Stories From the Lives of Composers: Music History Class

In this class, we will learn about the four main periods of music, the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Twentieth Century eras, and then learn in depth about composers from that time. We will meet one time a week over the course of five weeks. No prior knowledge is necessary. Each class we will have a listening activity, a music-themed coloring page or game, a brief slides presentation on the music of the period and the life of the composers, followed by a book or story. For example, Week One's topic will be the Baroque period, we will listen to the Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach, and read "Bach's Goldberg Variations" by Anna Harwell Celenza. Week Two will be on the Classical Period, Week Three on the Romantic era, and Week 4 on Twentieth Century Music. Week 5 (the final class) we will learn about modern composers and how the past has influenced them, the students will give a brief presentation on their favorite composer, and we will have a game to review what we have learned in the class.