Born Sept. 8, 1841 in Nelahozeves, Bohemia (now Czech Republic)
Died May 1, 1904 in Prague, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic)

For Dvorak, classical music was a vehicle to express the character of a nation, and native folk melodies were important in his works. A passionate proponent of his homeland, as was Smetana before him, he continued to develop a Czech style, inspired by folk music as heard in Slavonic Dances, in symphonic poems inspired by Czech folklore, and in many songs. His father was a butcher as well as a professional zither player, who encouraged his son to also become a butcher. Fortunately for the son and for the world, Dvorak opted for a career of music, and not butchery.

From 1892 to 1895, Dvorak was director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City. While in America, he was zealous about discovering an American style of music. One of his students, Henry Burleigh (one of the earliest African-American composers), introduced him to black spirituals, which Burleigh later transcribed and collected with his teacher’s encouragement. Dvorak’s search for an American musical idiom culminates in his 9th and last Symphony, subtitled “From the New World.”  While the themes are original, some show the inspiration of African-American and Native American melodies.  This most American of symphonies is still a worldwide favorite, a recording of which was even taken to the moon in 1969 on Apollo 11. Dvorak encouraged American musicians to continue to search for a national style, influencing such composers as Amy Beach and William Grant Still. Aaron Copland also incorporated American folk tunes in his music, which helped further define an American style of music.

Dvorak was musically influenced and encouraged by his friendships with Brahms and Tchaikovsky. He composed in all genres, including operas, symphonies, chamber music, songs, symphonic poems, concerti, choral works and more. Deeply religious, Dvorak composed his largest choral work, Stabat Mater, at the death of his daughter; today it is often performed at Easter in the Czech Republic.

Listen to the 2nd Movement of Dvorak’s 9th Symphony, “From the New World”:

To create, one must first imagine; to imagine, one must first learn to see, to listen, to feel, to perceive. Music and the arts are the cornerstone of education in the broadest sense. They open our eyes and ears, develop and transform us personally, connect us emotionally with others, and offer a universal bridge of understanding in a troubled world. Music and the arts play a lifetime role as a child develops into adulthood. They help us integrate body, mind, and spirit, and help us forge bonds with others. The arts encourage us to explore who we are and what we stand for, inspire us to discover our “better angels” as individuals and as societies, and help us overcome barriers of language, generations, and geography to assert our essential humanity. The arts are a beacon of freedom and common cause, and have been the “movers and shakers of the world forever, it seems,” reasserting the universal rights of the human spirit whenever and wherever they are threatened.

From the first soothing sounds of a mother’s lullaby to the bright colors and comforting touch of a favorite blanket or toy, the miraculous world of infancy begins to open up. Babies react to sights and sounds around them, connecting emotions and meanings to what they see and hear. Soon they interact with the outer world as they enter a creative phase of imitating external sounds, rhythms, movements, smiles, gestures. They are, in effect, hooked on the elements of art that surround them: the lines, shapes, textures, colors, patterns, movements, rhythms, expressions, and forms that connect them to their ever-expanding world. The arts help wire and integrate young brains for lifelong learning–energizing and connecting the body, mind, and feelings. An instinctive love of music, poetry, and dramatic play is fostered through nursery rhymes, singing, dancing, and rhythm games, just as the gloriously messy and colorful world of art beckons with unlimited possibilities in finger paints, play dough, bubbles, and blocks. Storytelling, tactile toys and books, pretend games, and games of hiding and discovery like Peekaboo and Hide ‘n Seek stir imaginations and add excitement in the fantastic fray of a toddler’s perceptions. But none of this is mere child’s play: early exposure to the arts lays a complex groundwork of mental, physical, and emotional connections that opens the door to a lifetime of curiosity, learning, experimenting, problem solving, understanding, and creativity.

