3rd/4th Grade Halloween Music

   I started doing music in my son's fourth grade class as well.  Interestingly enough, while I struggle to keep the 3rd grade class from getting too excited and out of control, I think I will struggle to get the 4th grade excited.  I have been going through the same stuff as 3rd grade. 

Name That Tune

   For our theory lesson I introduced the staff and a scale.  We talked about each note being named after a letter, how when notes go up the sound goes up, and how when the note goes up a lot the pitch goes up a lot.  Then I had the basic notes to some familiar tunes like Twinkle, Happy Birthday, and Row Your Boat written out.  We wrote out the names of each note then we did a kind of name that tune with them.

   We did a lot of listening this month.  We listened to Toccata and Fugue, Night on Bald Mountain, Funeral March of a Marionette, and Danse Macabre.

Toccata and Fugue

   We started out by describing an organ.  I should have brought in a picture.
   Then we talked about what a Toccata is and what a Fugue is:
   Toccata is typically a keyboard piece that is written for a virtuoso to show off the dexterity of their fingers.
   Fugue is where a theme in introduced and then worked into different 'voices' on different pitches throughout the piece.
   I made clips from Toccata and Fugue that typified each and played them.  I think they picked up on the toccata idea a little better than the fugue.  I think for next time I should write out the fugue theme so they can see it as well.

Night on Bald Mountain / Ghosts Suckers Craft

   I told (a watered down version) of the story.  The full history is a little dark and scary.  I told them how it was a tone poem about a Russian version of Halloween where witches gathered and flew around a bald mountain.

   We then made ghost suckers they could fly to the music.  I gave them a tissue (I bought the extra strength kind) and had them color and/or cut the edges.  You leave the middle empty so you can make a face.  Then I gave them a sucker and a piece of yard and had them tie the tissue onto the suckers.  I played the music in the background and when they finished they could fly their ghosts around to the music.  The kids loved the suckers.  A few of them had fun flying to the music.

Funeral March of a Marionette

   I really wanted to make some kind of puppet for each of them that they could use with the music.  I went to the store and bought some (a lot of) candy that I could use for the head, feet, and hands.  For the body I used some fabric scraps  Popcicle sticks and yarn for the controls.  I finally came up with cool prototype but after only getting three done in one hour I decided that I wasn't going to make 60 of them.  I gave up.
   So I took in two puppets my Dad had brought back from Germany for me.  We talked about how the contrasting ideas of puppets and funerals was just a little comical and how the music was both comical and serious in turn.  I made a clip of the basic march, 'stopping by the inn,' return to marching, and arriving at the graveyard.

Danse Macabre / Skeleton Arms

   Danse Macabre is one of my all-time favorites.  I first heard it as the theme for a English comedy/mystery show 'Jonathan Creek.'  The show was cute but the music was great.

Bernt Notke: Surmatants (Totentanz) in St. Nicholas' Church, Tallinn.

   So when I was researching I was intrigued by the original 14th century idea and art of Danse Macabre.  The basis is that death comes out on Halloween at midnight and calls the dead out to dance.  At dawn they have to go back.  Several things combined to come up with Danse Macabre.  First of all there was a really high death rate in the 14th century.  Some estimates were as high as 50%.  Death was something everyone was dealing with.  The churches would teach the people about the importance of being ready to go at any time.  At the same time people would naturally feel a desire to enjoy what time you had.  Combine all that with the idea that death was the great equalizer and you came up with Danse Macabre.  Saint Saens must have been pretty impressed with it too because he wrote the song about it a couple centuries later.

Lübecker Totentanz by Bernt Notke (around 1463, destroyed in a bombing raid in 1942).

Those were all the same long painting.  I love the clothes.  They were just a bit icky to show to the kids though.

    This is the picture I showed them.

The Abbot, woodcut from the Dance of Death series, 1523–26, 6.5 x 4.8 cm by Hans Holbein the Younger.

    I probably did too much of an intro for the kids.  I lost them a little during the history.  Plus for the third grade I mispronounced both Saint-Saens and Danse Macabre.  I need to make sure and look those up each time.

   So I made skeleton arm die cuts and I made clips of the two main themes.  When the first theme played I would have them do a thumbs up with the hand and when the second theme played they would do a thumbs down.
   The three other clips I played for them was the call of Death, the Xylophone bone sounds, and the dawn.
   Next time I want to do two hands each.