Inside the Music: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Dr Liz Stafford explores the latest education resource from the Academy of St Martin in the Fields

Having used the previous Inside the Music resources with my KS1 classes and written about my experience for a previous issue, I was really excited to explore the new KS2 materials based around Felix Mendelssohn’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’

This 8-part flexible resource is based around a beautiful film adaptation of the music called ‘A London Dream’, which cleverly weaves contemporary visuals with Mendelssohn’s music and Shakespeare’s text, as well as giving us plenty of opportunity to see the orchestral players in action. This gorgeous audio-visual treat would I think be as appealing to KS3 and beyond as it is to KS2, and is well worth sharing with your pupils.

There are in addition 8 engagingly-presented pupil-facing videos which you can use in the classroom, and an accompanying explanatory PDF for the teacher. You can use these resources as a ready-made lesson package for a unit of work on this piece of music which covers listening, performing, and composing work.

This is another great resource from ASMF, and you can sign up for free access to it at www.asmf.org