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A Spring Program
A Salute to the Piano on the Occasion of Its 300th Birthday
Prepared by Marilyn Copeland Davidson, Coordinating Author of Share the Music
Using materials from Share the Music 2003
This program can be performed across the grades, with each class performing a song, or presented by one or two grades, using music from the various indicated books. It can be used for a spring program, but can be used any time that is appropriate.
The program is particularly appropriate as a follow-up for Grade 6, Unit 3: The Keyboard Connection.
Feel free to cut any part of this program or to substitute songs of your choice. Whenever possible, utilize the skills of any students, faculty or other local people who play piano well. In addition, give students an opportunity to play keyboard patterns they have learned in class, some of which can accompany a group singing the songs. These might include "Heart and Soul," "Lean on Me" and "Stand By Me" from Grade 6, Unit 3.
Other keyboard-playing opportunities include a number of songs from the Grade 3 book in the software MiDisaurus.
The narration can be said by any number of students. You could use a different narrator for each speech. Encourage the students to add to the speeches as time permits (poems, essays, or additional information they have discovered through research, and so on)
Family Involvement
Ask students to interview family members who play the piano to share their experiences. Incorporate excerpts from these interviews into the program. See Book 6, page 106, for suggestions on connecting the concept of the keyboard family with other families and for making a family tree.
Piano 300-Celebrating Three Centuries of People and Pianos
For additional material, see the inspiration for this program-Smithsonian Institution's web site on the 300th birthday of the piano. The web address is http://www.piano300.org/. This web site is a valuable resource for the piano and its three hundred years of influence. It includes extensive information related to an exhibition at the Smithsonian's International Gallery in Washington, DC. The exhibit was produced by the National Museum of American History and other institutions and organization. The exhibit is open from March 9, 2003 to March 4, 2001.
Other Resources
Consult the Curriculum Connections after each song that is introduced in a CORE lesson for outstanding ideas by classroom teachers for correlations to other subject areas.
Pianna-This short book for younger students is a touching portrayal of the love for playing piano that was a source of life-long enjoyment for one woman. This book could be read by a student during the program, with added incidental music, dramatization, or illustrations created by the students. (Ray, Mary Lyn. Pianna. Illustrated by Bobbie Henba. New York: Harcourt Brace and Co., 1994.)
Happy 300th Birthday, Piano!
(Create a giant keyboard for a stage background.)
Narrator: (One narrator, or several saying various sections of the poem, reads To Catalina, Book 6, page 106.)
Narrator: Just a few lines by poet Frank Horne, but how they spark the imagination! We've all experienced this musical instrument that, as the poet says, can "give as well as take." Even though electronic keyboards can do many things, the piano is still the number one keyboard instrument, and it remains popular with people of all ages. In this program, we take time to salute-on the occasion of its 300th birthday-the piano.
LISTEN: Polonaise in A Major Op. 40, No. 1 (Military Polonaise), Book 5, page 417, CD10: 2
(During this music, dim the auditorium lights and display photos gathered by the students or artwork by the students depicting different persons playing the piano. These could be famous pianists of the past and present-classic as well as popular or jazz. Consider interspersing these with pictures of students and teachers or other staff members playing the piano. Some pictures can be serious, some funny-even ridiculous. For example, a local well-known pet or other animal could be pretending to be playing a piano. End with pictures of famous current pianists the audience would recognize. At the end of the music, auditorium lights come up and the students sing the next song without further introduction.)
SING: "Handful of Keys," Book 6, page 108, Song: CD2:41, Performance Mix: CD11:21
(Have students make very large white and black piano keys from poster board. Have students stand on choral risers, a stage, or elevated platform, and arrange the keys so that they simulate a piano keyboard. At the beginning of the song, students keep the keys out of sight at their sides. Just before Verse 3, students hold their keys over their heads and move the keys up and down to the beat, giving the appearance of a giant keyboard playing. For a more dramatic effect, if black light is available, make the keys out of poster board intended to be sensitive to black light, or paint them with black light sensitive paint, and darken the auditorium lights just before the keys appear.)
(During the following narration, show a picture of Bartolomeo Cristofori on an overhead projector.)
Narrator: The story of the piano began in Florence, Italy in about 1700. Bartolomeo Cristofori invented an instrument that played both soft and loud, or in Italian, piano e forte. The sound was produced by padded hammers that struck the strings, instead of plucking the strings as on instruments that came before. The instrument became known as the pianoforte. In time, this became shortened to simply piano.
