Music – 2nd Level: BBC Ten Pieces – Ride of the Valkyries – Lesson 5 (New leitmotifs)

Experiences and Outcomes:
I can sing and play music from a range of styles and cultures, showing skill and using performance directions, and/or musical notation. EXA 2-16a

I can use my voice, musical instruments and music technology to experiment with sounds, pitch, melody, rhythm, timbre and dynamics. EXA 2-17a

Inspired by a range of stimuli, and working on my own and/or with others, I can express and communicate my ideas, thoughts and feelings through musical activities. EXA 2-18a

I have listened to a range of music and can respond by discussing my thoughts and feelings. EXA 2-19a

Lesson Outcomes
After this lesson, pupils will be able to:

  • Listen and reflect on a piece of orchestral music
  • Invent their own musical motifs and structure them into a piece
  • Perform as an ensemble
  • Learn musical language appropriate to the task

Curriculum Checklist
Learners will:

  • Play and perform in ensemble contexts, using voices and playing musical instruments
  • Improvise and compose music for a range of purposes using the interrelated dimensions of music
  • Listen with attention to detail and recall sounds with increasing aural memory

Activities

Warm-up. Begin this lesson by reminding your class of the story of Wagner’s piece – eight sisters are riding winged horses into battle. Explain that this lesson is going to be about telling the rest of the story.

Split back into your three groups and label the groups 1, 2, 3. Give out paper and pens and ask each group to write one section of the story as follows –

  • Group 1: Before the ‘ride’: what are the sisters doing?
  • Group 2: The reason for the ‘ride’: why do the sisters set off?
  • Group 3: After the ‘ride: what happens next?

Encourage each group to write their section of the story as just three short sentences. For example, Group 1 might have something like –

  • The sisters were knitting
  • A pigeon flew in with a message
  • The sisters jumped up and screamed

Remind your children about the concept of leitmotifs – short, musical ideas that describe things within a story. Ask each group to underline one word in each of their sentences that could be turned into a leitmotif. For the example above it might be ‘knitting’, ‘pigeon’ and ‘screamed’.

When this is achieved, ask each group to invent a short leitmotif for each underlined word. So, ‘knitting’ might become a fast, ticking woodblock, ‘pigeon’ could be a swoop up and down a glockenspiel and ‘screamed’ could be a screech on a clarinet.

Ask each group to practise reading their words aloud and adding the leitmotifs in at an appropriate time. They can do this however they like – i.e. simply play the motifs after the word is mentioned, layer them up to create a piece or something else.

Finally, hear each group and make any tweaks required. As always, encourage your children to keep a record of their work

Additional resources and a more detailed lesson plan can be found here on the BBC Ten Pieces website;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/ten-pieces/classical-music-richard-wagner-ride-of-the-valkyries/zdyfmfr