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Project Description
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Students were learning about Mark Twain in their academic classes. They were also learning about the elements of music, such as dynamics, tempo, and phrases. This project is part of an interdisciplinary unit on Mark Twain. "The Mark Twain Waltz" was written as a dedication to him in the 1800s. Students are to listen to this piano composition with a listening map I made. Then they are to create their own listening map (a visual description of what's happening in the music) using graphics, some related to Mark Twain such as steamboats, to describe one or more of the elements of music that the "Mark Twain Waltz" uses.
My example of the listening map for the Mark Twain Waltz was a drawing of a big steamboat with three levels (one for each part of the piece of music). The windows/doors on the levels represented the triple meter. I had music notation over the windows and doors to show where each triplet occurred, and used notation to describe part two of the piece. The wheel of the steamboat represented the coda with notation inside as well. A copy of the music for this waltz can be found in the Library of Congress online, which is a free resource for teachers to download, print, reproduce, etc. |
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Project Includes
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| Links | The Library of Congress |
| Standards | NA.5-8.6: Listening To, Analyzing, And Describing Music |
| Teacher Tips | The rubric helped them to understand how they would be graded, especially when attractiveness of the map may be subjective. RubiStar really helped me define creativity and attractiveness as part of the grading rubric. |
