Lesson Plan 8: A Listening Lesson Using Classical Music in AB Form

Objectives:

1. To reinforce a familiarity with AB form. (25.A.1c)

2. To aurally be able to discriminate between section A and section B in a piece of classical music. (25.B.1)

3. To become aware of facts relating to Ludwig von Beethoven. (27.B.1)

Classroom Material:

• Score to Ludwig von Beethoven's "Ecossaise in G"
• Large pictures of two different positions of an ecossaise, an English country dance.
• "Perspectives in Music History" computer program
• Macintosh computer
• Television with an LTV hookup

Time:

One, thirty minute music class

Instructional Procedure:

1. Show the students the large pictures of people doing an ecossaise. Explain that an ecossaise is an English dance and that Beethoven composed many of them.

2. Ask the children to decide, by looking at the pictures, if an ecossaise is fast and energetic or slow-moving and dignified.

3. Play "Ecossaise in G" by Beethoven on the piano for the students.

4. Play section A of the song only and refer to the picture where the dancers are dancing together. Explain that it is typical of an ecossaise to have the dancers moving with a partner during section A of a song.

5. Play only section B of "Ecossaise in G" and point out to the students that the dancers are moving by themselves.

6. As the children listen again to the entire piece, they should tap a steady beat with a partner during section A. During section B, the students should tap their own hands.

7. Using the software program, "Perspectives in Music History", show the children the section of the program about Beethoven and examine the information about Beethoven. Examine events, dates, and connections to art from Beethoven's time period. Listen to another piece that Beethoven composed.

8. Discuss how Beethoven continued to compose after he was completely deaf. How could he "hear" what he was composing? What problems might deafness pose to composing music?

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Submitted: July 1, 1998