Musical Movement

MOVE TO THE MUSIC

Play one or more of the pieces from the concert repertoire and have students move around the room to the music.

Pause the music every 30 seconds and ask select students to share something about the movement inspiration:

• • What do you hear in the music that is informing your movements?

  • What is the mood or feeling of the piece? How are you communicating that with your movements, gestures, or facial expressions?

  • Do your movements change throughout the piece? Why?

MUSICAL MOVEMENT IN DANSE MACABRE 

Camille Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre is a symphonic poem, based on the French legend that Death packs a fiddle and comes to play at midnight on Halloween, causing the skeletons in the cemetery to crawl out of the ground for their annual graveyard dance party.

The piece begins with the harp playing a single note twelve times (the 12 strokes of midnight), followed by an awakening call from the violins. The first theme is then played by the flute, followed by a second theme on solo violin. These two themes repeat throughout the piece in a call and response from instruments across the orchestra. Saint-Saëns uses varying tempi, dynamics, and articulation to illustrate a frenzied graveyard scene. He makes particular use of the xylophone to imitate the sounds of rattling bones, a similar motif in the Fossils movement of his The Carnival of the Animals.

• As a class, listen for musical themes as they move around the orchestra in Danse Macabre.

  • Ask students to raise their hand when they hear the melody repeat? 

  • What instrument is playing?

  • How is the theme music being played? Is it loud or soft? Faster or slower? With a staccato (short) or legato (smooth) accent?

• In small groups, have students create and share different movements to represent when the musical themes are played by each of the different instruments.

  • What in the music informs your movement?

  • How do your movements change depending on which instrument is playing the theme or how it is being played?

  • How can you illustrate the call and response conversation between instruments through your movements?

  • How do your movements help to tell the story of the graveyard dance party?

DEVIL'S DANCE

• Introduce students to the composer John Williams: 

  • John Williams is one of the most successful film composers, with over 120 film scores to his name! You might know his music from Star Wars, Harry Potter, or Jurassic Park. 

  • In our concert, we will hear another of his famous film scores from The Witches of Eastwick, a 1987 supernatural comedy. In “Devil’s Dance”, Williams illustrates the dark and playful nature of the characters through a recurring melody that twists and turns like a demon stirring up trouble.

• Listen to "Devil's Dance" from The Witches of Eastwick

"Devil's Dance" is John Williams take on the danse macabre. The rhythms and meter make the music feel  danceable, while the way Williams uses musical elements such as the tempo, dynamics, and accents add an extra touch of evil.  As students listen, offer these deep listening prompts:

• • Raise your hand when they hear the main theme repeated. 

  • Notice how the music makes you feel.

  • What kind of images or emotions does the music evoke?

  • How did the rhythm and tempo affect your feelings?

  • What instruments or sounds did they notice?

  • What did you hear in this piece that is similar to Saint-Saëns "Danse Macabre"? What is different?

• Play "Devil's Dance" again and invite students to move to the music. 

  • How are your movements for this piece different from "Danse Macabre"?

  • What character, mood, or action are you representing with your movements?

  • What musical elements inform your movements? Is it fast or slow? Smooth or choppy? Accented?

• After exploring this piece through movement, have students draw or write about their experience. 

  • Illustrate the dance you imagined or performed; or 

  • Write a short story that describes how the music made you feel.