The arts are at the heart of every child. And the arts must be at the heart of education. If we choose to ignore children’s basic instincts for music and art at early ages, or fail to nourish their innate love of the arts throughout their education as they mature, we will as a society have “missed the beat” and “missed the boat.” The ancient Greeks knew the value of arts in education. Aristotle thought the cornerstones of education should be music for the mind and spirit and gymnastics for the body. Centuries later John F. Kennedy expressed our need for the arts this way:
“The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction, in the life of a nation, is very close to the center of a nation’s purpose. . .and is a test of the quality of a nation’s civilization.”

Music in Motion’s 2012 catalog hopes to be true to the spirit of both Aristotle and Kennedy, by presenting the best in music and movement education for all ages, along with complementary art, dance, and creative dramatics, to redirect the arts “to the center of a nation’s purpose,” where they belong. The arts, like the heart, pulsate at the center of our common humanity. They are, simply, our life blood.

Take advantage of “front row” seats at the Met’s new 2011-12 HD Live opera season, and watch opening day performances (or encore evening showings) at local movie theaters throughout the world. Although nothing beats a live performance at the Met in Lincoln Center, these simulcast live performances on screen are the next best thing, and the biggest bargain ever.  I love them, especially the close-up shots that make you feel like you are onstage with the performers. And, of course, the popcorn. . .

What a great educational opportunity for all ages!  I hope music teachers  will take advantage of the opportunity to introduce students to opera with some of the Met’s excellent educational materials, then put the icing on the cake by taking them to a local movie theater to experience their first opera. (Interested in bringing opera from the Met into your school? See HD Opera Live in Schools.)

Find participating movie theaters here and enjoy the 2011-12  HD Live Metropolitan Opera season:

Donizetti’s Anna Bolena – New Production

October 15, 2011, 12:55 pm ET
U.S. Encore: November 2, 2011 6:30 pm local time
Canada Encores:November 12, 2011 1 pm local time
November 21, 2011, 6:30 pm local time

Anna Netrebko opens the Met season with her portrayal of the ill-fated queen driven insane by her unfaithful king. She sings one of opera’s greatest mad scenes in this Met premiere production by David McVicar. Ekaterina Gubanova is her rival, Jane Seymour, Ildar Abdrazakov sings Henry VIII, and Marco Armiliato conducts.

Mozart’s Don Giovanni – New Production

October 29, 2011, 12:55 pm ET
U.S. Encore: November 16, 2011 at 6:30 pm local time
Canada Encores: December 17, 2011 at 1 pm local time
January 9, 2012 at 6:30 pm local time

Mariusz Kwiecien brings his youthful and sensual interpretation of Mozart’s timeless anti-hero to the Met for the first time, under the direction of Tony Award®-winning director Michael Grandage and with James Levine conducting. Also starring Marina Rebeka, Barbara Frittoli, Ramón Vargas, and Luca Pisaroni.

Wagner’s Siegfried– New Production

November 5, 2011, 12 pm ET
Encore dates to be determined

In part three of the Ring, Wagner’s cosmic vision focuses on his hero’s early conquests, while Robert Lepage’s revolutionary stage machine transforms itself from bewitched forest to mountaintop love nest. Gary Lehman sings the title role and Deborah Voigt’s Brünnhilde is his prize. Bryn Terfel is the Wanderer. James Levine conducts.

Glass’s Satyagraha

November 19, 2011, 12:55 pm ET
U.S. Encore: December 7, 2011 at 6:30 pm local time
Canada Encore: January 14, 2012 at 1 pm local time

The Met’s visually extravagant production is back for an encore engagement. Richard Croft (right) once again is Gandhi in Philip Glass’s unforgettable opera, which the Washington Post calls “a profound and beautiful work of theater.”

Handel’s Rodelinda

December 3, 2011, 12:30 pm ET
U.S. Encore: January 4, 2012 at 6:30 pm local time
Canada Encore: January 28, 2012 at 12:30 pm local time

Sensational in the 2004 Met premiere of Stephen Wadsworth’s much-heralded production, Renée Fleming reprises the title role. She’s joined by Stephanie Blythe and countertenor Andreas Scholl, and Baroque specialist Harry Bicket conducts.

