KEY STAGE 2 – Lesson 3

LESSON 3

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC! (60 mins)

Listen and Move 

INTRODUCTION:  

In the previous lessons, you have heard music from The Four Seasons by composer Max Richter.  He composed this music in 2012.  However, there is another version of this piece written in 1723 – 289 years earlier!  The composer, as you might recall from lesson 1, is called Antonio Vivaldi.  

Fun facts about Vivaldi:

  • He was born in 1678 – 342 years ago!
  • He was a very good violin player, like his father 
  • He wrote over 800 pieces of music
  • He had 5 brothers and sisters
  • There was a big earthquake on the day of his birth
  • He had bright red hair
  • He had very bad asthma which made him breathless when he spoke
  • He made a lot of money in his life and was famous, but died poor
  • The work you are going to listen to is one of his most famous pieces

Here is a picture of a violin, a member of the STRING INSTRUMENT FAMILY.  The Violin is the SMALLEST of the family and makes the HIGHEST sound and you will hear it a lot in the following clips. 

Can you name the other instruments in the string family?  

WATCH, LISTEN AND DISCUSS:

This is the season of Summer, and this tells the story of a thunderstorm.  

  1. Watch violinist Nigel Kennedy play Vivaldi’s original music for Summer.  Write down some word describing this music.

2. Now, let’s listen to the Max Richter’s version of Summer.  Write down some words describing this music.

3. Did you write down the same describing words or did you have some new words to add after you listened to the second piece? 

4. What instruments can you hear the most in both works? 

5. Can you hear some of the same musical themes? Think about what is the same, and what is different.  

6. What emotion can you hear in the music?  

WATCH: 

  1. In this clip, you will see dancers from New English Ballet Theatre doing their ballet exercises at home to the thunderstorm music.

CREATE: 

Dance! 

  1. Hopefully the dancers inspired you to move!  Find a space in the room and move to the music, making up your own dance to Vivaldi’s thunderstorm music. 

Paint or Sketch:

  1. Create your own picture of a violin, the lead instrument in both pieces of music.  As an added challenge, can you DRAW musical notes?  

NEBT would love to receive photos of your artwork to display on social media. Please photograph and send to development@nebt.co.uk and we will share a selection on our Instagram and Facebook pages.