What's Happening in Class?

Click on each GRADE LEVEL (below) to see what each grade has been learning in MUSIC CLASS!

Our theme this year is THE MUSIC OF RUSSIA!!!

Some of the music we will be learning about at ROYLE:

• PETER AND THE WOLF by PROKOFIEV
• FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLEBEE by RIMSKY-KORSAKOV

Here is a recording of Yuja Wang - one of the best pianists in the world - playing an arrangement of FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLEBEE. She plays so quickly (presto!) that many of the students didn't believe that this was real ! It's real !!!

Here is another recording of the ORIGINAL orchestral recording of FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLEBEE:

• THE NUTCRACKER - TCHAIKOVSKY

In December, students in Grades K-2 have been learning about THE NUTCRACKER (or reviewing it from last year) and students in 3-5 have been "TALKING TO TCHAIKOVSKY" using a cool lesson in the Quaver program. The older students have learned about Tchaikovsky's life. His parents sent him to law school at age 10. He entered the music conservatory in St Petersburg at age 22. The Nutcracker Ballet was one of three ballets that he composed, and it was written just one year before her died. Younger students watch an animated short version of the Nutcracker to introduce them to the music of the ballet, as well as the story line of the ballet. That video is available here on this blog if you'd like to watch it at home: https://sites.google.com/site/mrsclarkmusic/children-s-music/the-nutcracker-ballet. Students also learn about the instrument called the celesta, which is the keyboard instrument that sound a bit like bells. That's the sound of the Sugar Plum Fairy music. Students in First Grade watch the George Balanchine (1993) version of The Nutcracker in class (starring Macauley Culkin)

In October, students in grades 1-5 have been learning about IN THE HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING by Edvard Grieg! The music is in the Key of A Minor and starts quietly, and then has a crescendo (growing louder) and an accelerando (getting faster) throughout the piece. All of the students did an activity with movements of "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" to the tune of this piece.

We have read the book IN THE HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN KING, adapted by Allison Flannery. You can 'look inside' the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Hall-Mountain-Allison-Miller-Flannery/dp/193863313X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509036684&sr=8-1&keywords=in+the+hall+of+the+mountain+king+allison

We have also seen a very old video cartoon that tells the story of Peer Gynt and has the music from Solvieg's Song and from In the Hall of the Mountain King, both of which are from the PEER GYNT SUITE by Edvard Grieg.

Additionally, we looked at connections of how the music is used in other things (TV advertisements, the movie TROLLS, and in videos.) This cool video is one that the students loved. The lines actually depict what's happening in the music and there are dynamics (pp, mp, f, ff) shown throughout the video. They also end at the DOUBLE BAR LINE