Gounod’s Faust– New Production

December 10, 2011, 12:55 pm ET
U.S. Encore: January 11, 2012 at 6:30 pm local time
Canada Encores: February 4, 2012 at 1 pm local time
February 27, 2012 at 6:30 pm local time

With Jonas Kaufmann in the title role, René Pape as the devil, and Marina Poplavskaya as Marguerite, Gounod’s classic retelling of the Faust legend couldn’t be better served. Tony Award-winning director Des McAnuff updates the story to the first half of the 20th century with a production that won praise in London last season. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts on the heels of his Don Carlo success.

The Enchanted Island– New Production

January 21, 2012, 12:55 pm ET
U.S. Encore: February 8, 2012 at 6:30 pm local time
Canada Encore: March 3, 2012 at 1 pm local time
March 26, 2012 at 6:30 pm local time

In one extraordinary new work, lovers of Baroque opera have it all: the world’s best singers, glorious music of the Baroque masters, and a story drawn from Shakespeare. In The Enchanted Island, the lovers from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream are shipwrecked on his other-worldly island of The Tempest. Inspired by the musical pastiches and masques of the 18th century, the work showcases arias and ensembles by Handel, Vivaldi, Rameau, and others, and a new libretto devised and written by Jeremy Sams. Eminent conductor William Christie leads an all-star cast with David Daniels (Prospero) and Joyce DiDonato (Sycorax) as the formidable foes, Plácido Domingo as Neptune, Danielle de Niese as Ariel, and Luca Pisaroni as Caliban. Lisette Oropesa and Anthony Roth Costanzo play Miranda and Ferdinand. The dazzling production is directed and designed by Phelim McDermott and Julian Crouch (Satyagraha and the Met’s 125 anniversary gala).

Wagner’s Götterdämmerung – New Production

February 11, 2012, 12 pm ET
Encore dates to be determined

With its cataclysmic climax, the Met’s new Ring cycle, directed by Robert Lepage, comes to its resolution. Deborah Voigt stars as Brünnhilde and Gary Lehman is Siegfried—the star-crossed lovers doomed by fate. James Levine conducts.

Verdi’s Ernani

February 25, 2012, 12:55 pm ET
U.S. Encore: March 14, 2012 at 6:30 pm local time
Canada Encore: March 31, 2012 at 1 pm local time

Angela Meade takes center stage in Verdi’s thrilling early gem. Marcello Giordani is her mismatched lover, and all-star Verdians Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Ferruccio Furlanetto round out the cast.

Massenet’s Manon– New Production

April 7, 2012, 12 pm ET
U.S. Encore: April 25, 2012 at 6:30 pm local time
Canada Encores: April 28, 2012 at 12 pm local time
May 14, 2012 at 6 pm local time

Anna Netrebko’s dazzling portrayal of the tragic heroine in Laurent Pelly’s new production travels to the Met from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Piotr Beczala and Paulo Szot also star, with the Met’s Principal Guest Conductor Fabio Luisi on the podium.

Verdi’s La Traviata

April 14, 2012, 12:55 pm ET
U.S. Encore: May 2, 2012 at 6:30 pm local time
Canada Encores: May 26, 2012 at 1 pm local time
June 4, 2012 at 6:30 pm local time

Natalie Dessay will put on the red dress in Willy Decker’s stunning production, in her first Violetta at the Met. Matthew Polenzani sings Alfredo, Dmitri Hvorostovsky is Germont, and Principal Guest Conductor Fabio Luisi is on the podium.

Jill and Michael Gallina share news of their exciting new musical that highlights the importance of literature and reading:

If you are interested in a musical that takes place entirely on risers and integrates music and children’s literature into one easy-to-produce package, we hope you’ll consider our latest “Rise and Shine” musical SING ME A STORY: Classic Stories Throughout Time Come to Life in Song and Rhyme for Grades 2-5. Given the fact that literature is such an integral part of every child’s learning experiences, we created a musical that introduces children to scenes from children’s classics all set within the magical medium of music! What better way than music to whet children’s appetites for becoming lifelong readers? What better way than music to support literature-based incentive programs such as “Read Across America?”

