relationship between the British
Isles and the United States.
Each of the pieces discussed here uses
preexisting music as its basis for the masterwork or it is integrated into it. Asking students about the composers’ choices in using
the songs, or questioning whether using
known songs makes a composition original,
can lead to productive discussions about the contributions of each
composer. Understanding how composers use, alter, extend, and
mix known tunes in their works can lead students to make similar connections with popular music that, in many of the same
ways, uses sampling, is remixed or restyled, or is performed as a
cover. Using known songs to lead students to learn and love masterworks expands their musical knowledge by encouraging them
to think about what the music demands of them as listeners and
what is offered to them by way of culture, history, and meaning. REFERENCES
1. McDonald, H.: Children’s Symphony/Brand, M.: The
Wonderful One-Hoss-Shay (Harl McDonald, Ormandy) (1950).
Not available in the United States on CD due to possible copyright restrictions. Exclusively available for streaming and download on Naxos.com.
2. Boshkoff, R. & Sorensen, K. Multicultural Songs, Games, and
Dances. OAKE Publications at www.oake.org
3. http://en.wik ipedia.org /wik i /God_ Save_the_ Queen
(retrieved August 23, 2012).
4. ibid.
5. ibid.
6. ibid.
Georgia A. Newlin is an assistant professor at Adelphi
University and is an Elementary Division Featured Clinician
presenting at the 2013 TMEA Clinic/Convention.
TMEA CLINIC/CONVENTION
February 13–16 ‡ San Antonio
www.tmea.org/convention
The Bass School of Music
at
Oklahoma City
Dane Romano BM’11, MM ‘13
Honorable Mention, 2012 Southern
California Marimba Competition,
Collegiate Duo Competition
University
congratulates
Joseph Craven BM ‘14
www.okcu.edu/music
Percussion students of Dr. David Steffens, [email protected]
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