Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 5

Cross-Disciplinary Lesson Plan: Grades 6-8

Note to Teachers:
This outline and the following pages you can download are meant to be a "packet." You are welcome to use only certain pages, but if you print and copy each page, the students can staple this into a Packet of work:

Pages 1-4: Ludwig van Beethoven's Life | Answer Key
Based on: Beethoven Biography: Younger Readers | Beethoven Biography: Older Readers
Beethoven's Life ACTING
Page 5: FOUR note motif in No. FIVE (Art or Nature Extension in Outline)
Page 6: Sonata-Allegro Brochure
Page 7: Beethoven's Piano | Answer Key

Also included are a Unit Pre-Test | Answer Key
And Test | Answer Key

Standards:
These lessons comply with standards noted below from The Ohio Sixth-Grade Learning Outcomes and allow you to teach to seven Multiple Intelligences (Naturalist is not present):

Sixth Grade

WRITING

• Exhibit word choice appropriate to the subject (Beethoven's Life WS)
• Communicate clarity of thought (Beethoven's Life WS)
• Analyze a non-fiction text (Beethoven's Life WS)
• Analyze aspects of the fiction or poetry text (My Motifs)

MATHEMATICS

• Identify needed and given information in a problem situation, as well as irrelevant information. (Beethoven's Orchestra-in outline)
• Compute with whole numbers (Beethoven's Orchestra-in outline)

CITIZENSHIP

• Group significant individuals by broadly defined historical eras
• Identify the central idea an historical narrative attempts to address (Beethoven's Life WS)
• Identify…consumer decisions to demand goods or services (Beethoven for Posterity)

SCIENCE

• Make inferences from observations of phenomena and/or events (MyMotifs WS)
• Identify the positive/negative impact of technology on human activity(Beethoven's Life/Beethoven's Piano)

Lesson Plans

National Standards for Music Education: 6,7,8,9

I. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

A. Introduce Beethoven's famous motif

1. Play the opening motif only of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.
   1. Ask: do you recognize this music? From where?
   2. For sharp listeners: how many notes make up this famous phrase or theme? (FOUR) how many times did you hear the theme in the example I played? (TWO)
2. We are going to call the four note theme a MOTIF (pronounced mow-TEEF or MOTIV)
   1. Write on the black or white board a treble staff with the key signature of c minor (3 flats), 2/4 time, and FOUR measures. The rhythm is "eighth rest, 3 eighth notes (bar line), half note with fermata." This repeat for measures 3 and 4, also.
   2. the motif is: G-G-G-E-flat (fermata) | F-F-F-D (fermata)
3. Define motif: A MUSICAL IDENTITY. A group of notes (usually small) that are repeated and developed, but always retain their original identity.
4. Ask: What movement would you choose to do when hearing this motif? Options: stiff arms, a clenched fist, strict motions, etc.
5. If you have on hand any Mozart or Haydn symphonies, you might play a bit of several openings. When you contrast them with a playing of the opening of the 5th, students should understand that this was a very different way to start a symphony.
   1. apparently, members of the London Philharmonic during their first reading of the piece in 1814 began to laugh!
6. Ask: What might Beethoven be trying to express to us in this opening?
7. Now play the first 30 seconds or so of the movement with the following instructions: on a scratch piece of paper or in your head, try to keep track of every time you heard the four note motif. Stay alert! Sometimes the motifs will happen very close to one another. Teachers: You may choose any length of segment to play, just know how many motifs occur.
8. Point out examples of motifs in other choir or music pieces (band) that you are studying. If possible, write out the motifs on staff paper.
9. Hand out the My Motifs worksheet and explain that motifs can be found in other artistic areas. Students are going to find them!

Note to Teachers: Some students will already know that Beethoven went deaf as a composer. Students often tend to associate this idea of not being able to hear with Beethoven writing "loud" music (expressly so he could hear it better!) Remind them that Beethoven was so mature a musician that when he wanted to use "forte" in his music, it was for a larger expressive purpose-to show incredible joy, for instance- not for the practical reason of his deafness. He could still "hear" in his mind.

Art extension: Motifs occur in art frequently (artistic definition from Oxford Dictionary: a distinctive feature or dominant idea in artistic or literary composition). Students can be encouraged to look at the work of a particular artist a try to identify certain motifs. Always, they should be able to tell you how the motif retains its identify even though it may change.

