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BACKGROUND ACTIVITIES:
Activity One
The purpose of this activity is to provide background knowledge on the cultural significance of Lisbon.
1. Prior to viewing the BERLIN PHILHARMONIC EUROPAKONZERT: FROM LISBON, explain to the students that one of the intents of the concert is to celebrate a new Europe and that every year a new location is chosen for its cultural significance to Europe. Tell the students that this year the concert is being held in Lisbon.
2. Send the students on a scavenger hunt to find information that explains the significance of Lisbon in Europe's cultural history. This hunt may be completed online or in the school library.
3. After the students have gathered information on Lisbon, tell them that they are going to play a FAMILY FEUD-type game based on the information they have collected.
4. Select three students to form the question group. This group will be responsible for creating five answers for the question "Why was Lisbon a good choice to host the Europakonzert?" Tell them to arrange their answers in order from the most to the least important and to assign a point value to each question ranging from 5 to 1, with 5 the most important and 1 the least important. Ask this group to assign the following roles to its members: host, judge, and scorekeeper.
5. Divide the remaining students into two groups. Ask them to share the information they have culled about Lisbon and to discuss which piece of information best answers the question "Why was Lisbon chosen to host the Europakonzert?"
6. Play the game. Write the numbers 1 through 5 on the board, leaving room between them to record a correct answer after it has been supplied by one of the teams. Ask each group to select five people for the "face off." These five will take turns being the point person for their team, and each will have an opportunity to guess the answers for their group. Place a desk in the middle of the room and have the teams stand on opposite sides of the desk. If you have a bell or a buzzer, place it on the desk. If you don't have either, the first student to slap the desk will answer the question. The judge will determine who rang the bell or slapped the desk first. That person gets to answer the question "Why was Lisbon a good choice to host the Europakonzert?" If this team chooses one of the answers selected by the question group, it is considered a correct answer. Write the answer beside the corresponding number on the board and add the points to the team's score.
If the team does not guess correctly, the question goes to the other team. They have an opportunity to make a collaborative guess at the answer. After the question has been answered correctly, or after each team has had an opportunity to answer it, two new team members go the desk for a face off. Repeat this until all of the answers have been chosen. The scorekeeper will assign the appropriate point value to each correct answer and write the score on the board. The team with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.
STEPS:
Activity One
In this activity, the students will create a presentation that highlights the unique qualities of the Europakonzert.
1. Divide the class into groups of three to five students.
2. Tell the students that they are going to design an informational presentation that describes the event and will entice people to come to Lisbon for the Europakonzert. Ask the groups to decide which format they will use to create the presentation. The following is a list of suggested formats:
- PowerPoint presentation
- Web site
- Audio recording
- Video
- Skit or one-act play
- Short story
- Travel poster
- Brochure
3. Explain to the students that their presentation should include these items:
- a description of Lisbon
- a description of the venue (Hieronymus Monastery)
- background information on
- pianist Maria João Pires
- conductor Pierre Boulez
- the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
- information on the featured composers
- a brief description of the musical selections
- Mozart's "Piano Concerto No. 20"
- Bartók's "Concerto for Orchestra"
- Debussy's "Fêtes" from "Trois Nocturnes"
- optional
- hotel accommodations
- two local restaurants
- three local attractions to visit
4. The BERLIN PHILHARMONIC EUROPAKONZERT: FROM LISBON program is a good resource for this activity, and these Web sites may also be helpful in completing this assignment:
Berlin Philharmonic: Orchestra: Orchestra History
http://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/geschichte+M5d637b1e38d.html
Deutsche Grammophon: Artists: Pierre Boulez
http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/artist/one.htms?ART_ID=BOUPI
The Mozart Project
http://www.mozartproject.org/
Classical Music Pages: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart -- "Piano Concerto No. 20"
http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/mozart_piano_con20.html
artsworld: Music & Dance: "Concerto for Orchestra": Béla Bartók
http://www.artsworld.com/music-dance/works/a-c/concerto-for-orchestra-bela-bartok.html
Classical Music Archives: Claude Debussy
http://www.classicalarchives.com/debussy_hl.html
Deutsche Grammophon: Artists: Maria João Pires
http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/artist/one.htms?ART_ID=PIRMA
(Note to Teachers: The search engine Google [http://www.google.com] is an excellent source for visual images. Instruct the students to go to the Google homepage, click on the Images tab, type the name of the subject they are researching into the search field, and then click on the Google Search button.)
5. Provide time for the groups to share their presentations.
Activity Two
The purpose of this activity is for the students to develop an understanding of the connection that exists among music, the visual arts, and literature.
1. Bring in several copies of paintings from different eras and a copy of a rap or hip-hop artwork. You may use the Graffiti DJ's poster found on this Web page:
http://images.art.com/images/PRODUCTS/large/10058000/10058176.jpg
2. Display the art in the front of the room.
3. Play a hip-hop or rap song for your students. Ask them to choose the picture that they think has the strongest link to the song. Discuss the parallels between the music and the artwork.
4. Select a poem from the HipHopPoetry.com Web site
(http://www.hiphoppoetry.com/home.html) to share with your students.
5. Discuss the parallels between the poem and the artwork.
6. Share selected sections of the "Impressionist Influences in the Music of Debussy" essay (http://www.tcd.ie/Music/JF%20History/debussy.html) with your students. Make sure to include these two quotes from the essay:
Studies of 1895 and 1902 proclaimed parallels between color and sound, reflecting the development of a valid connection between music and art, especially impressionist music and impressionist art. Famous critic Camille Mauclair suggests that "light is used in Impressionist painting in the manner that a theme in music is symphonically developed." He writes, "The landscapes of Claude Monet are in fact symphonies of luminous waves, and the music of Monsieur Debussy, based not on a succession of themes but on the relative values of sounds in themselves, bears a remarkable resemblance to these pictures. It is Impressionism consisting of sonorous patches." (Lockpeiser 17)
It appears that Debussy had attempted to write an opera based on "The Fall of the House of Usher," an excellent story by Poe, which depicts among other things a woman who is buried alive by her own brother!
7. Involve the students in a discussion about how music, the visual arts, and literature influence one another.
8. Tell them to choose one of the musical works from the Europakonzert program. Ask the students to find either a painting or a poem or other literary work that they feel parallels the musical selection. The following sites may be helpful for this activity:
WebMuseum, Paris
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/
The Academy of American Poets: Find a Poem
http://www.poets.org/poems/search.cfm
9. Ask each student to write a brief explanation of their selection and share it with the class.
EXTENSION ACTIVITIES:
Have the students respond to one of the musical selections from the Europakonzert program by creating a drawing or writing a poem.
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