HOLES AND GOALS: MUSIC HISTORY

Linda Cruikshank

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

What are the different time periods and what genres of music would you expect in each?

Within those different genres of music, what are the different forms that were associated with each?

Which composers were exemplars in each genre/time period?

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS

Distinguish between different time periods, especially classical, romantic, baroque, impressionist: orchestration is a key component, tonality, and instrumentation are all important in distinguishing between the time periods.

Knowing distinctive characteristics of different composers makes it easier to distinguish their music.

On the same token, knowing the time period the piece is coming from, the easier it is to decide who the composer is.

PRODUCTS

Music History Timeline: 1350-1900’s• On 3x5 index cards I researched and found composers, their time period,

and exemplar works

Practice Praxis II test• Took a 100-question practice test, graded it, and then on the answers I got

wrong I went through and wrote down the correct answer

Pandora Music Listening Quiz• Put Pandora, Inc. classical radio station on shuffle and listened for two (2)

one-hour periods, wrote down who I thought the composer was and why

Six haikus that involve the five time periods• Loved this activity, making a very concise definition about each time

period, actually kind of difficult

RESOURCES

Four resources helped me out the most:

www.wikipedia.org

www.pandora.com

Norton Anthology of the History of Western Music

Praxis II practice book and test

REFLECTIONS

I have been bad at history since fifth grade when I received my first “C” . Things did not get better in undergrad. Luckily, through this project, I was able to re-learn, somewhat, what I was taught in the past.

Unfortunately, I have a lot of information that I must continue to keep learning because even though I have learned and reviewed, if I were to be asked what specific terms were I would still struggle to find some answers.

QUESTIONS

How can I keep my mind fresh in terms of remembering music history once I’m out of the classroom again?

Is there something else I can do to remember things or should I just keep on practicing and reading in the hopes of it all clicking at some point?

NEXT STEPS…

Keep my index card timeline and use as a reference when needed and pull it out every so often to practice.

Keep up with listening to classical music, something that I have stopped in recent years.

If you have any ideas, feel free to let me know!