UNITS IN 5th GRADE MUSIC HISTORY

RESOURCES FOR WRITING ABOUT MUSIC

Elements of Music “DR SMITH”Download

TIME PERIOD REVIEW

Medieval Era –

life and culture

music of the Troubadours

early sacred music

some major medieval composers

Renaissance Era –

string instruments, including lutes, viols and the new violin family

brass and woodwind instruments

MEDIEVAL vs. RENAISSANCE

Have fun seeing if you can win at this game of Jeopardy!

Baroque Era

Brief histories about a number of composers, including surprisingly many women!!

Baroque Period OutlineDownload

life and times in the Baroque Era

amazing art – discover the world of visual art in the time period we are studying!

explore the architecture of the Baroque

The French Baroque: take a look at Versailles

consider cooking something using a 17th century recipe!

music from the Baroque

Learn about Women Musicians in the Baroque Era

Listen to French Baroque music (there is more than an hour of music here! )

March 2020: listening playlist

Reading and playing some baroque music (pianists go to violin link and read about the different pieces. You’ve played a lot of solo Bach – can you find baroque music for keyboard by other composers?) Especially go the the La Folia Medley and print out the jpg file for the music. If you are advanced, see if you can learn a version of La Folia you didn’t already know!

violin – viola – cello –bass

A SEASONAL BREAK –

THE WINTER MONTHS THROUGH TIME AND AROUND THE WORLD

HERE IS FOLK MUSIC FOR THE SEASON FROM AROUND THE WORLD:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/listen-classic-holiday-music-around-world-180947991/

NOTATION

MEDIEVAL CHANT NOTATION

TABLATURE – notation that shows you HOW to play a fretted instrument. In the Renaissance and Baroque periods the LUTE was a popular instrument.

LISTEN TO LUTE MUSIC –

Renaissance musicians had a great sense of humor, and loved amusing pictures!
In England French tablature was common
Can you read the letters of the French tablature?
This is an example of lute music written in Italian tablature.

The Seikilos Epitaph is the first complete piece for which we have both words and music.

Here’s the Wikipedia article on the Seikilos Epitaph

Listen to the quality of the music – neither major, nor minor – but in one of the Greek “modes.” In this version you will hear the Kithara (Greek harp) and the Aulos (flute) as well as the voice interpreting the song.

Musical Notation through the ages

Here are examples of written music from different countries and across many eras

  • examples of European notation from 600,500,400 years ago, to our “modern” way of writing music.
  • This is an example of lute music written in Tablature.
  • Russian sacred music written in “kryuki” or “hooks”
  • Another form of Tablature for Lute.
  • Medieval chant notation
  • Harpsichord music written without rhythm
  • Tibetan chant music
  • Chinese Gongche notation from the Tang Dynasty

Here’s a playlist of GRAPHIC NOTATION pieces – in the third video, scroll through and listen to just one of the pieces – and notice how different the various styles of “one page pieces” are:

Here’s a short composition by students using basic concepts of graphic notation: