MUSIC EMOJIS Feelings. Connections. Life. 2018 Sponsored by: S.E. Ainsworth and Family Teachers Guide 1 Music Emojis Feelings. Connections. Life La Rejouissance George Frideric Handel from Royal Fireworks (1685-1759) Symphony No. 1 (excerpt) Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) Music from Spiderman Danny Elfman (1953- ) Galop Dmitry Kabalevsky from The Comedians (1904-1987) Cello Concerto (3rd movement) Èdouard Lalo Ifetayo Ali-Landing, cello (1823-1892) Miller’s Dance Manuel de Falla from Three-Cornered Hat (1876-1946 ) Machine Jennifer Higdon (1962- ) Flying Theme John Williams from E.T. (1932- ) 2 With the increase of texting, email and other electronic communication in the last 20 years, face-to-face conversation or a phone call is often skirted by a quick text. It can be easier and less intrusive, but without any context of feeling behind them the words in these quick communications can be misunderstood. Emojis have the ability to express feelings wordlessly and can take the edge off of any text. They were invented by Shigetaka Kurita, who is a board member at a Tokyo technology company. He was a 25-year-old employee of a Japanese mobile carrier back in 1998 when he had the idea. His challenge was the 250 character limit and the need for some sort of shorthand. “Emoji” combines the Japanese for "picture," or "e'' (pronounced "eh"), and "letters," or "moji" (moh-jee). Apple and Google have made emojis a world sensation. What started as a few digital drawings has now become a gesture to communicate every conceivable emotion. They have been displayed in an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, earning a place in our culture and giving value to the design that has had the power to change lives. Almost all kids these days speak emoji, and we thought it would be fun for them to use emojis to demonstrate how the music we are studying on this program makes them feel. Music is charged with emotion and it helps us express our human experience. No matter what music a person likes to have as their real-life soundtrack, it is a way to cope, celebrate and express that emotion that cannot be voiced. Music is what feelings sound like. In preparing for your visit to hear the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, we suggest you listen as a group to each piece on the program via the ESO website (Machine by Jennifer Higdon is not available on recording), you may use the this worksheet to have students choose the emojis that best express and describe the feelings evoked by each piece. Ask the students to discuss what aspects of the music brought them to the selection of their emojis. (There are no right or wrong answers.) 3 La Rejouissance from Royal Fireworks By George Frideric Handel b. February 23, 1685 d. April 14, 1759 “I should be sorry if I only entertained them, I wish to make them better.” ~George Frideric Handel Handel spent most of his career in London writing operas and oratorios. He was born in Germany, but immigrated to London in 1717 and became a naturalized British subject in 1727. He is considered one of the world’s greatest Baroque composers. His oratorio, The Messiah, can be heard performed regularly around the world. “Baroque” is a word used to describe the period of time spanning from about 1600 to 1750 in which the arts in Western Europe flourished. The word “Baroque” means ornamental, or fancy. During this period, composers made a decent living working on the premises of a castle within a kingdom of a prince, queen, or King. Handel was the official composer for King George I of England. In fact, Westminster Abbey, a famous landmark in London, England, houses a drawing of Handel himself by artist Roubillac, denoting his prominence in King George’s reign. During this period, Copernicus’s theory that planets didn’t revolve around the earth was accepted and Galileo was able to explore space with the invention of the telescope. Rembrandt and Shakespeare were defining their art forms alongside Handel. One of the philosophies of Baroque music comes from ancient Greece and Rome which held that music could be used as a powerful tool to communicate and had the ability to arouse any emotion. Baroque composers believed that harmony and counterpoint took precedence over text. The power of the music communicated the meaning of the words. La Rejouissance (The Rejoicing) La Rejouissance is the 4th movement of the 5-movement work Music for the Royal Fireworks. It was commissioned in 1749 for the fireworks in Green Park in London which celebrated the ending of the war of Austrian succession. This music is a cheerful and uplifting piece, evoking excitement and exhilaration. Discussion List some reasons a king or queen would actually request music to be performed in their castle or