I had an idea last week.....well maybe more than one.... but I shall tell you about this one...!
I wanted to do something WW2 related in art.....so....I came up with the idea of using the 'Leningrad' symphony by Dimitri Shostakovitch as inspiration. He wrote this symphony whilst the German army was marching towards Leningrad if you click here you'll find a page that tells you a bit about it's history and isn't too musically technical! It's a fantastic piece of music and I chose to use the 1st movement...26 minutes long so selected a big chunk in the middle to draw to.... from about 7 mins to about 20 mins.
Very briefly, Shostakovitch wasn't in the Red Army because he couldn't see very well so he wrote this 'War' symphony. It's full of wonderful imagery - isn't most music?! Before we started with that work I 'warmed' them up to the idea with other pieces of music, the first couple were completely unrelated to war. I wanted them to get the idea that nothing was ever wrong and that it was ok to change your mind as the music went on. I do feel that music is wonderful at putting pictures in your head and it brings a certain freedom because how can it ever be wrong if it's what the music has made you think/draw?!
So we all got the hang of listening and drawing (on whiteboards in front of the IWB first) , I found it fascinating to see what unfolded...some drew pictures, some wrote words, some did nothing, some did words and pictures. What was great was that there were lots of different ideas that were all correct! I think we did four warm ups, the last two being war related - 'Run Rabbit Run' and '633 Squadron.' I then introduced them to Shostakovitch and after that it was time to go to places with A3 sheets & sketching pencils!
I decided to just play the music first before saying anything, I didn't want them to have any pre-conceived ideas from me, I wanted them to be free to think and choose for themselves, to know that it's absolutely ok and seriously cool to do your own thing rather than follow the crowd!
So off we went, I started at about 7 mins in - it's very quiet, they really have to listen. How proud was I? They all listened and quietly started to draw, this piece is a bit like Bolero because the theme keeps building and repeating. There's a 'rat a tat -tat' in the background on a snare drum that just builds and builds. At around 13 mins 30 seconds the 'na-na naa na' siren starts happening in the violins - it feels like the tension is mounting, the army is getting closer and closer, the music gets faster, at about 14 mins you can hear the 'tanks rolling in' in the trombones, the rat a tat tat starts to sound more like gun fire, an army on the move fighting! It just keeps building & sounds very exciting, my class got more and more energized as it went on - I have speakers in the ceiling which are fantastic for teaching with sound! At about 16 mins 30secs the trumpets unleash yet more power and there's a massive crescendo....and then....what do you think? Has the battle been won? Has the city been captured? What does the end of this symphony mean? At about 19 mins it all calms down...what does this mean? What do you think?
After I had stopped the music the children talked about what they had drawn and how the music had influenced what they had drawn. One child used a ruler and drew a straight line pattern, another had written big words - IT'S WAR - HELP, some had drawn poppies as they had remembered things from Remembrance Day and thought that this might have been similar...only one child just couldn't get going. I tried to get him to think in a different way - think of it as a story, what's happening? Does it seem like patterns to you? In the end he did but I don't think he was convinced by his drawing but that's ok I thought, the afternoon was about freedom of choice and it wasn't as though he didn't try!
As a plenary I talked through the music and tried to explain how I hear it...I got them all singing 'na na naaa na' with me in a screechy voice, they could hear the violins... I sang the tanks and rolled around the classroom!...They got it! They'd already spotted the gunfire and had got the idea that as the music got louder it meant that the army was getting nearer to the city and indeed a battle was going on! I kind of have a bit of a head start with music as it was my job for about 20 years...I told them the story of when I played it once and had to wear ear plugs because I had 5 trumpets blasting into my head. I had to wear ear plugs because there wasn't any room for the usual sound screens that orchestras use to protect hearing. Can you imagine how hard that was? Playing but not hearing to protect your hearing?! The loud bits were ok but in the quiet bits it was very disconcerting not to be able to hear!!...
I loved this afternoon and plan on doing similar this week - going to use Mars from the Planets by Holst - war again but in a different way and it'll be interesting to see what they think and if they draw differently.
You can buy this symphony very cheaply and I think it's very accessible to all - good luck if you decide to try it!
