Folk Music for Orchestra Reading Symphony Orchestra Youth Concert 2008

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Folk Music for Orchestra Reading Symphony Orchestra Youth Concert 2008 Folk Music for Orchestra Reading Symphony Orchestra Youth Concert 2008 Educational Materials Developed and compiled for the RSO by Valerie Trollinger [email protected] Folk Music for Orchestra, RSO 2008-- 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS TOPIC PAGE Table of Contents 1 BACKGROUND Introduction 2 Objectives 3 The RSO 4 6 Background of the Music (For Teachers) 4 Welcome to our Concert! 11 (for Students) LESSON MATERIALS Kodály, Orff, and 13 Movement based lesson suggestions Listening 16 Preparation Activities USEFUL LINKS AND 17 RESOURCES Supplementary Materials 18 Folk Music for Orchestra, RSO 2008 2 INTRODUCTION Dear Teacher: We are so very pleased that you and your students will be joining us for a performance of “Folk Music for Orchestra.” We know you will find it entertaining, enjoyable, and educational. The following materials were created to help you prepare your students. We have kept these musically-based (which means no puzzles, word searches, or coloring projects) so they would fit in to your general music curriculum. What makes these different from most supplementary materials is that we have included some Kodály- and Orff-based lessons, if you are familiar with and use those methods. We also offer listening lessons that are also more geared toward music class, although a general classroom teacher may be able to use them. Above all, feel free to manipulate, modify, or tweak any of the lesson materials to meet your and your students’ needs. You should need to spend no more than three 30-minute music classes (or the equivalent) preparing your students for this concert, however, there are plenty of materials in here that can be used both before and after the concert. These materials are designed to work with PA Arts Education Standards and also the National Standards in Music Education, and will allow the students to be actively engaged in the music preparation rather than At the end of this packet is a resource page with links to other sites that can further your understanding of “Folk Music for Orchestra”. If you are interested in finding non-music activities and more information on composers for this concert, please check this link for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (http://www.dsokids.com/2001/rooms/musicroom.asp), as they have some excellent interactive materials that are of a more general nature. Because there is so much available on composers and their lives online, we won’t include that information here. Other websites will be listed in the Useful Links and Resources at the end of this pack. Have fun preparing your students, and we look forward to seeing you at our concert very soon! Folk Music for Orchestra, RSO 2008 3 OBJECTIVES Purpose of these materials are to: • Provide music teachers relevant musical materials to help them prepare students to see and hear the concert. • Provide materials that work within the structure of the general music class. • Familiarize students with the backgrounds and characteristics of the music. • Familiarize students with musical aspects of folk music. • Promote creative engagement with the music. • Provide materials consistent with the National Standards for Music Education and the Pennsylvania Standard for Arts and Humanities. • Encourage the use of world music in the music classroom. Before attending the performance, students should be able to: • Aurally recognize the main melodic and rhythmic themes. • Perform the rhythmic themes and motives by clapping, patting, or on classroom musical instruments. • Sing “The Birch Tree,” “Greensleeves, “Finland Hymn,” and “Simple Gifts.” • Be familiar with purpose of folk music • Be familiar with folk dance • Be familiar with concert behavior and etiquette. Folk Music for Orchestra, RSO 2008 4 The RSO—a brief history It's easy to think of the Reading Symphony Orchestra as a perennial favorite, but there was a time when the organization was downright subversive! In 1913, a group of music-loving citizens, headed by Harry Fahrbach, banded together in a symphony organization. While that may not seem particularly subversive, the concert time was: Sunday afternoons. It was an era of rigid enforcement of Blue Laws - statutes preventing business or entertainments on the traditional Sabbath day. The early Reading Symphony organizers were brought before the Mayor, where they were chastised for their irreverent symphonic activities. It was only after the early members of the Reading Symphony invited the Mayor to a patriotic concert - and provided a generous collection of free passes for his entourage - that the group could proceed unencumbered by statute. Fahrbach was the Reading Symphony Orchestra's first music director, leading the group for ten years. He was succeeded by a number of eminent musicians, including Saul Caston, Alexander Hilsberg, and Hans Kindler, all alumni of the legendary Philadelphia Orchestra during Leopold Stokowski's reign. Louis Vyner followed preceding the remarkable thirty year tenure of Sidney Rothstein. A national search of nearly three hundred conductors brought the RSO Andrew