Discover History Through Music
A Web Quest for 9th-12th Grade Music Appreciation
Designed by
Elizabeth Ledet
ecain@stcharles.k12.la.us

Introduction | Learners | Standards | Process | Resources | Evaluation | Conclusion | Credits | Student Page

Introduction
This lesson was developed as a project in Integrating Technology in the Classroom at Louisiana State University.

The lesson is designed to integrate history into the music classroom.  Integrating core academic subjects into an enrichment subject area validates the existence of music education in our schools.

Learners

This lesson is designed for students in 9th through 12th grades music appreciation.  Certainly it can be adapted for a course in history. 

The learners will need to know basic rhythmic and pitch notation if they choose the activity that deals with composition or creating a medley.  Any other terminology can be learned along the way, which is part of the objective.

Curriculum Standards

Standards in the music curriculum can be accomplished through this project for students.  History standards are not listed; however, they can easily be accessed through this web site: http://www.lcet.doe.state.la.us/laintech/louisian7.htm
 

 HP-3M-H2 
             analyzing the role of music as it relates to the
             needs of society; 

 HP-3M-H3 
             analyzing various roles of musicians and
             identifying representative individuals who have
             functioned in these roles. 

In addition to meeting the high school requirements for historical perspectives in music, this lesson also encourages students to think beyond the research to draw conclusions and make references to what will happen in the future based on past events.  The students will have to work in groups to solve problems with relation to composing simple musical pieces and perform them.  All the tasks presented require a bit of creative imagination which is common when dealing with a subject like music.

Process
 

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.

For grouping the students, you can choose whether or not to allow the students to choose their own group or you can divide the groups into skill, putting high achieving students with low achieving students.  It is your choice--you know your students.

Students may have difficulty narrowing their search, because the topic is so vast with regards to music history. You may want to preface this lesson by brainstorming with the students their curiosities of music history and steer them in that direction.

A strong beginning teacher with some background in technology could be successful with this lesson.  However, an experienced teacher will be better benefited to adapt this lesson to his/her teaching style for success.  It is an innovative and exciting way for students to be able to research and demonstrate their knowledge in a particular subject.

Variations

Please feel free to share this resource with Western European History teachers who may be looking for a project for advanced students.  This lesson may also give great adaptation ideas to elementary and middle school general music teachers and perhaps, gifted and talented teachers.
 
 

Resources Needed

• Class sets of music textbooks including historical information and basic notation and theory skills
• Enough computers for four students at a time to share
• Video camera to film student news presentations
• Internet connections on all terminals
• Music software a plus for students choosing the task of composing a song
• Audio equipment and instruments for students to play and record their songs
• Powerpoint

• Rubric for Web Quest Evaluation
• The Soundry
• Math Concepts and Music
• Music, the Universal Language
• Tone Painter
• Music History Perspectives
• Medieval Music and Arts Foundation
• The Classical Music Pages
• Center for History of Music Theory and Literature

Human Resources

• A teacher with some skill in regards to the internet
• Parents can assist with costumes for dramatic interpretation

Evaluation

Students will be assessed individually and as a group on this project.  Please click on this web site to visit the rubric showing the grading scale. Rubric for Web Quest Evaluation

Conclusion

Music is essential  in the well-roundedness of an individual.  So many times, music is the first thing to be cut when budget cuts are made.  This lesson was designed with that in mind.  By integrating history into music, we can validate our positions as music educators and give the community a reason to keep music in our schools.

Credits & References

Thanks to Music Graphics Galore for providing clip art.
See links listed above for the internet resources.
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.