I wanted to do something WW2 related in art.....so....I came up with the idea of using the 'Leningrad' symphony by Dimitri Shostakovitch as inspiration. He wrote this symphony whilst the German army was marching towards Leningrad if you click here you'll find a page that tells you a bit about it's history and isn't too musically technical! It's a fantastic piece of music and I chose to use the 1st movement...26 minutes long so selected a big chunk in the middle to draw to.... from about 7 mins to about 20 mins.
Very briefly, Shostakovitch wasn't in the Red Army because he couldn't see very well so he wrote this 'War' symphony. It's full of wonderful imagery - isn't most music?! Before we started with that work I 'warmed' them up to the idea with other pieces of music, the first couple were completely unrelated to war. I wanted them to get the idea that nothing was ever wrong and that it was ok to change your mind as the music went on. I do feel that music is wonderful at putting pictures in your head and it brings a certain freedom because how can it ever be wrong if it's what the music has made you think/draw?!
So we all got the hang of listening and drawing (on whiteboards in front of the IWB first) , I found it fascinating to see what unfolded...some drew pictures, some wrote words, some did nothing, some did words and pictures. What was great was that there were lots of different ideas that were all correct! I think we did four warm ups, the last two being war related - 'Run Rabbit Run' and '633 Squadron.' I then introduced them to Shostakovitch and after that it was time to go to places with A3 sheets & sketching pencils!
I decided to just play the music first before saying anything, I didn't want them to have any pre-conceived ideas from me, I wanted them to be free to think and choose for themselves, to know that it's absolutely ok and seriously cool to do your own thing rather than follow the crowd!
So off we went, I started at about 7 mins in - it's very quiet, they really have to listen. How proud was I? They all listened and quietly started to draw, this piece is a bit like Bolero because the theme keeps building and repeating. There's a 'rat a tat -tat' in the background on a snare drum that just builds and builds. At around 13 mins 30 seconds the 'na-na naa na' siren starts happening in the violins - it feels like the tension is mounting, the army is getting closer and closer, the music gets faster, at about 14 mins you can hear the 'tanks rolling in' in the trombones, the rat a tat tat starts to sound more like gun fire, an army on the move fighting! It just keeps building & sounds very exciting, my class got more and more energized as it went on - I have speakers in the ceiling which are fantastic for teaching with sound! At about 16 mins 30secs the trumpets unleash yet more power and there's a massive crescendo....and then....what do you think? Has the battle been won? Has the city been captured? What does the end of this symphony mean? At about 19 mins it all calms down...what does this mean? What do you think?
After I had stopped the music the children talked about what they had drawn and how the music had influenced what they had drawn. One child used a ruler and drew a straight line pattern, another had written big words - IT'S WAR - HELP, some had drawn poppies as they had remembered things from Remembrance Day and thought that this might have been similar...only one child just couldn't get going. I tried to get him to think in a different way - think of it as a story, what's happening? Does it seem like patterns to you? In the end he did but I don't think he was convinced by his drawing but that's ok I thought, the afternoon was about freedom of choice and it wasn't as though he didn't try!
As a plenary I talked through the music and tried to explain how I hear it...I got them all singing 'na na naaa na' with me in a screechy voice, they could hear the violins... I sang the tanks and rolled around the classroom!...They got it! They'd already spotted the gunfire and had got the idea that as the music got louder it meant that the army was getting nearer to the city and indeed a battle was going on! I kind of have a bit of a head start with music as it was my job for about 20 years...I told them the story of when I played it once and had to wear ear plugs because I had 5 trumpets blasting into my head. I had to wear ear plugs because there wasn't any room for the usual sound screens that orchestras use to protect hearing. Can you imagine how hard that was? Playing but not hearing to protect your hearing?! The loud bits were ok but in the quiet bits it was very disconcerting not to be able to hear!!...
I loved this afternoon and plan on doing similar this week - going to use Mars from the Planets by Holst - war again but in a different way and it'll be interesting to see what they think and if they draw differently.
You can buy this symphony very cheaply and I think it's very accessible to all - good luck if you decide to try it!
This is a fantastic idea. I am covering WWII with my class at the moment and I was looking at ways to combine music. I was just going to learn about and sing war songs but this is great. I am going to try this with my primary 7 class. Thank you very much.