Sing Me a Story includes original songs that are used to highlight the very essence of some of literature’s best-loved children’s stories. Wander in “The Secret Garden” or journey to far-away lands and meet such characters as Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter, Thumbelina, Pinocchio, Tinkerbell, the Ugly Duckling, and the Little Mermaid. We realize the unrelenting expectations placed on music teachers and thus created the Rise and Shine musical format to enable teachers to perform the entire production on risers with optional props, hand motions, and basic riser choreography.

Sing Me A Story musical kit includes:

- easy-to-memorize rhyming dialogue
- director’s score
- singers’ parts (for unison or optional 2-part songs)
- simple choreography, prop, and performance suggestions
- American Sign Language instructions
- reproducible student pages
- enhanced StudioTrax CD with both accompaniment and full performance tracks, plus reproducible poster, program, clip art, and composer’s info

 As musicians, we are of course well aware of the importance that music plays in the curriculum as a viable entity unto itself, but with budget cuts and music positions being threatened across the country, why not deliver the one-two punch and show how music can also be most the effective way to teach and extend learning into all other areas of the curriculum!

–Guest blog by Jill and Michael Gallina

 Sing Me A Story is now available at Music in Motion.

Born December 10, 1908 in Avignon, France
Died  April 27, 1992 in Clichy, France

“I give bird-songs to those who dwell in cities and have never heard them, make rhythms for those who know only military marches or jazz, and paint colors for those who see none.” —Olivier Messiaen

The Musician who Loved Birds

Olivier Messiaen was perhaps the most influential French composer since Debussy. He redefined avant-garde, although his highly original works often reflect conservative values of spirituality, nature, and  beauty that set his music apart from the harsher trends of the 20th century. While others “musicalized” the harsh mechanized sounds of urban life, war, and the industrial age, Messiaen preferred nature, and most of all, birds.  As a passionate ornithologist, he painstakingly transcribed birdsongs, particularly the songbirds of France. Birds were the true musicians, he felt, and their songs were transformed exquisitely in his music, as seen in Catalogue de Oiseaux (1958).

Messiaen enjoyed a happy childhood filled with music and poetry. At age 10 after discovering Debussy he declared his intention to become a composer.  His mother penned a long colorful poem to him before he was born, and the synaesthesia which caused the composer to experience sounds as colors (as did fellow composers Rimsky-Korsakov and Scriabin) he attributed to her. “When I hear music, I hear colors,” he said. “When I compose, I see the colors as I see the sounds.” He described one of his harmonic sequences as changing “from blue striped with green to black spotted with red and gold, by way of diamond, emerald, purplish-blue, with a dominant pool of orange studded with milky white.” (Once he got a stomach ache at a ballet when the violet lighting clashed with his color conception of the Key of G!) His father,  a teacher of English, translated Shakespeare into French. As a child, Messiaen delighted in adapting Shakespeare plays for family productions.  Considering that Shakespeare wrote more about birds than any other poet,  is it any wonder that birds would sing in  Messiaen’s music more than in any other composer’s?

Messiaen underwent a rigorous classical musical education at the Paris Conservatoire (1919-30), studying with Paul Dukas, Charles-Marie Widor, and Marcel Dupré.  His education came full circle when he taught there from 1941-78, instructing such influential musicians as Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, George Benjamin, and Iannis Xenakis. The most profound influence in his life was his strict Roman Catholicism, which he expressed strongly in his music and in his 61-year tenure as organist of Eglise de la Trinité in Paris. [It was at La Trinité where I was privileged to hear Messiaen at the organ during the annual memorial service Nadia Boulanger held for her sister Lily Boulanger; this venerable neo-gothic church was at my metro stop during my junior year in Paris, near Mlle. Boulanger’s home in nearby Montmartre where I was privileged to attend her weekly music analysis classes.]  

