Copperfield Music 2022

Halloween is a great time for the imagination and french composer Camille Saint-Saens (now decomposer, haha) had a really great one! He thought the wood sound of the xylophone sounded like bones and composed "Fossils" (a short piece from Carnival of the Animals) as well as the Danse Macabre. His use of dynamics is absolutely amazing in this piece. Here is a listening map which helps students to listen for different instruments and sections in the piece. Enjoy!

Halloween is a fun time of year for learning about the subtle difference between major and minor! Students sing "Major sounds happy, do, re, mi, fa, so" and "Minor sounds sad, la, ti, do, re, mi".  Using a piece of music like the first few notes of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" by Edvard Grieg is also a great way to tell the difference. Sing the melody to "This is called a minor key, minor key, minor key". This piece is also a great example of a composer using tempo and dynamics to make the music sound more exciting. There is a slight accelerando (gradual speeding up) and an enormous crescendo (gradually getting louder) throughout the piece.  Many students were familiar with the melody as it is used in movies (Trolls) and video games.

This is an optional morning music club for Grade 4/5 students starting Wednesday Oct. 12 and running seven sessions until November 23. Students who sign up will be learning and preparing a video performance of a song that will be entered in the CBC Music Challenge. Background: When my children were little (they are teenagers now) I was always looking for quality children's music to play for them.  When I heard that Rachelle van Zanten (formerly of Vancouver based band Painting Daisies) put our a children's album, I bought it right away. The title track "Little Spruce" was one of my favourite songs and my kids loved it too. When I saw this song on the CBC Music Challenge song list, the idea to do the song with Copperfield students started to sprout! Mr. Magowan was very helpful in planning this club which will be Wednesday mornings (a lunchtime club wouldn't work because of the new lunch schedule). It is my goal that students who sign up with gain an understanding

 Thank you to all the families who contributed to our Medicine Wheel display by answering the question: "How can music keep us healthy?"!

 Here's how the piano looks with all new thumb print hearts!

Our timeline of Music Players coincided with the passing of Queen Elizabeth. A lot of great questions and exploration came out of looking at the history of recorded sound! Even though archeologists and music historians tell us that humans have had music for thousands of year, there was no way to listen back to it before Thomas Edison invented the phonograph 150 years ago! Students were asked to chat with older family members about how they listened to music when they were young.  It's amazing that Copperfield students have access to so much music with streaming services and wifi.  A special thank you to Caylex's Dad who sent in an 8 Track tape for us to see!