(During the following narration, show a picture of any very early eighteenth-century piano on an overhead projector. See Book 6, page 131 for a picture of a piano from 1790.)
Narrator: The piano became a favorite in both Europe and America. Many composers wrote for this fascinating new instrument, which was so much more capable of expressive sounds than the earlier harpsichord. One of earlier composers to write for piano is one still famous today, Franz Josef Haydn. A native of Austria, Haydn was so loved and respected in his time that he was known as "Papa" Haydn. Listen for the sound of an actual fortepiano in this Haydn composition, the "Gypsy Rondo" from his Trio No. 39 for violin, cello, and fortepiano.
(Before listening, teach the following chant to the audience:
"Here's the theme. Here's the theme.
Not too fast. Not too slow.
Hay-dn wrote it long a-go!"
This chant is spoken to the rhythm of the A section theme. The rhythm is found in Grade 6, page 131. The theme is easier to teach and remember with the words given-or with words of your own devising. Then have the audience listen for this theme. If you wish to have more active audience participation, ask them to whisper the words and clap the pattern lightly whenever they hear the A section theme. Have some students create choreography for the B and C sections and perform it during the music. The form of the movement is: ABACA Coda.)
LISTEN: Finale ("Gypsy Rondo") from Trio No. 39, Grade 6, page 131, CD3:10
Narrator: Composers like Mozart and Beethoven wrote many wonderful compositions for piano. The piano became the favorite accompanying instrument for voices. Listen to this dramatic art song by Franz Schubert called "Erlkönig," or "Elf King." The song describes a man riding on horseback, holding his son and their meeting with the Elf King. Notice how the piano adds to the picture of a dark and stormy night.
LISTEN: "Erlkönig," Grade 4, page 384, CD9:22
(Show the translation on Grade 4 Resource Master LA •4 as the audience listens to a live performance or the recording of the song. The translation could also be printed in program notes, if these are available to the audience. You might have a puppet or live dramatization of the song.)
Narrator: By the middle of the nineteenth century, the piano was virtually the king of instruments. Pianists like Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt were as admired as movie stars or rock stars are today. Chopin, a native of Poland, loved the mazurka, a dance popular in his home country. Here's how you do the mazurka.
(Students demonstrate the basic mazurka step. See the directions on Grade 6 Resource Master 3 •3, page 1.)
Narrator: Chopin loved mazurkas so much that he wrote a whole book of them! Here is one.
LISTEN: Mazurka Op. 68, No. 3, Grade 6, page 127, CD3:8
(Have students choreograph the music, incorporating the mazurka step. See Grade 6 Resource Master 3 •3, page 2 for instructions for the complete mazurka step. Then perform their dance.)
Narrator: (Reads the poem "Player Piano," Grade 6, page 128.)
(Have student pianists play short piano works by famous composers instead of, or in addition to, the music suggested.)
Narrator: During the late 1800s and early 1900s, pianos became even more in style. Every educated person was given the opportunity to learn to play. In addition, a piano that played itself, called a player piano, became very popular, especially in the United States. Listeners could be entertained without having to play themselves.
SING: "The Old Piano Roll Blues, Grade 6, page 129, CD3:9
(Have students create movement for the song. See suggestions in Grade 6, page 129 of the Teacher's Edition.)
Narrator: The piano remains to this day one of the greatest instruments. To close, we want to share what we've learned to play on the piano in music class. They are three songs we think you'll all recognize.
PLAY: "Heart and Soul," Grade 6, page 112, CD2:43
(Have one or more pairs of students play the song as a duet, or have individual students play just the bass line, as in Lesson 1 and in Lesson 8, page 145 of the Teacher's Edition.)
SING: "Lean on Me," Grade 6, page 112, CD2:43
(Have one or more students play an introduction using the first eight measures of the melody with chords in first inversion below, as taught in Lesson 8, page 144 of the Teacher's Edition.)
SING: "Stand by Me," Grade 6, page 150, Song: CD3:29, Performance Mix: 11:23
(Have one or more students play the bass line.)
Narrator: Thanks for coming to our program. We hope you all give playing the piano a try and enjoy listening to the wonderful music written for the piano! Bye, everybody!
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