Messiaen’s deep spiritual faith was akin to Bach’s. Both felt that the essential goal of music was to glorify God. “I want to write music that is an act of faith, a music that is about everything without ceasing to be about God,” declared Messiaen. When his faith was tested during his 2-year captivity in a German POW camp, he composed his most important work Quartet for the End of Time (1941). Written for piano, clarinet, violin and cello–the only 4 instruments available to him in the prison camp, this intensely mystical work had a profound effect on 5000 fellow prisoners in the camp, where it was performed for the first time.

Messiaen’s compositional innovations included the use of Greek meters, Hindu rhythms, rhythmic palindromes, adventurous harmonies, and a vivid use of color in his orchestrations through unusual percussion such as the ondes martenot (a vacuum tube instrument that was successor to the spooky theremin). He  also briefly experimented with electronic music (Fête des belles eaux, 1937) and serialism (Quatre études de rythme, 1949). His legacy includes  works for organ, piano, voice, orchestra, and an almost 6-hour-long opera (Saint Francois d’Assise, 1975-1983).  He was in ill health when he finally completed what he thought would be his final work,  but how fitting is it that St. Francis is the subject of his only opera. (Hear St. Francis’s ecstatic sermon to the birds, Act II, Scene 6). In this gentle saint Messiaen found someone who quietly worshipped God and passionately loved nature and birds as much as himself.

Biographers Peter Hill and Nigel Simeone reflect on Messiaen’s techniques of transcribing and composing with birdsongs:

Here’s a good children’s book on Messiaen:

Music for the End of Time

by Jen Bryant, illus. by Beth Peck

“In my hour of gloom, when I am suddenly aware of my own futility. . .what is left for me but to seek out the true, lost face of music somewhere off in the forest. . .among the birds.” -Messiaen

This poetic children’s biography  reveals the small miracle of how French composer Olivier Messiaen wrote his most important work, Quartet for the End of Time. Imprisoned in a German POW camp, Olivier longs for his family, friends, and home. . .but most of all he misses music. A chance encounter with a nightingale and a German officer, however, provides him with the opportunity to write music again. When a make-shift concert on broken-down instruments takes place in the camp in 1941, Quartet for the End of Time (and the song of the nightingale which is in it) offers a message of hope and beauty that inspires Messiaen’s 5000 fellow prisoners.

After months of deadly trench warfare, on Dec. 24, 1914, German and British soldiers in Belgium suddenly ceased hostilities and, through the singing of carols, celebrated Christmas together. This film documents their spontaneous musical truce with eyewitness reports, proving that "people who make music together cannot be enemies, at least not while the music lasts" (Hindemith). 
The Christmas Truce DVD, available from Music in Motion, documents this incredible event, when music transcended the ravages of war to unite foes in a spirit of common  humanity to discover true meaning of Christmas.

American folk singer John McCutcheon immortalized the 1914 Christmas truce in his moving ballad, “Christmas in the Trenches”:

I heartily recommend the following illustrated book for children, which tells the true story of the Christmas Truce in a language children can understand:

In Flanders Field

By Norma Jorgensen and Brian Harrison-Lever. On Christmas morning, the guns stop firing. A robin is caught in the barbed wire of no-man’s land on the front. The soldier makes a choice that transforms into a peaceful moment of sharing Silent Night across enemy lines. The famous World War I title poem of John McCrae is a fitting conclusion to this illustrated book for children.
Hardback 2496  $16.95 (available at Music in Motion)

Also recommended is The Story of Silent Night DVD. It recounts the history of the carol Silent Night and includes a re-enactment of a spontaneous World War II music-induced Christmas Day truce between the Germans and Americans, similar to the WWI Christmas truce at Flanders Field:

