February's Composer of the Month

 This month's composer is Johann Pachelbel! He was born over 363 years ago and his music is still played today! He is most well known for his wedding processional-Canon in D, but he has many other beautiful works that we explored as well. Ask your child about his life and be amazed at what they learned :)
Canon in D

Toccata in E Minor

Singet dem Herrn

 Bonus funny video
 

January's Composer of the Month

In January, 3rd-6th grade learned about a wonderful composer, Fanny Mendelssohn! We learned that growing up in the 1800's while being a woman, presented Fanny with countless obstacles she had to overcome in order to be a successful musical composer and performer. The kids enjoyed hearing stories about her being a child prodigy and even an awkward moment with the Queen!
Swan Song/Swanenlied

The Year/Das Jahr-October

Italien/Italy

 

November's Composer of the Month

 This month's composer is Nathaniel Stookey! He is famous for doing things a little differently-whether that be writing music for a humorous murder-mystery with famous children's author Lemony Snicket, making an orchestra completely out of junk from a dump, or being inspired to compose by a vintage arcade-he does it all!
The Composer is Dead

Junkestra: Mvt. 3

String Quartet #2: I. Chaser

Lights! Camera! Action!

Congrats to 3rd Grade on a job well done on their music program, Lights! Camera! Action!! They entertained the audience with selections from movies like Shrek, SpongeBob SquarePants, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Polar Express, and Finding Nemo. Check out these photos, you might spot your favorite movie character!

Upcoming 3rd Grade Program

New Program Dates!!

September's Composer of the Month

 The kids think this month's composer is one cool guy! Michael Giacchino is well known for being a video game, television, and film composer! This month we've focused on how much music effects a story and it's emotion-which is why music is SO important in movies. Students have learned lots of new vocab words like film, motive/theme, soundtrack, and more!

Married Life from Up

 The Glory Days from The Incredibles

                                     *Watch for The Incredibles at 6 minutes!

Jurassic World Theme

This movie is too new to have any accessible video clips so we imagined our own to the soundtrack!

2015-2016 Program Dates

Mark these programs on your calendar so you don't miss one! (These dates are subject to change, if this happens, a letter will be sent home with the changed day.)

Can't wait to see you support Marshall Music!

 6th Grade    October 14th @ 6 P.M.

3rd Grade    November 5th @ 6 P.M.
4th Grade    November 11th @ 6 P.M.

1st Grade    December 2nd @ 6 P.M.

Kindergarten    December 9th @ 6 P.M.

EC/Pre-K   December 16th @  10 A.M.
5th Grade    February 3rd @ 6 P.M.
2nd Grade     February 10th @ 6 P.M.

August's Composer of the Month

 We kicked off the school year with one of the most famous composers of all time, Johannes Brahms! The kids are always so excited to start Composer of the Month and honestly shout and dance excitedly on Fridays when I announce it :) We discussed Brahms life, looked at pictures, and studied three of his popular works. You probably will recognize one, even if you've never studied Brahms!

Lullaby/Cradle Song

Hungarian Dance #5

String Quintet #1 Mvt. 3

 Bonus Funny Video

April's Composer of the Month

 This month we met a man who was not only an acclaimed American composer, pianist, and music lecturer, but a famous conductor as well!! The kids enjoyed learning about Leonard Bernstein and how versatile he was. We reviewed important music vocab like conductor, genre, overture, musical, and others. It was fun to see how passionate he was about bringing music to everyone with his Young People's Concerts. What a great last composer of the year!
Candide Overture

 Maria from West Side Story

 I Hate Music: Cycle of 5 Kid Songs

Hooray for 3rd Grade!!

3rd Grade's production of Sing a Song of Aesop was wonderful! They had fun singing, dancing, and acting out 5 of Aesop's famous stories. We even learned a moral from each one on how to treat others, what type of a worker to be, and much more! Check out these red-carpet worthy actors and actresses in these photos:

March's Composer of the Month

 This month we dived head-first into the amazing world of jazz and the kids LOVED it! There are so many great jazz composers and musicians, but perhaps the most influential and talented one is this month's composer-Duke Ellington! Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer (1000+ pieces), pianist, and bandleader of jazz orchestras with a career spanning over 50 years. We enjoyed listening to and learning some of the major differences of jazz and other genres. Students even got to try improvising on instruments and scatting with some of the tracks!
Take the A Train (Billy Strayhorn collaboration)

C Jam Blues

 It Don't Mean a Thing

Upcoming 3rd Grade Program!

