VIRTUAL RESOURCE GUIDE
BRANDENBURG CONCERTO NO. 3 JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH
IN THE PERFORMANCE Bach was a composer from the Baroque period of music who helped shaped the rest of classical music history. He wrote six Brandenburg Concertos. A concerto is a piece of music that features a solo musician. Though Bach's Brandenburg Concerto doesn't feature a solo musician, his Brandenburg Concertos are sometimes called concerto grosso, which is a piece of music that features multiple musicians as soloists. Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 features the string family instruments - the violin, viola, cello, and bass. Pretend to play along on a violin while you listen to and watch the string family.
HAVE FUN WITH THE MUSIC While the main string instruments of the orchestra are the violin, viola, cello, and bass, there are lots of other instruments that make a sound when their strings vibrate. One fun instrument with strings that sometimes joins the orchestra is the harp. Learn more about the harp and hear its beautiful (and sometimes silly) sounds in this great introduction video.
CLEF CLUB MARCH JAMES REESE EUROPE IN THE PERFORMANCE James Reese Europe was a composer and bandleader that worked in New York City in the early 1900s. He started the Clef Club, a society for black musicians that helped promote their music and performances. During World War One, he was called to lead one of the most accomplished touring military jazz bands performing around Europe. Clef Club March is a traditional march blended with James Reece Europe's special combination of jazz, ragtime, and fox trot music. Investigate the woodwind family while they perform this piece.
HAVE FUN WITH THE MUSIC During the program, this piece helps us to explore the woodwind family of the orchestra. Listen and learn more about each of the families of the orchestra in this orchestra family exploration post that features performance videos, playlists, and hands-on activities for each of the four families.
DANCE WILKE RENWICK
IN THE PERFORMANCE
Wilke Renwick was an American composer and horn player who spent 32 years playing horn with the Denver Symphony Orchestra. He composed primarily pieces for brass quintet. A brass quintet usually includes two trumpets, a horn, a trombone, and tuba. Dance is one of his best known pieces and is full of fun rhythms. We'll feature our brass family on this piece.
HAVE FUN WITH THE MUSIC Renwick's Dance is a bright and upbeat piece of music that brings the fun movements and rhythms of dance together with orchestra instruments. Bring together some more art forms by checking out one of our virtual Art Parties. Listen to flute music and create art inspired by what you hear.
HORN CONCERTO NO. 3 WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART IN THE PERFORMANCE
Mozart is one of the most important classical composers of all time - he composed around 600 pieces of music! He wrote three concertos for horn. They are often played together because they are all short for concerto pieces, each about 15 minutes long. In the program, we perform the 3rd movement from his 3rd horn concerto. Watch and listen to learn about what a soloist is and see our hornist Devon Park perform a horn concerto as soloist.
HAVE FUN WITH THE MUSIC Little ones can have fun with this online Mozart coloring page (or you can print it out instead.)
SWEET HOME CHICAGO ROBERT JOHNSON
IN THE PERFORMANCE
Robert Johnson was a blues guitar player, singer, and songwriter who is famous for the Delta blues style, one of the earliest styles of blues from Mississippi. Although he wasn't well known during his life and produced very few recordings, he left an important mark on the blues and has been widely studied in modern times. Sweet Home Chicago is one of the few pieces he recorded and one of only 13 recordings of his that remains. Watch our percussionist play different percussion instruments and musical styles.
HAVE FUN WITH THE MUSIC Listen to Robert Johnson's original recording of this song. And, after you watch our percussionist and the different types of instruments and musical styles he plays during this piece in Tiny Tots, create your own at-home percussion instruments, like these DIY shakers and maracas from Let's Play Kids Music.
CAN CAN TORTOISE MEDLEY JACQUES OFFENBACH & CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS IN THE PERFORMANCE
This arrangement is a medley - a medley is music that combines more than one musical piece together. You'll hear Offenbach's Can Can melody as well as Saint-Saens Tortoise melody. You'll probably notice that these two melodies are almost identical, but the Tortoise melody is much slower than Can Can. Saint-Saens did this as a little musical joke and audiences at that time would have found it to be very funny. Learn about what tempo is and move your body to show different tempos in music.