The Story of Silent Night DVD

A live-action retelling of how the best-loved carol was written on a snowy night in 1818, and how it has affected generations since. Filmed in an Austrian winter wonderland, it features the Vienna Boys Choir.
The transcendent power of music is revealed in a deeply moving (and true) episode on Christmas Eve during World War II. American and German soldiers lay down their arms for a shared moment of peace, uniting their voices in this universal carol. For all ages! 80 min. DVD 5491  (avail. at Music in Motion)

Personal Note: My young nephew just shipped to Afghanistan. My thoughts and prayers are with him and all the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, and wherever lives are at risk in battle. May the spirit of the “Silent Night” Christmas truce be with them. "People who make music together cannot be enemies, at least not while the music lasts" (Hindemith). (Oppressive dictators have always known this, which is why music is often banned in times of repression, as it was under Taliban rule of Afghanistan and during Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China.)

Painting by Velasquez

Born Oct. 26, 1685 in Naples, Italy
Died July 23, 1757 in Madrid, Spain

Domenico Scarlatti was born into an illustrious musical family, auspiciously in the same year as two other great Baroque composers,  J. S. Bach and Handel. He received early training from his father Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725), chapel organist and composer  in Naples, who encouraged him to write vocal music.  As a young man Domenico went to Venice where he met  Handel and allegedly competed in a keyboard “duel,” where he was judged the equal of Handel on the the harpsichord but his inferior on the organ.  In 1709 he moved to Rome, expanding his training with Pasquini and Gasparini (student of Corelli). In Rome he served as maestro di cappella for the theater of the exiled queen of Poland,  then in 1714-19  serving as maestro di cappella at St. Peter’s in the Vatican. During this period he composed mostly sacred vocal works and operas.

For most of his life, however, he served in the royal courts of Portugal and Spain. There he indulged in his real passion for the harpsichord, composing 555 highly original keyboard sonatas which secured his lasting fame (although few of them were published during his lifetime). His music shows evidence of the influence of Spanish folk and dance music, which he loved. You can hear flamenco effects in his use of guitar-like  harmonic and rhythmic  patterns, striking dissonances, arpeggiated “strums,” quick repeated notes, ornamental accents, and the use of the Arabic Phyrgian mode. His works were characteristically Baroque in their binary form and contrapuntal texture, however Scarlatti’s use of tonality prepared the way for sonata form and the Classical era. The first section unusually modulates to a new key, and the second section finds its way back to the home key.

Teaching Tip: See if your students can hear the guitar effects in Scarlatti’s Sonata, K. 455, for harpsichord. The music animation will help the eye follow the overlapping visual lines while the ear focuses on the musical lines.

True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today.
     – George Gershwin

Born Sept. 26, 1898 in Brooklyn, New York
Died July 11, 1937 in Hollywood, California

George Gershwin, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, is the quintessential American composer. His music-making started in Tin Pan Alley and wound up on Broadway and in the concert halls of America. He fulfilled his destiny and lived up to his own definition of music: “True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today.”  If ever a musician was attuned to his age and country, it was George Gershwin.

What a pity his sudden death cut short the music that flowed from this Tin Pan Alley pianist/composer whose Jazz-age songs, Broadway and Hollywood musicals, piano and concert works had catapulted him to the pinnacle of success at a young age.  Gershwin’s first published song called “When You Want ‘Em, You Can’t Have ‘Em” earned him five dollars. Soon after he composed “Swanee” (with lyricist Irving Ceaser) and sold over a million copies. His star continued to rise until at age 39 he suddenly died, following a concert at the Hollywood Bowl. An irony of his short life is that estimates of earnings accrued during his lifetime rate him as the wealthiest composer of all time (The Guardian). Alas, “When You Want ‘Em, You Can’t Have ‘Em” and when you’ve earned the dough there’s no time to spend it.

