K-6 Listening

This page will contain music from our listening lessons at each grade level plus additional music for your listening pleasure.  Many of the recordings are YouTube videos with ads and other video options on the screen.  Please watch only with parental permission.

Kindergarten“Spring” by Vivaldi

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First Grade“Peter and the Wolf” by Sergei Prokofiev

The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s music director Bramwell Tovey does double duty as conductor and narrator in this delightfully entertaining performance.

Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra

This is a story book version of the “Peter in the Wolf.”

Second Grade – “Carnival of the Animals” by Camille Saint-Saens

Coloring pages included in this site.

Introduction and Royal March of the Lions

Hens and Roosters

The Elephant

Kangaroo

Aviary

Tortoise

Camille Saint-Seans used Offenbach’s, “Can Can,” as inspiration for the “Tortoise.”  Can you hear it?  At 1:12 into the piece you will hear they same melody used in the “Tortoise,” but at a much faster tempo.

The Aquarium

Cuckoo In The Woods_

Pianist

Fossils

The Swan

“Flight of the Bumblebee” played by the Canadian Brass

Third Grade “Farewell Symphony” by Franz Joseph Haydn  fourth movement

String Family

Appalachian Dulcimer – Jeff Hames playing “Rock Around the Clock”

Hammered Dulcimer – Rakes of Kildare

“Flight of the Bumblebee” played by the string family

Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra

Fourth Grade – “The Magic Flute” by Wolfgang A. Mozart and the study of opera.

The Tenor, Pavarotti, singing Nessun Dorma by Puccini from “Turandot.”

Three Tenors singing Nessun Dorma in Rome.

Tamino sings Dies “Bildnis ist bezaurbernd schön,” from the “The Magic Flute,” professing his love for the Queen’s daughter.

Baritone, Manfred Hemm, singing Papageno’s Song from The Magic Flute.

Baritone, Bryn Terfel and Soprano, Cecilia Bartoli sing “Pa-pa-pa-pa,” from The Magic Flute.

Bass singing Martti Talvela air de Sarastro O Isis und Osiris from The Magic Flute.

Contralto, Marijana Mijanovic, singing Empio, Diro, Tu Sei” by Handel

Boy singing Queen of the Night’s Aria from The Magic Flute.

Coloratura, Diana Damrau, singing the Queen of the Night’s aria from Mozart’s Magic Flute. It appears that she is in a recording studio.

Chris Colfer, countertenor, singing Defying Gravity from the musical Wicked.  

Can you imagine yourself singing in this market place?  Philly Opera

Opera at the Heart of Tel Aviv.  People burst into song in the Market Place.  It’s wonderful!

“Flight of the Bumblebee” played by the soprano recorder

Fifth Grade – Music by Beethoven

Here is an interesting version of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony

No cue cards, no teleprompters, and no second takes–legendary funnyman Sid Caesar pioneered live television sketch comedy with his 1950s sitcoms Your Show of Shows and Caesar’s Hour. This classic sketch is “Argument to Beethoven’s 5th,” Sid Caesar and Nanette Fabray play a married couple in a argument with pantomimed action and the dialogue is classic music.  Enjoy!

Ode to Joy flash mob

Solar System Rap “Puffy’s Pluto Rap”

Sixth Grade – Music by George Gershwin

We are introduced to chord progressions in 5th grade.  The primary piece of music we use for this is Street Song.  The chord progression using pitch names is

C-C-F-F-C-C-G-G-C-C-F-F-C-G-C-C-F-G-C-C-F-G-C-C

The chord numbers are

I-I-IV-IV-I-I-V-V-I-I-IV-IV-I-V-I-I-IV-V-I-I-IV-V-I-I

The solfedge is

do-do-fa-fa-do-do-sol-sol-do-do-fa-fa-do-sol-do-do-fa-sol-do-do-fa-sol-do-do

See if you can sing along using these three ways of expressing the chord roots, as you listen to Carl Orff’s “Street Song.”

Rhapsody in Blue –  I love the jazzy clarinet at the beginning of the piece.  Gershwin’s love song for New York begin at 11:38 in the recording.

Gershwin – Rhapsody in Blue (Original Jazz Band Version) Rhapsody in Blue premiered in an afternoon concert on February 12, 1924, held by Paul Whiteman and his band Palais Royal Orchestra, entitled An Experiment in Modern Music, which took place in Aeolian Hall in New York City. The version that was heard then was for a 24-piece jazz band, not for full orchestra. This was the original arrangement of Gershwin’s masterpiece.

Gershwin had agreed that Ferde Grofé, Whiteman’s pianist and chief arranger, was the key figure in enabling the piece to be successful, and critics have praised the orchestral colour. Grofé confirmed in 1938 that Gershwin did not have sufficient knowledge of orchestration in 1924. After the premiere, Grofé took the score and made new orchestrations in 1926 and 1942, each time for larger orchestras. Up until 1976, when Michael Tilson Thomas recorded the original jazz band version for the very first time, the 1942 version was the arrangement usually performed and recorded.

The 1924 orchestration for Whiteman’s band of 24 musicians (plus violins) calls for the following orchestra: woodwinds (5 players): flute, oboe, clarinet in E-flat, clarinet in B-flat, alto clarinet in E-flat, bass clarinet in B-flat, heckelphone, sopranino saxophone in E-flat, soprano saxophone in B-flat, alto saxophone in E-flat, tenor saxophone in B-flat, baritone saxophone in E-flat; brass: 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 flugelhorns, euphonium, 3 trombones, tuba; percussion: drums, timpani, trap set; keyboards: 2 pianos, celesta, accordion; strings: banjo, violins and string basses. Many musicians, especially the reeds, played two or more instruments; the reed “doublings” were especially calculated to take advantage of the full panoply of instruments available in that section of Whiteman’s band. Indeed, Grofé’s familiarity with the Whiteman band’s strengths are a key factor in the scoring. This original version, with its unique instrumental requirements, had lain dormant until its revival in reconstructions beginning in the mid-1980s, owing to the popularity and serviceability of the later scorings.

This performance is by members of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, with the conducting and piano soloist: Andrew Litton

Summertime” is an aria composed by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The lyrics are by DuBose and Dorothy Heyward, and Ira Gershwin. The song soon became a popular jazz standard.  The singer is Harolyn Blackwell, a coloratura soprano.

Danse Macabre” a piece we listened to at Halloween time by Camille Saint-Saens.  Listen for the skeleton theme, ghost theme and jack-o-lantern theme.

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