Music Web Lesson

Ludwig van Beethoven

You will need ear phones for this web lesson.

Work your way through the following 5 activities.

1. Visit the following site: http://www.classicsforkids.com/

a) Click 'Home', and in the middle 'Play!' section open 'Instruments of the Orchestra'. Go to the link 'More about Music', and then select 'Instruments of the Orchestra'.

On the 'Instruments of the Orchestra' page click the subheading 'Open Instruments of the Orchestra' and then move your cursor over the different sections of the orchestra, to listen to that section of the orchestra playing on its own.

b) Print this plan of the orchestra, fill it in and paste it in your book. Label the diagram with the instruments you see in each section of the orchestra.

c) Print off these pictures, then cut them out and paste them in the correct position on your diagram of the orchestra. (If you first paste them in a Word document, you can make them the size you want.)

d) Go back to http://www.classicsforkids.com and click 'Composers'. Then open 'Composers A-Z' and find Beethoven. Open his page and listen to Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 5 First Movement. See if you can hear and pick out the different sections of the orchestra. Which section of the orchestra can you hear used just on its own?

e) Which part of the piece or symphony do you think is shown in the following notes?

f) On this site http://www.classicsforkids.com click 'Games' and open 'Composers Time line'. Then click the Heading 'Explore the Composers Timeline' and scroll down through the timeline. List in your book the four different time periods of music, as labled at the top of the different coloured sections of the timeline.

g) Find Beethoven on the timeline. Write down the music period during which he composed his works, and note down also the year he was born and the year he died.

2. Go to the following site and find and visit the picture gallery:
http://www.edepot.com/beethoven.html

3. Open this Timeline blank worksheet page. Draw the timeline in your book on a new double page. (Or print off a copy and paste it in your book)

Research and fill in the main historical events that occurred during his life on the blank timeline.

The 'Composers Time line' will help you with this. When you find Beethoven, click the word 'EVENTS' at the top of the page to see the historical event during his life.

Also add some personal events or achievements in his life from the following web site. Go to the following site and click the link labelled 'Chronology'

to help you. http://www.lvbeethoven.com/Bio/BiographyLudwig.html

4.Test your research skills and find the answers to the following questions about Beethoven.

a) What was it that he said would “..resound, roar, and rage..” in front of him?
b) What do people mean when they describe him as a "giant straddling two styles"?
c) When in his life did he become almost totally deaf?