Music Connections

Music used as background, with minimal discussion or reflection.

• While working on a writing project, students hear the compilation CD “Mozart for your Mind”.

Music experienced through recordings or live performance. Reflection revolves around personal preference or general description.

• Students describe the local Philharmonic’s concert featuring Mozart’s Symphony 41—the Jupiter Symphony.

Music experienced through active listening with a focus on elements shared with another discipline.

• Students record the instruments they hear in Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony with a graphic organizer to create a basis for discussion of the different voices they will hear during the reading of a story.

Music used to enhance another area of the curriculum.

• Students listen to Beethoven's 3rd during a unit on Napoleon.

Music studied within its historical and/or cultural context.

• Students study Beethoven life and times, listen to his 3rd Symphony and use the Keeping Score website for historical information.

Music creating or reinforcing thematic connections with another subject.

• Students listen to Beethoven's 3rd Symphony in a thematic unit on “personal heroes” and use music vocabulary to discuss a “heroic” theme.

Music used to elicit a response through another artistic medium (dancing, drawing, painting, creative writing, etc.)

• Students listen to Dvorak's "New World Symphony" and create movements which reflect what they hear.

Music engaged in as creative expression. Students play instruments, sing, perform, or compose music.

• Students sing "Goin' Home" based on the Largo of the New World Symphony and use percussion instruments as accompaniment.

Music shaping form and content through another artistic medium (dancing, drawing, painting, creative writing, etc)

• Students apply musical terms for “mood” as they listen to Dvorak's "New World Symphony." They create visual art which reflects different moods in the first movement

Music used to elicit a response from another content area.

• Students create a graph based on their musical preferences after hearing selections from the works of J.S. Bach.

Music studied as an artistic document. Students read, notate, listen to, analyze, and describe music using the terminology of music.

• Students analyze variation technique in Bach’s Goldberg Variations.

Music expressing form and content from another subject area.

• Students create a musical theme and variations from a graph based on their class’s musical preferences from the works of J.S. Bach then create new graphs from the variations and find the formulas for each.

Music used to teach or reinforce concepts in another content area.

• Students learn a song to remember their science vocabulary words.

Music explored as a multi-layered aesthetic experience, with meaning derived from the relationships among performing, dreating, and responding.

• Students analyze and perform rhythmic patterns from a Beethoven symphony, evaluate thier performances in terms of both rhythmic accuracy and artistic interpretation, and experiment with other rhythms to create the same emotional impact.

Music explored with other subjects in ”two-way” or “thematic” integration: musical form and content merged with form and content from another subject so that each deepens the understanding of the other.

• After listening to various musical instruments, students hypothesize about sound wave production, and then test their hypotheses through experiments. Then they use their new knowledge to reflect on the experience of hearing a Beethoven symphony in a live concert: comparing their own responses to what they imagine Beethoven would have heard.