Composer Of The Month (by birthday)

Submitted by Andrea Cope, Texas

Idea posted November 26, 2001

I do a composer every month by their birthday. Sometimes we're really busy and all I do is have something playing as they walk in. When we have time, we do at least one activity for each composer. For example, give a listening quiz on Rhapsody In Blue when studying Gershwin. We listen for 7-10 minutes, putting a picture in our heads, which we don't share so that we don't confuse one another. Then I play ten selections, two or three of which are rhapsody and the rest are whatever I have handy, that I'm fairly sure they can distinguish as being different. If it's what we listened to, they write yes, if it's different, they write no. It has really improved their listening skills and increased their recognition repertoire.

Whenever possible, I like to find some connection between the composer we're studying and a current figure. We have linked Johann Strauss and Ricky Martin - both very popular with teens, both hounded for mementos, both liked more by kids than adults (at the time), etc. We compared Mozart to Macauley Caulkin - both famous as children, both used by fathers to support family, both lost fame as they aged, etc.

We vote in class on music to play on the announcements every Friday morning. One of those votes is related to the composer of the month. I frame it that we are choosing music to share with the lower grades, who don't come to music. After all 18 classes have voted, I randomly choose someone to write the introduction the principal reads before the music is heard.

Some things have been so popular that the kids beg to do them every year, like listening to the prologue from West Side Story and then watching the matching sequence from the movie. We do that every August, and it's the first thing they ask about when school starts each year.