Nature extension: If you have the luxury, take your students on a short walk. Ask them to identify three natural objects which might appear in art or literature. (examples: tree, any animal, flowers, etc.). Using the internet or books in a library, ask students to identify where in art or literature their motif appears. They should record for you the author/artist, time period, title, a description of the work and how the motif fits into the work. Ideally, they can produce for you the actual picture or text. Certain students could also draw a replica of the picture they choose or create a new picture of their own.

B. Composer's life

1. ASSIGN Beethoven's Life WORKSHEET (Answer Key) based on the "Life of Beethoven", "Beethoven the Pianist" and "Beethoven's Symphonies" sections of the biography.
2. After reading the three headings of the biography, you can ask students to "act out" some of the information you have read. Use Beethoven's Life ACTING for descriptions of several "scenes" from his life. Cut out each description and assign each to a group of four students; give each group 5 minutes to prepare. Have each group come forward to perform the scene WITHOUT SPEAKING, but in no particular order. The goal of the class as a whole is to guess after each performance which part of the biography was described.
3. Not mentioned in the biography is that IT WAS VERY DIFFICULT FOR BEETHOVEN TO COMPOSE. One would assume that because of his large output and his genius, it was easy for him (like, Mozart, for example) to get everything out on paper. Not so. In fact, we have many manuscripts with copious corrections, blots, scratched out sections. He seems to have written like a madman at times.
   1. Ask: Do you think we perceive that students who do well in school or in sports, or any aspect of life have an easy time of it? What does Beethoven's example show us about perceptions?
4. Additional Notes Listed Below (can be listed in outline form on third page of WS)

1. Influences on Beethoven's music
   1. He Lived in a Period of Upheaval -the late 1700s
      1. 1789, France was enduring the height of their Revolution which would bring Napoleon Bonaparte into power.
      2. 1792, George Washington was the first president of a group of colonies who had just won independence from Great Britain
   2. He Lived after the Classical Period had been established in Europe
      1. Mozart had developed the conventions (formal rules or expectations) of orchestral and piano writing
      2. Haydn was further developing the symphony genre
   3. He lived amidst a wave of revolutionary forces
      1. people were breaking down established traditions in government and society
      2. people were encouraged to think impulsively, freely
      3. there were popular ideas about freedom and heroic acts
2. After your student have recorded all or portions of this outline (on page four of Beethoven's Life), ask
   1. In what way were "powerful forces" in society affecting Beethoven's life and his music?(Revolutions on both the American and European continents were influencing many writers and thinkers of the time. Beethoven would carry this revolutionary spirit into his own music and attitudes toward conventions)
   2. Based on what you know about the revolutionary tendencies of the time, predict what is going to happen to the musical conventions of the Classical Period (they will probably be tested, questioned, and thrown out in some way)

C. Bulletin Board
Perhaps you have a bulletin board in the classroom or a "Composer's Corner" where you highlight the composer you are studying. You or the students might write out the following main points and post them:

1. A product of his revolutionary time period in history
2. He explored the reaches of the "grown up" piano
3. He triumphed over his own deafness and his music shows the triumph of the human spirit
4. The Bridge between the Classical and Romantic Periods

II. The Symphony

A. Beethoven's Role

1. Beethoven was certainly not the inventor of symphonic form. However, he extended and expanded what was acceptable in the Classical Period. He was a revolutionary, after all.

B. Movements

1. Early symphonies (in the 1700s) had THREE MOVEMENTS; by Beethoven's time, symphonies had a standard FOUR MOVEMENTS. A movement is like a chapter in a book. There is a pause between each movement generally, and the audience does not clap-that would be like putting the book back on the shelf after the first chapter.
2. To be brief, typical movement forms in terms of tempo:
   1. I. Allegro using Sonata-Allegro form
   2. II. Andante (or slower)
   3. III. Andante/Allegro; often Minuet/Trio
   4. IV. Allegro/Presto; often a rondo

C. Size of orchestra

1. Beethoven added instruments-though by no means the largest orchestras written for in history
2. Math extension: (can be copied and handed out as a Math "Problem of the Day"

The first performance of Beethoven's Fifth) was on 22 Dec 1808. Beethoven's orchestra contained the following:
2 flutes; 1 piccolo; 2 oboes; 2 clarinets; 2 bassoons; 1 contrabassoon; 2 horns; 2 trumpets; 3 trombones; 2 timpani; 26 string players.

