Teaching with paper money

It’s an odd idea, yes, but here’s a PowerPoint presentation that might give you a few ideas.

You could add brief snippets of recorded music to each of the biographical slides…

And, if you copy this from the CD-ROM to your computer, you can update as you wish.

On the money

This program was researched, written and

illustrated by

Bruce Ellison

Text © 2005,2007 by Bruce Ellison

Technical assistance from

Albuquerque Coin Club members

Background music is from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

On the money

In Europe, they put musicians on their money, composers on the currency. Or at least they did before the advent of the euro wiped out most national currencies. (In Brazil, musicians also have appeared on recent notes.) Currency that depicts famous musicians offers an opportunity for education, from classrooms in high school and college, to symphony orchestra programs. The currency can even be used as a fund-raising technique. Here’s a quiz, based on the portraits, that might go in a community orchestra program, a classroom, or as a talk to Kiwanis, Rotary or even a coin collecting group.

On the money

Prolific as a composer, he was born in 1825 and died in 1899. He preferred waltzes for the court to other work. Best-known? one connected with the large wooded area near his long-time hometown.

Johann Strauss Junior, Austria

On the money

On the money

    This composer may be the most famous writer of operas ever. He also was a prolific composer of symphonies. He’s the star of a movie whose title is his middle name. He was born in 1791 in Vienna. The 5000-schilling bill with his portrait also depicts the Vienna Opera House.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austria

On the money

On the money

Born in 1814, like so many 19th Century composers, he died in Paris, in 1894. The son of an instrument maker, in 1842 he crafted a new type of wind instrument made of metal with a single-reed mouthpiece and conical bore which was popular for a few years but had a spectacular rebirth in the U.S. in the 1920s as jazz bands became all the rage.

Adolphe Sax, Belgium

On the money

On the money

This next composer is a Brazilian, though perhaps less well-known than some others. His most familiar work may be an opera, “Il Guarani,” in which Placido Domingo appeared in a Washington performance early this century. The reverse of the note shows the composer at the piano.

Carlos Gomes, Brazil

On the money

On the money

He was a pianist as well as a composer

On the money

Heitor Villa Lobos, Brazil

This Brazilian is well known for his appropriation of a workof J. S. Bach for one of his compositions.He’s also a conductor.

On the money

On the money

On the money

     Born in 1824 in the hamlet of Lotomysl, he died 60 years later in Prague. He described his native land in a symphonic poem that recalled its peasants, pleasures, streams and forests. Like Beethoven, his composing was affected by deafness, in his case stemming from syphilis. He eventually died in an insane asylum.,

Bedrich Smetana, Czech

On the money

On the money

    Deeply affected by the sadness and horror of World War I, this composer penned a symphony intendedto show the resilience of man in the face of adversity. It includes an unusual passage of paired timpani. His other works include three concertos, two operas anda woodwind quintet as well as two books.

Carl Nielsen, Denmark

On the money

On the money

Born near Grenoble in 1803, he died in Paris, in 1869. His father had been a physician, and he planned to be a doctor but changed his mind after visiting the school’s dissecting rooms. There is a statue honoring him in Monte-Carlo.

Hector Berlioz, France

On the money

On the money

In some ways, she was morefamous than her husband, though bothwere piano experts. She enjoyedperforming on tour; he preferred to sitat the piano and compose. She supervisedpublication of his works. When he died young, she became a good friend ofBrahms.

On the money

On the money

Clara Schumann, Germany

On the money

This composer hails from the land of Dracula, where he was born in 1881, but he died in New York. He studied piano with his mother and used the folk tunes of his native land as the basis for some of his orchestral works. He first came to the U.S. in 1927 as a pianist playing his own works.

Bela Bartok, Hungary

On the money

On the money

There is an opera house on the currency that also includes this musician’s portrait. His 19th Century operas were rather hard to sing and took great skill to execute well. One of them was called simply, “Norma.” Vincenzo Bellini, Italy

On the money

On the money

The five letters of this composer’s last name formed an acronym used in his native land to support the return of the monarchy. He is best known today for his operas.

Guiseppe Verdi, Italy

On the money

Vive Verdi!

Vittorio Emanuele,

Re d’Italia

Viva – Victor Emanuel, King of Italy!

On the money

On the money

On the money

Here’s another composer who died in Paris, this one in 1849, at age 39. Yet, in those few years he became famed as an incomparable composer of works for the piano. His first name is spelled differently in French than in its original language.

Frederyk [Frederic] Chopin, Poland

On the money

On the money

The music above is a Chopin “Polonaise”

On the money

. A composer and violinist, he also died in Paris, in 1955. As conductor and composer, he came to the United States in mid-career, and, on Jan. 2, 1923, made his American debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra as conductor, composer and violin soloist. He repeated the show with the New York Philharmonic a week later..

George Enesco, Romania

On the money

On the money

   Born in Cadiz, he lived most of his life in Grenada, and died in Argentina in 1946. He was called “the most original and accomplished nationalist composer” of his fatherland. His most-noted work may be about a hat, or a garden.

Manuel de Falla, Spain

On the money

On the money

She died in England in 1887, famed around the world from a singing career that started with a debut in 1838 in the opera “Der Freischutz.” Less than two years later she was a European sensation. She captivated U. S. audiences when she arrived in 1850. Jenny Lind, Sweden“The Swedish nightingale”

On the money

On the money

Born in 1892, like so many others, he died in Paris, in 1955. His composing specialty was music that exhibited atonality or polytonality. He visited the United States in 1929.

Arthur Honegger, Franco-Swiss

On the money

On the money

     If there is one work by this composer that everyone, everywhere, would recognize, it is the work that has been played for years at the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts at Royal Albert Hall in London, and most people there hear it while standing. It brings hand-clapping, foot-stomping enthusiasm to its largely young audiences there.

On the money

“Rule, Britannia” is the national anthem in the United Kingdom; however, a brief version of “God Save the Queen” is played at most public events. The music you are hearing now is the “unofficial” U.K. national anthem. It is by Sir Edward Elgar

Officially called, “Pomp and Circumstance,” its secondary title is, “Land of Hope and Glory” -- and if you’ve ever heard it at the conclusion of a Royal Albert Hall performance, with thousands of foot-stomping, clapping, cheering youth, it is unforgettable.

On the money

On the money

This is Elgar conducting “Land of Hope and Glory” in 1931 at Royal Albert Hall in London.

from a Pathe newsreel

On the money

I’d be happy to answer questions now, if you would be so kind.

Thanks for listening, watching, and trying your skills at classical music.

-- Bruce Ellison

On the money

Bye, now….