Lesson Plan: Music for Spring
With Spring fast approaching, I thought I would highlight one of the thousands of lesson plans for music teachers contained in the MusicFirst Classroom Content Library titled Music for Spring. Lots of great stuff in here to get your students listening, responding, and composing music inspired by the Spring season. I hope that you can use this lesson with your students!
Music For Spring
Objectives:
Students will listen and respond to a variety of pieces of instrumental music depicting springtime.
Students will create an original piece of music for spring.
Materials:
1. At your discretion, edit the choice of pieces for student listening.
2. Consider altering the assignment to response to 1 piece instead of 3
3. **CHOOSE how students will compose their own Spring music. You can use notation software such as Flat or Noteflight, or a digital audio workstation like Soundtrap.
Procedure:
Student Handout:
Music for Spring
Spring: warm sun, flowers blooming, birds singing.
This hopeful time of year is represented in music through many time periods.
In this lesson, you will
Listen to a variety of different pieces of music
Respond based on your listening
Create your own spring-inspired song.
The music presented below is all instrumental music. There is a wealth of vocal music about spring.
You may include singing or spoken word in your creation.
1. Listen
Using the videos and/or the Spotify playlist below, sample each song.
Choose 3 that are VERY DIFFERENT from one another. They are listed somewhat by era & genre.
In the box below the playlist, list the three songs you chose, then describe, compare & contrast them. Use musical vocabulary as much as possible.
"Spring" movement 1 - Antonio Vivaldi
"Spring" movement 4 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
"Pastoral" Symphony movement 1 - Ludwig van Beethoven
Spring Song - Felix Mendelssohn
"Spring" Symphony movement 3 - Robert Schumann
The Lark Ascending - Ralph Vaughan Williams
Morning Mood from Peer Gynt Suite - Edvard Grieg
On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring - Frederick Delius
Spring Song - Antonin Dvorak
Le chocard des alpes - Olivier Messiaen
Bird Concerto with Pianosong - Jonathan Harvey
Swingtime in Springtime - Django Reinhardt
Joy Spring - Clifford Brown
Up Jumped Spring - Freddie Hubbard
"Spring" movement 1 - Antonio Vivaldi
"Spring" movement 4 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
"Pastoral" Symphony movement 1 - Ludwig van Beethoven
Spring Song - Felix Mendelssohn
"Spring" Symphony movement 3 - Robert Schumann
The Lark Ascending - Ralph Vaughan Williams
Morning Mood from Peer Gynt Suite - Edvard Grieg
On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring - Frederick Delius
Spring Song - Antonin Dvorak
Le chocard des alpes - Olivier Messiaen
Bird Concerto with Pianosong - Jonathan Harvey
Swingtime in Springtime - Django Reinhardt
Joy Spring - Clifford Brown
Up Jumped Spring - Freddie Hubbard
Response Task
3 Pieces for Spring - Response
Description
Sample each of the pieces in the videos/playlist.
Choose 3, then listen to them all the way through.
In the space below,
Tell which three pieces of music you chose
Compare/contrast them using musical vocabulary as much as possible
Tell which is your favorite and why
If your teacher gives you the option to respond with audio or video, paste a link to your submission in the space. Be sure that you adjusted the sharing settings whereever you stored the file so your teacher can access it.
Create Task
Original Song for Spring
Description
Create a piece of music inspired by some aspect of the spring season that is at least 1 minute long. You may include lyrics/singing or spoken word.
Your teacher will give you specific instructions for creating your music. You may need to use specific software, including Flat, Noteflight, Soundtrap or other similar music creation programs.
Remember to structure the music for the listener. Choose 1 of these forms:
Through Composed: Intro - Main section - Outro No repeated sections
ABA (Ternary): Main idea - Contrasting Idea - Main idea again, usually with something added and a short ending (coda)
Rondo (ABACA): Like ABA/Ternary, but with 2 contrasting sections
Theme & Variations: Main tune or riff (theme) + repetitions. Repeat the main idea, changing aspects as the music progresses. The main tune is recognizable throughout.