Lesson Plan: Anna Thorvaldsdottir

To help celebrate Women’s History Month, here is a lesson plan about one of music’s most celebrated modern composers, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, from Iceland. This lesson plan is one of MANY from the MusicFirst Classroom Content Library. It is intended for students in middle and high school. You can get a free trial to access this lesson as well as tons of other content and software to explore everything MusicFirst has to offer.

Objectives:

Students will learn about Anna Thorvaldsdottir.
Students will listen and respond to a piece of music.
Students will compose a piece of music based on a nature scene.

Standards:

Create - Conceive and develop new artistic id...
Respond - Understand and evaluate how the art...

Materials:

Soundtrap, Soundation, or any DAW.

Student View:

Who is Anna Thorvaldsdottir?

Anna Thorvaldsdottir is an Icelandic composer born on July 11, 1977. She is the 2012 winner of the Nordic Council Music Prize. Additionally, she was chosen as the 2015 New York Philharmonic’s Kravis Emerging Composer - this honor includes a $50,000 prize and a commission to write a composition for the orchestra. In April 2018, the orchestra performed her symphonic poem, Metacosmos.

Thorvaldsdottir has her MA and PhD in composition from the University of California, San Diego. Her music is influenced by landscapes and nature and are frequently performed in Europe and in the United States. Thorvaldsdottir is currently the composer-in-residence with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.

Four of her pieces have been premiered and recorded by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. She has also worked with BIT20 Ensemble, Musiques Nouvelles, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. AERIALITY was commissioned by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and it premiered in November 2011.

Task #1 - Critique

Listen to Anna Thorvaldsdottir's "AERIALITY"

When know that Thorvaldsdottir draws inspiration from nature. While you listen, close your eyes and picture a nature scene.
Where are you?
What is around you?
What is the weather like?
What is unique about this scene?

Using Google, find images that match your mental image you created.
Find at least four photos and create a collage on Google Docs, Word, Pages, etc.

Task #2 - Nature Composition

Analyze the photo and come up with three adjectives that describe this scene and/or how it makes you feel.

Open a new Soundtrap project...
With your three adjectives in mind, create a composition that expresses those adjectives.