Along with many popular song hits, his larger works included Broadway musicals  Lady Be Good (1924), Funny Face (1927), Strike Up the Band (1927), and Girl Crazy (1930); his folk opera Porgy and Bess (1935); and orchestral works (also used in films) Rhapsody in Blue for piano and orchestra (1924),   An American in Paris (1928), and Shall We Dance (1937).

Hear Gershwin playing his own Rhapsody in Blue in an early recording, which seems a bit fast but is not without its charms, and I love the “vinyl” sound quality of these old recordings:

 Personal Footnote:
In my own life Rhapsody in Blue was pivotal. On a trip to Dallas from my small home town in West Texas, I bought a copy of Rhapsody in Blue in Whittle’s Music Store, a revered Dallas institution which no longer exists.  I convinced my piano teacher Blanche Freeman to let me tackle it. I put everything I had into learning that piece, and it gave back generously. I have never identified with a work as closely as I did Rhapsody in Blue. The big jazz-inspired sounds of the city you hear in the piece captured my small-town ears and imagination. Even today I get inspired when walking on the streets of New York, and I thank Gershwin for the music that still sings in my ears and heart. And I still have my cherished copy of Rhapsody in Blue, with its tattered blue cover.

Educational resources on Gershwin

Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue by Anna Harwell Celenza, illustrated by JoAnn E. Kitchel. Introduce kids to the story and music of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue in this Hardback and CD.  George Gershwin reads in the newspaper that he is performing a new concerto in Aeolian Hall in a few weeks. This is news to him! With encouragement from Paul Whiteman, and his brother Ira, he takes on the task and creates a truly American concerto–a musical kaleidoscope of urban sounds of the Jazz Age. Along the way we get glimpses of the musical scene in the 20′s in America. CD has a performance by Gershwin on a 1925 piano roll and accompanied by the Columbia Jazz Band. Hardback & CD #6582  $21.95 (available online at Music in Motion) 

Gershwin DVD. Dennis Kobray, an accomplished pianist and actor, portrays composer George Gershwin in full costume, using drama and musical performances to draw the viewer into the composer’s world. Students meet the composer face-to-face, hearing of his hardships, sacrifices, and triumphs. Elem.-high school. A tour de force! 54 min. Purchase includes public performance rights. DVD #5830  $24.95 (from Music in Motion)

Getting to Know. . .George Gershwin. Mike Venezia introduces young readers to classical music and to the lives of composers through playful tales, cartoons and source illustrations from the period.  This Gershwin book is one of a series for ages 4-9. Paperback Q364  $7.95 (from Music in Motion)

Born Sept. 25, 1906 in St. Petersburg, Russia
Died Aug. 9, 1975 in Moscow, Russia

A product of the Bolshevik Revolution, Shostakovich was the most famous of all  Soviet composers. He led a politically and personally troubled life, yet produced some of the century’s most celebrated and frequently performed works even today .

Born into a politically explosive era, with a revolutionary grandfather, leftist trade unionist father and a piano teaching mother, is it any wonder his political and musical wires were crossed? The demons of his life were the political fears and threats which constantly hovered over his career. He was the “darling” of the Soviets one moment and branded a “counter-revolutionary” in his music the next moment. His tumultuous relationship with Stalin was a yoke he could never shed, and his music always involved a dreaded dance with the devil of Soviet censorship and artistic control. His works were officially denounced in 1936 and 1948, and were periodically banned. Yet the ever popular Shostakovich received many accolades during his long career, from both the Russian people and the official Soviet state.

Shostakovich composed 15 symphonies, among them the popular “War” Symphonies Nos. 4 – 9 (which some thought were his musical protest against the crimes of Stalin), 15 string quartets, 6 concertos, numerous other chamber and orchestral works, piano pieces including 2 sonatas and 24 preludes and fugues for piano (like Bach),  2 operas and an operetta, 3 ballets, songs, cantatas, oratorios, stage and film music. His music ran the emotional gamut, from “warlike” and harshly propagandist to lyric and personal.  Probably because of his “pact with the Soviet devil,” Shostakovich’s place in musical history is controversial. While musicologist David Fanning in Grove writes that “he succeeded in forging a musical language of colossal emotional power,” Pierre Boulez dismissed him as a second or  even third-rate Mahler. English composer/musicologist Robin Holloway described his music as "battleship-grey in melody and harmony, factory-functional in structure; in content all rhetoric and coercion." But the reality of Shostakovich’s musical achievement should be judged apart from harsh political reactions to the man who, as many perceived, lacked the courage of his private convictions in standing up to Communist censorship and control. Please enjoy the richness and the inventiveness of his music, and judge not the man in political hindsight.

