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LISTENING: Introducing the Sounds of the Symphony Orchestra

NATIONAL STANDARDS FOR MUSIC EDUCATION: the following are addressed in these lesson plans:

• Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.

• Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.

• Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

• Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

• Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

• Reading and notating music.

• Moving to music

Casey at the Bat is perhaps America’s best-know poem. Written in 1888 by a young newspaper columnist, it has retained a place in the hearts and minds of Americans for over a century. Newspapers still can write “There was no joy in Mudville. . .” and all
readers know that a positive ending that everyone expected has not transpired, for, figuratively speaking, “Mighty Casey has struck out.”

This CD/MP3 can be utilized by teachers at all grade levels, with the teacher deciding which parts are age-appropriate for their students. Coordination with the language arts teacher’s poetry section is also appropriate, Gr. 4-8. "The Casey March a la Suzuki"
provides performance opportunities, especially for Suzuki students. "The Casey Tango" can be coordinated movement classes, recommended for Gr. 6. “How to Listen to Stories in Music” + “Flight of the Rabbit” demonstrate how music can tell a story in a way thats appropriate for all ages. The Casey March provides an opportunity for all ages to get up and move after listening to Track 1.

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Grade Level: 2 - 4

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Lesson One: Words & Music - Do They Match?

Concept/Objective:
Demonstrate how music can tell a story. Reinforce the steady beat. Sing two songs that tell stories.

Activity One:
Students listen to “How to Listen to Stories in Music” (Track 4) + “Flight of the Rabbit” (Track 5).

Activity Two:
Teach the song “In a Cabin in a Wood.”

Activity Three:
Teach hand movements for the song:

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In a cabin in a wood (trace a cabin outline with your index fingers)
A little old man by the window stood (trace a window outline)
Saw a rabbit hopping by (two fingers of one hand like rabbit ears, hopping)
Knocking at his door (knock with fist)
"Help me! Help me! Help me! " he said, (throw arms up for each ”help me")
"Or the hunter will shoot me dead!" (make a finger gun, point, and shoot)
"Come little rabbit, come inside, (welcome gesture with hands)
Safely you shall hide." (hug yourself)

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Activity Three (for older students):
​Teach “The Ship Titanic” as an example of a song where the music is cheerful but the story is very sad.
 

Lesson Two: Improve Listening with More Information

​Concept/Objective:
Learn an American poem. Experience how music enhances words.

Activity One:
Listen to Casey at the Bat (Track 1) and discuss what happened in the poem to be sure that all students understand the plot.

Activity Two:
Re-read the poem slowly line by line. Explain vocabulary such as “multitude,” “melancholy,” etc.

Activity Three:
Listen to “About the Story” (Track 2). Coordination opportunity with language arts teacher’s “Author and Illustrator Biography” unit.

Activity Four: (time permitting)
Re-listen to Casey at the Bat (Track 1) again. Everyone likes to discover what they hear now that they have “educated ears.”

Activity Five:
End the class with The Casey March (Tr. 3) and invite everyone to march around the room. Good release after a listening class.
 

Lesson Three: The March Form

Concept/Objective:
Introduce the march as a musical form. Musical form determines time signature and steady beat at specific tempos. Composers use structure when they write music.

Activity One:
Listen to the Casey March.

Activity Two:
Tempo discussion. Marches are always written and counted in 2. Discuss 2/4 time. Compare with 4/4 time, the most common time, and 3/4, waltz time.

Activity Three:
Select a song that the class knows and likes in 4/4 time. Have one half the class sing the song. Have the other half count the beats 1-2-3-4 aloud as they sing. To make it more challenging, have them sing the tune using the words “One, two, three, four.”

Activity Four:
Create index cards with pictures of instruments before class. Explain to the class that you are going to create your own fantasy band activity. Go through the band instruments and ask students to mime how each is played. Draw a diagram of the set-up for a marching band on the board. As you draw each section, have all students mime each instrument. Designate 3 corners of the room, one for woodwinds, one for brass, one for percussion. Shuffle and distribute the cards randomly to the students. (The drum
major card should be included, a special “winner” in the handout.) Ask students go to their corners and then group themselves by instrument; drum major stands in the center. Create the fantasy band, following the diagram on the board. When everyone is in position, march with Track 3, The Casey March.
 

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Grade Level: 4 -6

​Lesson One: How Music Can Tell a Story

Concept/Objective:

• Become a critical and observant listener. Music has moods, just like people. The students will listen to how the mood of the music changes when the mood of the poem changes.

• Demonstrate how music can tell a story. Link programmatic music with a text. How tempo (speed) and harmony (major and minor) can change a theme.

Activity One:
Students listen to “How to Listen to Stories in Music” (Track 4) + “Flight of the Rabbit” (Track 5).

Activity Two:
Listen to Casey at the Bat. Discuss any vocabulary they might not know. Invite students to retell the story to be certain that everyone understands what has happened.

Activity Three:
Listen to “About the Music” (Track 7). Allow it to flow into Track 8. Re--listening is very important. Ask the students what they heard the second time that they had not heard the first.
 