February's Composer of the Month

This month's composer is one of the oldest known composers of all time, dating back over 900 years ago!  Hildegard of Bingen was an extraordinary 12^th century nun, missionary, prophet and an expert in many subjects. She is known for her work as a composer, writer, philosopher, poet, playwright, linguist, scientist, physician, and more. One of the most remarkable women from the Medieval era. Hildegard transcended gender, status, and social norms and restrictions to become one of the most famous people of her day and continues to inspire today. We loved learning about life in the Medieval time period and how her music differs drastically from ours today.
 O Aeterne Deus

 O Jerusalem

 O Frondens Virga 
 

January's Composer of the Month

This month's composer, Johann Sebastian Bach, is considered to be one of the most influential composers of all time! Bach was born during the Baroque time period in Germany and studied violin, harpsichord, and organ. He married twice and had 20 children in all, but sadly only 9 lived past childhood. At one point in his career, Bach attempted to quit his job working for a duke and was thrown in jail for a month! He used that time to compose music. Near the end of his life he started going blind and died from a botched eye surgery. In total, Bach composed over 1200 pieces in many genres.

Minuet in G Major

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor

Cello Suite No. 1

November's Composer of the Month

What better way to get into the holiday spirit, then with a composer who wrote one of the most popular and performed Christmas-time ballets of all time?! Peter (Pytor) Tchaikovsky has written some of the greatest works of the Romantic Era, including the 1812 Overture, 10 operas, orchestral pieces, but is best known for his famous ballets (The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, and more). Tchaikovsky was also the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally and he helped capture the unique sound of Russian music. This month we enjoyed learning dances, cup-passing games, and silly lyrics to our 3 pieces from The Nutcracker!
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

 

 

March of the Toy Soldiers

 Trepak

Upcoming Veteran's Day Assembly

October's Composer of the Month

 This month's composer is one of my all-time favorite composers! Eric Whitacre is a world-wide phenomenon and Grammy-winning American composer. He has written 100+ works and is one of the most popular composers alive. He is best known for his choral works, but he writes both choral and instrumental music. Whitacre is known for combining odd blends of notes to create cluster chords and dividing the ensemble into as many as 33 parts at one time! He is a great example of working hard to accomplish great things-he entered college not knowing how to read music and when he graduated he was accepted into Julliard (one of the most prestigious music schools in the world) for his masters degree! Whitacre has also embraced modern technology and is the only composer to put together a "virtual choir." Ask your child what that means :) The last one consisted of over 8000 videos from singers in 101 different countries!

 

 

 

In college, we skyped Eric Whitacre!

Cloudburst

 

October

Bonus Video: October arranged for choir-Alleluia

 Water Night with the Virtual Choir

September's Composer of the Month

 If you've ever seen the movies Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Father of the Bride, Forrest Gump, Parent Trap, Back to the Future trilogy, Stuart Little, Lilo and Stitch, Polar Express, Night at the Museum, Captain America, The Avengers, or the Croods (and 100 more!) then you've heard the brilliant film music of Alan Silvestri! Behind every good movie, there is an even better music score. We talked a lot this month about if movie music is done well, you don't even notice it's there. It's job is not to be distracting, but instead help to further the storyline, emotion, and mood of the scene. Silvestri does just that and so much more. Ask your kid about their new vocab words-solo, genre, and vibrato!

Each week we studied a new piece Silvestri composed:

Main Theme from Back to the Future

 Forrest Gump Suite

 Believe from Polar Express

August's Composer of the Month

 We kicked this school year off with one of the most famous composers of all time-Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart!! Although he lived almost 3oo years ago, everyone today still knows his name and has most likely heard his music. Mozart is one of the few true child prodigies, meaning he was a musical genius at a very young age. He began playing piano and violin at age 4, composing at 5, and performing around the country at 6 years old!

Each week of the month we studied a new composition of his:
A Little Night Music, Allegro

Variations on Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

Der Holle Rache from The Magic Flute