The Beethoven Birthday Bonanza
Did you know it’s Beethoven’s 250th Birthday this year?! To celebrate Beethoven’s big birthday, we are going to have a bonanza – a party ….. a celebration! of his amazing talent. Do you even know who Ludvig Van Beethoven is? Well, he’s a pretty important musical legend and we are going to get to know him this week.
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He wrote nine symphonies. A symphony is a long piece for orchestra usually split into four sections known as movements.
Our first journey of exploration will be into his 5th symphony. Watch this fun video to get to know it really well:
Discuss or write down what you have just watched:
i. Did you like the film?
ii. Did you like the music?
iii. How do you think Beethoven would have felt not being able to hear his own music?
Now listen to the piece of music with your eyes closed. For the first minute or so.
- Take a piece of paper and fold it in half so it has a top and a bottom section.
- Choose a coloured felt tip or crayon that you think represents the sound of the music for the first 55 seconds of the music.
- Choose a coloured felt tip or crayon that you think represents the sound of the music from 0:55 onwards, where the music is less jagged.
- Now skip back and listen to the opening again, this time just famous first phrase (da-da-da-duh!) Can you draw a shape that matches the sound of the music with your first colour in the TOP BOX. It should be inspired by the jagged sound of the melody.
- Then swap to your second colour and skip to 0:45 after the horns, and flip over to draw your musical shape for the music in the BOTTOM BOX. The shape should match the smooth sound of the music.
If you play an instrument, you might like to try playing the opening phrase on it. Can you work it out by ear?