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OBJECTIVE: Students will explore how the Mississippi River has inspired music, visual art, and literature, and discover how different artistic tools, forms, and moods can bring the same subject to life in unique ways.
SUMMARY: Artists use sound, color, texture, and words to paint vivid pictures—and the Mississippi River has inspired all three. In this interdisciplinary lesson, students will listen to Mississippi Suite by Ferde Grofé, examine an historical painting, and read a literary excerpt from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Through these creative lenses, students will analyze how each art form uses specific tools to capture the spirit and movement of the great river.
GRADES: 4 - 8
DISCIPLINES & ARTISTIC PROCESS: Music, Visual Art, and ELA / Responding, Connecting, Creating
VOCABULARY: descriptive language, expression, form, imagery, instrumentation, mood, perspective, phrase, texture, and tone
INTRODUCE: THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER
INTRODUCE: THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER
Map Exploration & Class Discussion
Project a map of the Mississippi River. As a class, discuss what students know or imagine about this great river:What do you know about the Mississippi River?
Have you ever seen it or traveled near it?
Imagine standing on the edge of a wide, slow-moving river.
*What do you see?
*What do you hear?
*What do you smell or feel in the air?
Creative Expression
Explore how artists might express the spirit of the river through different art forms:Why do you think so many artists—painters, musicians, and writers—are inspired by the Mississippi River?
What instruments or sounds might a composer use to represent: Flowing water? A storm? A peaceful night?
If you were painting a picture of the river: What colors would you use? Would the river be calm or wild?
What kinds of adventures do you imagine happening on a raft floating down a river?
DISCOVER:
CREATIVE PERSPECTIVES
ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER
Use this student worksheet to record observations as you explore the Mississippi River through these three creative lenses.
CREATIVE PERSPECTIVES.pdf1. MUSICAL INSPIRATION
1. MUSICAL INSPIRATION
A composer is someone who writes music and composing usually begins with a bit of inspiration. Some composers get their inspiration from a place, a person, or a special event. For Ferde Grofé, he was inspired by landscapes and natural wonders from across the U.S., including the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, and the Mississippi River.
Play an excerpt of Ferde Grofé’s Mississippi Suite (“Father of Waters”).
Mississippi Suite: Father of WatersWhat instruments do you hear?
What kind of mood does the music create? (peaceful, flowing, dramatic, etc.)
What might the composer be trying to show about the river?
Use the Creative Perspectives worksheet to record what you hear in the piece?
What musical TOOLS (instruments, dynamics, tempo), FORM (repeating phrases or musical patterns), and MOOD does Grofé use in his composition to represent the river?
View on the Mississippi
by Ferdinand Richardt (1858)
2. VISUAL ART INSPIRATION
2. VISUAL ART INSPIRATION
Like the composer Grofé, Ferdinand Richardt was also inspired by natural landscapes from around the world.
Display Richardt's View of the Mississippi, and as students observe the painting, have them discuss in small groups or write in response to these prompting questions:
What do you notice first? What details do you see in the background versus the foreground?
Do you notice any patterns or symmetry?
If you could touch the painting, what textures would you expect to feel?
How does the choice of colors influence how you feel about this scene?
If you could step into this painting, where would you go first?
What sounds do you imagine hearing if you were standing on the riverbank in this scene?
Use the Creative Perspectives worksheet to record what you see in the painting?
What artistic TOOLS (paint, color choice, brushstrokes), FORM (lines, symmetry, repetition, contrast), and MOOD does Richardt use in his painting to represent the river?
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain (1884)
Sometimes we’d have that whole river all to ourselves for the longest time. Yonder was the banks and the islands, across the water; and maybe a spark – which was a candle in a cabin window; and sometimes on the water you could see a spark or two – on a raft or a scow, you know; and maybe you could hear a fiddle or a song coming over from one of them crafts. It’s lovely to live on a raft. We had the sky up there, all speckled with stars, and we used to lay on our backs and look up at them, and discuss about whether they was made or only just happened.
—excerpt from "Chapter 19"
3. LITERARY INSPIRATION
3. LITERARY INSPIRATION
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, first published in 1885, is an American literary masterpiece by author Mark Twain. It vividly describes life on the Mississippi River in the Antebellum South. In the excerpt above, from Chapter 19, Huck reflects on the peaceful, dreamlike quality of drifting down the river at night.
Read aloud the passage above from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
What words or phrases help you picture the river?
How do you think Huck feels while drifting down the river?
Which details make the scene feel peaceful or dreamlike?
What do you think Huck enjoys most about this moment on the river?
What might the river represent in this story? (e.g., freedom, adventure, nature, danger)
How does Huck’s experience on the Mississippi River connect to what we’ve observed in the music and painting?
Rewrite two sentences of Huck’s description in your own words to make the imagery come alive for you.
Use the Creative Perspectives worksheet to document what you read and understood from this text?
What artistic TOOLS (descriptive language, imagery, tone), FORM (narrative flow or rhythm), and MOOD does the author use in his writing to represent the river?
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