Introduction

Hop aboard a time machine to go back in time to find out important occasions that changed the history of music.  Meet important composers along the way.  You will be able to perform some of your favorite music that you discover, and you will also compose a song for the future of music history.

How has music evolved over the years?  What has affected that evolution?  Predict the future of music.
 
 

Travel back in time through the use of the internet and books to discover what major historical events affected music, how did music change over time, who were the major influences on that change in music, and what style of music was popular in each time period in the history of Western Art Music.

When you have gathered the information, you will use teamwork to create a representation of your expert knowledge on the subject.

You and your friends are musicians in search of ideas to develop a new genre of music for the future.  Each group will divide into four special roles:  one composer investigator, one musical style investigator, one musical literature investigator, and one musical historian.

The composer investigator will visit composers on the internet and see what their lives were like to give insight why they wrote the types of music they did and what sort of historical events caused them to write that type of music.

The musical style investigator will discover how different styles of music changed over time.  What specific musical concepts, including structure and composition, changed with regards to time periods in Western Art Music?

The musical literature investigator will become familiar with important pieces of music throughout the time periods of Western Art Music.  Find out why these pieces were important and how they influenced the society of that time.  What outside influences had impact on the literature.

The musical historian will discover what political, economic and social events had influence over the music written in each time period:  Medieval, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern.

Each person will become an expert in his/her field.  Use the resource links to explore the internet for information regarding your expertise area.  The following list is how you will represent your knowledge once you have gathered information.

• Pretend you are critics giving a lecture to a group of college music majors.  Report the important historical information and offer insight to the future of music in our society.  Use powerpoint to display a slide show of facts and insights.
• In your sub-groups, write a letter to an imaginary composer of the future telling him/her of the past historical events that shaped music history and give him/her suggestions for his/her next piece that would help him/her have a number one hit.
• Compose your own song in the style of one of the periods of music or create a medley of your favorite pieces from several of the periods.  The composition can be simple rhythmically and melodically.  The medley can simply be an electronically organized recording of clips from the pieces of choice.
• Finally,  get ready to perform!  Create simple costumes to represent famous composers in history or famous figures in history.  Re-enact historical events that had significance on the music through time.  Be sure to include facts about composers their compositions, historical events and examples of styles of music.  Be prepared to perform your musical compositions.

• Music History Perspectives
• Medieval Music and Arts Foundation
• The Classical Music Pages
• Center for History of Music Theory and Literature

I hope that you have enjoyed traveling back in time to discover history through music.  If you are interested in more information about specific periods in music history click here to find out more.  If history has captured your interest through this project, you may want to visit this sight to find out more about historical events.  By learning all aspects of music, you can learn about other academic areas.  Here are some sights that offer more integration of music into academic subjects.  Enjoy!
 
 

Subject	Web site	Purpose
Science	The Soundry	to discover the way sound is produced interactively
Math	Math Concepts and Music	to integrate math and music
Language Arts	Music, the Universal Language	learn to read music enhancing language skills
Visual Arts	Tone Painter	interactive visual arts with music

Thanks to Music Graphics Galore for providing clip art.
Thank you to The Soundry, Math Concepts and Music, Music, the Universal Language, and Tone Painter for being excellent enrichment web sites.
Thank you to Music History Perspectives, Medieval Music and Arts Foundation, The Classical Music Pages, and Center for the History of Music Theory and Literature for providing resources for the students.