Lesson Two: Historical Perspective

Activity One:
Listen to Casey at the Bat (Track 1) and discuss what happened in the poem to be sure that all students understand the plot. Re-read the poem slowly line by line. Explain vocabulary such as “multitude,” “melancholy,” etc.

Activity Two:
Listen to “About the Story” (Track 2). Coordination opportunity with language arts teacher’s “Author and Illustrator Biography” unit and/or history teacher’s late 1800s Industrial Revolution unit. Ask whether they knew that baseball was that old. Ask if there was television when Hopper was giving his theatrical performances all across America. How did people listen to music in 1888? (Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1878 and the first commercial sales began the year the poem was written). Note, before the invention of the phonograph all music had to be performed by people, with the exception of the music box and the player piano.

Activity Three:
End the class with The Casey March (Tr. 3) and invite everyone to march around the room. Good release after a listening class.

Optional activity for older students and/or longer class period:
Select a group of students to act as the Greek chorus and read the poem in unison as other students pantomime the action.
 

Lesson Three: The March Form

Concept/Objective:
Introduce the march as a musical form. Musical form determines time signature and steady beat at specific tempos. Composers use structure when they write music. 

Musical terms:
musical form, march, tempo, time signature, waltz

Activity One:
Listen to the Casey March.

Activity Two:
Tempo discussion. Marches are always written and counted in 2. Discuss 2/4 time. Compare with 4/4 time, the most common and 3/4, waltz time.

Activity Three:
Play an example of 3/4 time. Select a CD of your favorite waltz.

Activity Four:
Refer to pp. 18-19 of the Casey Activity Book, “Recipe for a March Sundae.” Play the individual themes on the piano. Have the class replicate them singing Dum, Dum Dah, Dum, or any syllable of your choice.

Activity Five:
Listen to the Casey March again. Try to identify themes A, B, the Bridge, and C.

Activity Six:
March around the room listening to the Casey March, Track 3. Remember, all bands begin with their left foot!
 

Lesson Four: Programmatic Music & Film

Concept/Objective:
Symphonic music has been used by animators and film-makers for years to enhance the drama of the stories they are trying to tell.

Activity One:
Re-listen to “About the Music” (Track 7) and ask students what musical techniques they might employ if the situation was happy, sad, anxious, dangerous. Would it be fast or slow, major or minor, simple or complex? What instruments are associated with sounds in the real world? (flute=birds, timpani=thunder, French horns=the hunt, etc.)

Activity Two:
Select any of the following and listen to the music. Disney’s “Silly Symphonies,” “Willy, the Operatic Whale,” Bugs Bunny cartoons with Wagner “Kill the Rabbit,”and Rossini’s “Barber of Seville.” Ask if they knew that this was classical music written for opera.

Activity Three:
Play a recording of the music without the video. Then play the video without any sound. Ask if either separately is as good as when they are together. Ask how they would describe their emotional reaction to both (the cartoon was boring without the music, there was no suspense; the music didn’t mean anything to me without the pictures because I don’t know where it came from, in which opera
and/or where in the opera).

Activity Four:
Select a currently popular movie, such as Pirates in the Caribbean that has a powerful symphonic score. Play a dramatic scene where there is music (preferably in a part without talking); replay it without the sound track. Ask the class’s reaction. Play another scene with a contrasting type of music. Ask if they could describe the music. Did they notice the music? Was it different from the
first selection? How?

Assignment for older students:
Ask them to find a video at home that has music that they like. Have them select 2 minutes to play for the class. Ask them to write what instruments they can hear, the genre (orchestral, rock, jazz), and one sentence on what they think the music adds to the scene (increases tension, underscores humor, paints a spring scene, etc.)

COMMENT:
Walt Disney and Chuck Jones through their animation introduced an entire generation, if not two, to the sounds of classical music. These are a delightful way to introduce orchestral and operatic sounds to classes. A good place to begin is:
 
What’s Opera, Doc? is a 1957 short animated film in which Elmer Fudd chases Bugs Bunny through a six—minute operatic production of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan do the voices, including the singing. The short is also sometimes known in the vernacular as Kill the Wabbit after the line sung by Fudd to the tune of Ride of the Valkyries. In fact, this cartoon marks one of the few times that Fudd actually succeeds in outsmarting (or in this case, doing away with) Bugs Bunny. The cartoon ends with Fudd carrying Bugs and says, "What did you expect in opera? A happy ending?". 

It is regarded as Chuck Jones' masterpiece. In fact, many film critics, animation fans, and filmmakers (as well as Jones himself) consider this to be Warner Bros.’ greatest animation achievement of all the cartoons WB has released since 1930. It has also topped many Top Ten lists of the greatest animated cartoons of all time. What's Opera, Doc? required about 6 times as much work and expense as any of the other 6-minute cartoons his studio was producing at the time. During those 6 minutes, Jones lampoons: Disney's Fantasia, the contemporary style of ballet, Wagner's ponderous operatic style, and even​ the by-then cliche Bugs-and-Elmer formula.

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