Question: If a conductor performed the work again in 1850, with 5 times the number of bassoons, 8 times the number of trumpets, an additional 10 oboes, and twice as many string players, how big would the orchestra be? How many more players would there be than in the original orchestra? (How bad would they sound with that many extra instruments??)

Show your work and answers here:

D. Use of Sonata-Allegro Form

1. This form of composition is present in nearly all 19th century (Classical) symphonies.
2. THIS IS A FIRST MOVEMENT CONVENTION-other movements follow other expected patterns
3. Composers use a formula of EXPOSITION-DEVELOPMENT-RECAPITULATION which all have the purpose of carrying out a theme.

E. Assign Sonata-Allegro Form "brochure"

1. Provide students with legal size white paper. They should divide the paper, vertically, into three "panels"
2. Record information in each panel (Key is available)
3. Play the Exposition of the First movement of Symphony No. 5; ask students if they can pick out what they consider the Second Theme (the half notes E-flat, F)
4. Ask: After both themes have been exposed, what should occur next in Sonata-Allegro form? (the Development of the Themes)
5. Ask: What are some ways that you change each day, month, or year, but you do not lose your identity? (For some, identity is simply name; others, it is based in family or faith-a child of God, e.g.; in any case, identity should be established first before talking about altering it).
   1. Offer: A motif must retain its identity and, musically, this is rooted in RHYTHM. Therefore, we will often hear the motif developed in ways apart from rhythm. As well, this INTERVAL of a minor third is another identification that will be hard to step too far from.
   2. If students are patient enough, see if they can identify the Recapitulation and even the Coda.

III. Beethoven's Piano

A. Beethoven indeed lived and worked while our modern piano was still growing" into what we have today.)

B. Information to introduce Worksheet

1. The harpsichord and clavichord were two keyboard instruments developed in the Baroque Period (another is organ). Beethoven did have these instruments at his disposal.
2. The harpsichord string is plucked and therefore has no control of dynamics (texture of the music can make it sound "fuller" and seem louder, e.g.)
3. More popular, however, was the piano forte-by definition, this keyboard could create louds (forte) and softs (piano)
   1. more keys are added than had the harpsichord (increased range)
   2. damper foot pedal is introduced to allow strings to vibrate

C. Use the Beethoven's Piano worksheet to see a basic evolution from harpsichord to the piano he had on which to compose.

D. Ideally, you can play examples of Beethoven's music and ask students to identify where they can hear his use of the pedal to blend or mix tones, reveal different tone colors, explore the higher and lower registers of the keyboard, experiment with sudden louds and softs.

IV. Beethoven's Three Periods

A. Most scholars accept the division of Beethoven's works into Early, Middle, and Late Periods. They can be described as such:

1. EARLY: (until about 1802) Beethoven is "taking in" the musical language of his time and finding a "personal voice"
   First 10 piano sonatas, 2 symphonies
2. MIDDLE: (until 1816) He is becoming "fiercely independent"
   Symphonies 3-8, his one opera and one violin concerto, E flat piano concerto
3. LATE: Music becomes more "introspective" and "reflective"
   Last five piano sonatas, "Choral" Symphony No. 9, Missa solemnis

B. Depending on the length of your unit, students should be able to identify a major piece that falls into each Period (the Symphony No. 5 obviously being Middle Beethoven and, thus, the "fierce independence" can be heard)

C. Exploring the E flat Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor" is a wonderful example of the heroic quality in Beethoven's works and good example from which to clear up the major differences between Concerto and Symphony.

V. Beethoven for Posterity

A. Beethoven as an example of...

1. A musician who rode the revolutionary waves of his time and carried these ideas into composing.
2. Someone who overcame a disability to continue offering something to society and posterity.
3. A musician who worked within the Classical forms, stretched them to their limits, and allowed SELF-EXPRESSION to enter in and change his music (he is consequently a "bridge" to the Romantic Period)
4. Beethoven was the first to show such expressive qualities of the piano

B. Why does Beethoven's music live on with such popularity even today?

1. Beethoven's music has a universal quality to it: triumph, sorrow, joy, anger, passion, beauty, love, peace (and others) are present in his works. These emotions and experiences are common to all people and, thus, his works are timeless.
2. Composers after Beethoven studied and revered his works. They used his ingenious ideas as a model for their own.
3. Though many orchestras work extremely hard to find monetary support each year, there must be a public demand for the works of Beethoven to be heard in order for them to make the programs.

Ludwig van Beethoven Links