Constantine now in his second year following an opening season that brought critical and box office acclaim. Today the Reading Symphony Orchestra looks toward its ninety-sixth season as one of the longest continuously-operating symphonies in the United States. For a complete overview of the orchestra's performance history, visit the orchestra's archives at www.readingsymphony.org/archives.asp. (This information is from Reading Symphony Orchestra website: http://www.readingsymphony.org). Background about the music (For Teachers) The music for this concert was selected by our conductor, Andrew Constantine, to illustrate how folk music that is often considered indicative of a particular culture can be used, manipulated, or even adapted for the traditional symphony orchestra. As music educators and musicians, it offers us an opportunity to delve into the sociological and philosophical issues, concerns, and sharing of music of different world cultures, which meet the National Standards in Music Education and also the Pennsylvania Standards for Arts and Humanities. This concert also gives us the opportunity to further investigate world musics and their respective cultures, and to compare and contrast them musically. The music for this concert involves folk music that is sung and folk music that is primarily dance-based. Several pieces feature attempts by the composers to adapt a perceived musical and dance style into a totally different culture. The concert includes: Folk Music for Orchestra, RSO 2008 5 • “Variations on a Shaker Melody” from Appalachian Spring, by Aaron Copland (USA). • Excerpt from Finlandia that includes the Finland Hymn, by Jean Sibelius (Finland). • The “Trepak” from the Nutcracker Ballet, by Piotr I. Tchaikovsky (Russian). • The “Chinese Dance” from the Nutcracker Ballet, also by Tchaikovsky (Russian) • Fantasia on Greensleeves by Ralph Vaughn Williams (English). • Dance music from Lord of the Dance by Ronan Hardiman (Irish). • “Farandole” from L’Arlesienne Suite #1, by Georges Bizet (French). • “Finale” from Symphony #4, by Tchaikovsky (Russian). Suggestions for Lessons start on Page 13. Additional Background Information for teachers: Sibelius: Finlandia This piece was composed by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius in 1899, and was revised the next year. The part of the piece performed for the Youth Concert involves the Finnish Hymn, which was an original piece by Sibelius (not a Finnish folk song) and the words were later added in 1941. Like many hymns, the hymn is 4 lines in length. Phrase- wise, it is AABB. The melody (in the original orchestral key is here: The translated words are: O, Finland, behold, your day is dawning, The threat of night has been banished away, And the lark of morning in the brightness sings, Folk Music for Orchestra, RSO 2008 6 As though the very firmament would sing. The powers of the night are vanquished by the morning light, Your day is dawning, O land of birth. O, rise, Finland, rise up high Your head, wreathed with great memories. O, rise, Finland, you showed to the world That you drove away the slavery, And that you did not bend under oppression, Your day is dawning, O land of birth. Copland: Variations on a Shaker Theme from “Appalachian Spring.” “Appalachian Spring” was originally a ballet composed by Aaron Copland in 1944 for the choreographer Martha Graham. The suite was extracted out of the ballet for concert performances without the dancers. The variations on the Shaker theme “ Simple Gifts” are included in both of the major music series (Silver Burdett & Ginn, and MacMillian) in lessons concerned with teaching the theme and variations form. If you have access to those lessons, this is a great place to use them. This piece is also special in this concert in that it is also used by the “Music from Lord of the Dance” by Ronan Hardiman. Comparing and contrasting these two pieces for similarities (they have the same melody, they both move in 2’s, they both use slow and fast tempos) and differences (they use different instruments) would be an excellent way to show how different composers can use the same piece of music in different ways. The Shakers are a Protestant religious denomination that originated in Manchester, England in 1747. Like most Protestant denominations, and primarily the Quakers, they believe that God is found within all of us rather than solely through the clergy, but they differ in that they can be more emotional and demonstrative in their worship than most of the mainline Protestant religions ( and of course there are variations among individual congregations). Actually, the name “Shakers” was derived from the term “Shaking Quakers” in that they were often more engaged in rituals of trembling, shaking, shouting and singing that one would not typically find in a staid Quaker congregation. Both the Shakers and the Quakers ended up in the USA. The song, Simple Gifts, has a background that is a bit shaky (pardon the bad pun) in that its roots have often simply been stated as a “Folk Song.” According to the American Music Preservation website (URL is provided later in these materials) the composer of Simple Gifts was Elder Joseph Brackett, Jr, who lived from 1797-1882 in Maine.
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