Do you want to get your students excited about classical music? It’s easy! With the ‘Morning Mood’ lesson series and the Fortissimo app, you will explore the concept of volume in music. Students will learn about the life of composer Edvard Grieg and discover his well-known work “Morning Mood”. You will explore the structure and sound of the flute and have a go at composing too.
And to help students easily remember what they have learned over the course of the lesson series, they will create a beautiful lap book to proudly take home.
Lessons
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Morning mood - Edvard Grieg
Morning Mood is one of Norwegian Romantic composer Edvard Grieg (1843-1907)’s most famous pieces of music. He wrote it as part of the incidental music for Peer Gynt, a drama written by Henrik Ibsen. The Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, op. 46, consists of four movements, of which Morning Mood is the first. The others are: Ase’s Death, Anitra’s Dance and In the Hall of the Mountain King.
Morning Mood is an Allegretto pastorale, meaning a moderately fast piece in a rural style. It begins with a tranquil flute solo depicting the sun rising over a landscape. Then the strings come in, imitating the gentle breeze and awakening nature. The piece has a simple and clear melody, which is repeated and varied several times.
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Lesson 1
1 hourWe discover a new piece of classical music
Skills: Students…
… move freely and improvise gestures to the music. They then reflect on their experience.
… draw a picture inspired by the music they hear and describe their thoughts.
… give their picture a name and compare it to ‘Morning Mood’, the title of the piece of music they’ve heard.
… listen to ‘Morning Mood’ and describe their own impressions of the music.- 1 Audiotrack
with lap book
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Lesson 2
1 hourWe learn about the life of composer Edvard Grieg.
Skills: Students…
… learn about the life and the musical work of composer Evard Grieg.
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We play ‘Who’s Figaro?’ on the Fortissimo app.
Skills: Students…
… extend their knowledge of ‘Morning Mood’ by playing the ‘Who’s Figaro?’ level on the Fortissimo app.
… learn about the structure and the sound of the flute.
… dance along to ‘Morning Mood’.
… learn about musical concepts which express volume: piano, forte, crescendo, decrescendo.
Level in the app:
‘Who is Figaro?’
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Lesson 4
1 hourWe sing the ‘Morning Mood’ melody.
Skills: Student…
… explore their voice and vocal warm up exercises.
… sing simple melodic and rhythmic sequences together, including the ‘Morning Mood’ melody.
… experiment with volume (piano, forte, crescendo, decrescendo) and try out conducting gestures while singing.- 1 Audiotrack
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Lesson 5
3 hoursPart I: We learn about the structure of the flute.
Part II: We listen to the different sounds a flute can make.
Part III: We make a pan flute.Skills: Students…
… Learn how a flute is constructed.
… recognise the sounds of the flute.
… hear the flute playing ‘Morning Mood’.… play a self-made pan flute.
… implement simple musical terms for volume (piano, forte, crescendo, decrescendo) and use conducting gestures while making music.
- 5 Audiotracks
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Lesson 6
2 hours from Y2Part I: We use musical instruments to play the Morning Mood melody.
Part II: We compose our own piece of music.
Skills: students…
… learn to play the Morning Mood melody using instruments.
… implement simple musical parameters (volume, tempo, articulation) and use conducting gestures while making music.
… create, write down and perform their own piece of music.
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You can find audio tracks for this lesson series here.
When you download your teaching resources, you will also receive your licence key, which you can use to access audio and video tracks. Simply go to the Fortissimo app (or the online version of the Fortissimo app), tap the musical note icon on the top left of your screen and enter your licence key. You will then be able to access the audio and video tracks.
When you click on an audio or video track, it will automatically play. You may have to wait a little while until all the data is loaded.
- 7 Audiotracks