residence. Think of the activities that may take place and decide which events would need music for entertainment, for background ambience, or for celebrations or mourning. Vocabulary Look up the following terms using an online source for a dictionary. List names of composers who wrote these forms of music and one or two famous works. Baroque, Opera, Oratorio, Counterpoint, Basso Continuo 4 Symphony No. 1 (excerpt) By Gustav Mahler b. July 7, 1860 d. May 18, 1911 “If a composer could say what he had to say in words, he would not bother trying to say it in music.” ~Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler was the son of a tavern-keeper in a small Bavarian village. He’s known for his 10 symphonies and his various songs for voice with orchestra. His music was mostly ignored for 50 years after his death, but eventually he became known for being a groundbreaking composer, making way for 20th-century composition techniques and influencing many. During his life he was a well-known conductor and ascended to the top of his profession. As a conductor he was very popular, but as a composer during his time he was not generally understood. Mahler’s aim in his compositions was autobiographical, expressing his views of the world through music. His background may explain what he portrays in his music: tension, irony, death and a search for the meaning of life. Mahler had a traumatic childhood. From a Jewish family, he experienced strong racial tensions. In addition, his home life was difficult because his father was quite violent and mistreated his mother. He had 13 brothers and sisters, several who were constantly ill and some who died at a young age. In the personal content of Mahler’s compositions, it can be said that he expressed his personal torment through his art. Mahler demonstrated creative composing techniques and broke away from many of the traditional composing rules often followed in the earlier music history time periods (Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and Romantic). Other 20th century composing techniques include tone clusters, extreme use of dissonance, a greater use of percussion and noisemakers, unpredictable melodies, and new sounds to chords. Now breaking from the traditional influences of European countries, the United States and Eastern music became influential during this time of experimentation. Follow this Link to Kids Encyclopedia to read more about Gustav Mahler. Symphony No. 1 Mahler did most of the work on his first symphony in 1888, using ideas from previous compositions. The first performance was given on November 20, 1889 in Budapest, with Mahler himself conducting. Performance time for the entire piece with 4 movements is 58 minutes. For our concert, we will be listening to just the beginning of the first movement (with a duration of about 3 minutes). It begins with an introduction marked “Slow, dragging, like the sound of nature”. Over hushed, sustained A’s, we hear the sound of the cuckoo and fanfares in the distance. A lyrical melody appears in the French horn. Imagine that you are a hiker wandering through the woods, the gentle hum of sustained notes could be representing sunbeams shining through the trees. You hear the cuckoo and bird songs. The fanfares in the distance are perhaps coming from some activity in a nearby village. 5 Discussion 1. Watch this video on You Tube of the Vienna Philharmonic performing the Mahler’s 1st Symphony conducted by Leonard Bernstein. (The ESO will just play a portion of the symphony, stopping at 3:30) Which instruments depicted the cuckoo and the bird calls? Which family of instruments are these instruments from? Which family instruments did you hear playing the “gentle hum” representing the universe”? Finally, what is a fanfare, and which instruments played it? 2. Mahler had a difficult childhood. Can you think of any famous Hollywood actors or actresses that have had some type of sadness in their lives? Do you think their acting ability was improved as a result of living a life that was not perfect? Do you think their problems made acting more difficult or did they use acting to get away from their real world problems? Activity 1. Try to draw 5 different faces each showing a negative emotion: sadness, anger, doubt, suspicion, fear. Now try to draw 5 different faces showing positive emotions: joy, excitement, wonder, humor, comfort. 2. Review the families of the orchestra. Follow this link to the San Francisco Symphony Kids page for more fun: SFS Kids. Check out this timed quiz: Instruments of the Orchestra Quiz. 6 Music from Spiderman By Danny Elfman b. May 29, 1953 “If there’s one thing I really love…its sad music.” ~Danny Elfman Danny Elfman is famous for composing some of the most familiar melodies in American TV and movies.