Reflection Post Week 3 - How Would You Teach Tchaikovsky?

Something I do in my classes all the time is an activity where the students will listen to a particular piece of music, and just simply write about how it makes them feel.  They are instructed not to write about their feelings on the interpretation, tuning, diction, etc.  I sometimes give them an image to help spur their imagination.  For example, I use Eric Whitacre's wind composition Equus.  I tell them that the title of the piece means "horse."  From there, they can write whatever they want.  They can tell a story, write "stream of consciousness" style, or make a list of feelings and ideas that pop into their head.

For a piece like the Tchaickovsky, with no purely visual representation in the title (like in Equss), I would start the class with a conversation about what makes music sound sad, or angry, or happy.  Since this is a music appreciation class, I would try to avoid the use of musical terms such as minor key, dynamics, etc.  I would probably play short excerpts of obviously sad or angry (or happy) music and ask the students to discuss what they hear, and why they feel the way they feel while listening to the music.  We would also discuss the impact of watching a performance vs simply listening.  I would then move on to the "main event."

This particular piece has that wonderful oboe solo at the beginning.  Prior to listening, we could discuss the importance and effectiveness of solos in particular music.  What can solos represent?  What do solos add to a piece of music?  I would then tell them I will play the music for them twice.  I would first play simply the recording, without the video.  I would ask them to describe how the music makes them feel.  Are they affected by the solo?  Do they have an overwhelming emotion one way or another as they listen?  I would then ask them to listen a second time, but this time watching the video.  How does seeing the performance affect their reaction?  Does seeing the oboe player make the solo have more impact?  What about the conductor?  I would then ask the students to compare their experience with just listening to their experience with watching and listening.  We could then have a brief discussion about not only their experiences with both watching and listening, but the similarities and differences they entailed.

I think that the video vs audio experience would be an interesting slant on the assignment as given.  I hadn't really ever thought about this as an option in my listening exercises in my classroom, but I think there are a lot of discussion points to be made by experiencing the music in this way.  Unfortunately in my job at Florida Virtual School, I won't have the opportunity to implement this idea, but I hope that some day, I will.  I really think there are a lot of great aesthetic education possibilities in this lesson.