TESTIMONY: STORY OF SHOSTAKOVICH DVD

Tony Palmer’s film stars Ben Kingsley as Shostakovich. The film dramatizes the life of the Russian composer who opposed the directives of Stalin and defied him with his music. Palmer sensitively uses Shostakovich’s music to enhance the drama, and to deepen our understanding of how the composer felt about what was happening in his homeland. With excerpts from 11 symphonies and more, performed by the London Philharmonic. 151 min. DVD 5943 $29.95
                  (available at Music in Motion)

An interesting footnote to musical history:

A lighter side of Shostakovich was his passionate love of soccer, as heard in his 1929 ballet The Golden Age when he recreates an actual soccer match. Enjoy Shostakovich’s energetic soccer match–a first in music history and a thrillingly athletic display of programmatic music.  (In this Soviet ballet the Communist team travels abroad to compete with the “capitalists,” and you can guess who wins!)

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) wrote numerous concertos, many of them for the young ladies who resided in the Venetian orphanage where Vivaldi was employed for most of his working career. (Many of these “orphans” were daughters of affluent  noblemen and their mistresses, and they lived in very comfortable circumstances and were given excellent musical training.)  Some of Vivaldi’s concertos are highly descriptive, including his most famous “Four Seasons” Concertos.  Vivaldi himself wrote descriptive titles and poems that accompanied each movement of the concertos in the Four Seasons cycle. Here is a translation of the titles and verses that accompanied Concerto #3 in F Major, “Autumn”:

Movement 1: Allegro (Peasant Dance and Song)
The peasant celebrates with song and dance the harvest safely gathered in.
The cup of Bacchus flows freely, and many find their relief in deep slumber.

Movement 2: Adagio molto (Sleeping after the harvest celebration)
The singing and the dancing die away
as cooling breezes fan the pleasant air,
inviting all to sleep
without a care.

Movement 3: Allegro (The Hunt)
The hunters emerge at dawn,
ready for the chase,
with horns and dogs and cries.
Their quarry flees while they give chase.
Terrified and wounded, the prey struggles on,
but, harried, dies?

Now enjoy the music of “Autumn,” as performed in the National Botanical Gardens of Wales by Julia Fischer on violin, accompanied by the  Academy of St. Martin’s in the Field.

Concerto No.3 in F Major, RV 293, "AUTUMN"

Tips for Teacher

1. Ask students if Vivaldi’s titles and verses for the movements are reflected in his actual music? Ask them to point out events in the poem when they hear them in the music. Discuss the tempos for each movement, and why Vivaldi chose them to express his musical and poetic ideas.
2. Discuss what a harvest festival is, and what it would mean to the peasants. Why would music be important during a festival?
3. Invent your own “peasant dance” and perform it to the music.
4. Show the class Pieter Breugel’s painting “The Peasant Dance.” Discuss the feasting, dancing, and revelry. Ask why the peasants might be celebrating, and what season of the year it might be.

5. Discuss what autumn means to children and families today.What events do they enjoy that occur only in this season?
6. Ask students to write a poem about autumn.
7. Is there an American holiday that happens in the fall, where we enjoy a feast?
8. Celebrate the changing of the season with a “listening” walk, and discuss sights, sounds, and the weather, to see what signs of autumn you can find. (And when you get home, pour a cup of hot apple cider and listen to Vivaldi’s “Autumn” again!)