HAVE FUN WITH THE MUSIC Learn more about tempo from Conductor Dan. Then check out this tempo playlist. As you listen, have your little ones move their bodies at different speeds to show the tempos.
SYMPHONY NO. 94 JOSEPH HAYDN
IN THE PERFORMANCE
Haydn was a classical composer who wrote a lot of pieces for chamber ensembles- small groups of musicians. He is also known as the "Father of the Symphony" because of his work composing symphonies. Symphony no. 94 is known as the "Surprise Symphony." It is called this because of it's famous 2nd movement - most of this movement is quiet, with some very loud and surprising notes throughout. Learn about dynamics, how loud or soft music is, as you listen to this piece.
HAVE FUN WITH THE MUSIC Listen to our Music for Family Fun playlist, featuring music with all different dynamics. As you listen, have little ones use their bodies to show when the music is loud or soft. When the music is soft, they can crouch down to the ground. When it's loud, they can stretch towards the sky.
ODE TO JOY - SYMPHONY NO. 9 LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN IN THE PERFORMANCE
Beethoven is one of classical music's most famous composers and wrote over 700 pieces of music, including nine famous symphonies. The Ode to Joy melody is from the 4th movement of his Symphony no. 9. It is meant to represent "universal brotherhood" and connection between all people. Learn about the difference between melody and harmony in this piece.
HAVE FUN WITH THE MUSIC Now that your little ones have learned what a melody is, have them compose their own melody using our online melody composition tool.
DDAT
IN THE PERFORMANCE
DDAT is a band from New Mexico that combines many different styles and genres of music in their performances. They bring together jazz, rap, and traditional Native American melodies to create performances that are full of energy and excitement. They perform around New Mexico and also bring educational programs to schools with students of all ages. Learn about rhythm in this funky, fun piece and clap along in a call and response section.
HAVE FUN WITH THE MUSIC Learn about rhythm with DDAT during the program and then create your own rhythm compositions using our online rhythm composition game.
TWINKLE TWINKLE ARR. DANIEL LEAVITT IN THE PERFORMANCE
The melody for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is a traditional French melody called "Ah! Vous dirai-je maman." This melody dates from the early 1700s. Later on, the Twinkle Twinkle poem was added to that music. The poem was written in 1806. There are many other children's tunes that use this melody, including the ABC song and Baa, Baa, Black Sheet. This unique arrangement goes back and forth from major to minor to help show how major and minor music can feel so different.
HAVE FUN WITH THE MUSIC In the program, we learn that changing music from major to minor can make it feel very different and give it different moods. Explore moods in music further in this activity post. Featuring playlists and activities perfect for different moods, you and your little ones will be able to explore your emotions in creative and musical ways.
OVERTURE TO CARMEN GEORGES BIZET
IN THE PERFORMANCE Carmen is a famous opera by composer Georges Bizet. Most opera's have overtures. An overture is a piece of music, composed just for the orchestra with no singers, that is played before the opera starts, sort of like opening credits before a movie. Watch our conductor and learn to conduct along with him.
HAVE FUN WITH THE MUSIC On the Tiny Tots activity platform, you learned the conducting basics from Conductor Dan. Now, learn a bit more about what an opera is, what an opera conductor does, and a few of the common opera conducting patterns from Conductor Steven.
1812 OVERTURE PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY IN THE PERFORMANCE
1812 Overture is a big piece of music known particularly for its finale, which is the part you'll hear in the program. When it's performed full-scale, this portion of the piece uses actual cannons as percussion instruments! In the program, you'll see all the instrument families of our orchestra come together with our conductor for a big finale.
HAVE FUN WITH THE MUSIC The 1812 Overture is often performed at big outdoor concerts and performances during the summer time - many orchestras choose to actually fire cannons as the music calls for (don't worry, they don't use cannon balls when they do this!). Check out this post about other pieces of music that feature unique and creative instruments, like sheets of metal and anvils.
info@insidetheorchestra.org (303) 355-7855