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Hopkins Center Outreach & Arts Education • hop.dartmouth.edu/outreach • 603.646.2010

Welcome to the hoPA performance needs an audience, so be prepared to play your part!

THEATER ETIQUETTEWhen entering the Hopkins Center, show consideration for all those sharing the building by remaining quiet and respectful in common areas.

Be aware and use quiet voices. Remember that live theater differs greatly from watching television or movies or attending a sporting event. Live performers can hear and see you and are easily distracted by any talking or moving around in the audience. Even the smallest sounds can be heard throughout the theater, so it’s best to be quiet so that everyone can enjoy the performance.

Applause is the best way to show your enthusiasm and appreciation!

Important things to remember: Backpacks, food, drink, and gum are not allowed in the theater. Please turn off all cell phones and note that recording the performance or taking any photos is strictly prohibited. Hats off! It is respectful to remove hats during your time in the theater.

INFORMATION FOR TEACHERSBe prepared and arrive early. You should arrive at the theater 30 to 45 minutes before the show. Allow for travel time, parking, and trips to the restroom. You should be in your seat at least 15 minutes before the performance begins.

Have a head count. On the day of the performance be sure to have an accurate head count of students, chaperones, and teachers.

Staying for lunch? Please call 603.646.2010 one week in advance of the show to make a reservation for lunch. The day of the show, bring lunches in marked boxes and give them to a Hop staff member. Lunches will be ready for you after the show in Alumni Hall.

Photo Policy. The Hopkins Center may take photographs during the performance for use on our website or on promotional materials. If you or your students do not wish to be photographed, please see a Hop staff member.

The Show Must Go On! We do not cancel events due to inclement weather. Performances will only be canceled if the artist is unable to reach the theater. Schools will be notified by phone if the performance has been cancelled. We do not issue refunds for weather-related cancellations; please feel free to fill empty seats with other school or community members.

This study guide was created for you by the Outreach & Arts Education team. To download copies of this study guide, see additional resources for this event, or view past study guides, please visit: www.hop.dartmouth.edu/outreach.

ENjOy THE SHOw!

Hopkins Center Outreach Department: Stephanie Pacheco, outreach manager Mary Gaetz, outreach coordinator Erin Smith, outreach Assistant

the hopkins center outreach & Arts Education department embodies the Hop’s mission to “ignite and sustain a passion for the arts.” It provides Dart-mouth, the community and beyond rare personal contact with artists and a broad context for the performing arts. Unveiling the creative process of extraordinarily diverse artists, six Outreach programs touch more than 22,000 lives each year.

DID yOU KNOw?• The Hopkins Center opened in 1962.

• The Hopkins Center was designed by Wallace Harrison, architect of Lincoln center and the United Nations Building in New York City.

• Spaulding Auditorium houses one of the largest pipe organs in New Hampshire. Can you find it?


ABOUT THE ArTisTs: HArlEm sTring QUArTETthe Harlem string Quartet is currently the resident ensemble in the New England Conservatory of Music’s Professional String Quartet Program in Boston, MA. The quartet’s mission is to advance diversity in classi-cal music while engaging young and new audiences through the discovery and presentation of varied rep-ertoire, highlighting works by minority composers. The Quartet is currently on tour with jazz legends Chick Corea and Gary Burton.

Each member of the Harlem String Quartet is a seasoned solo artist, having appeared with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, and the Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, National, New World and Pittsburgh symphony orchestras, among others. Harlem has performed in many communities across the country including Detroit, New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Boston.

The Harlem String Quartet has been featured on WNBC, CNN, the Today Show, WQXR-FM and the Art Beat section of the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer website. In 2007 the quartet released its first CD, Take the “A” Train. In December 2009 it played at the White House for guests of President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, and made an appearance Christmas morning on NBC’s Today Show. Harlem’s second CD, featuring works of Walter Piston, was released in 2010.

Harlem String Quartet was founded by the Sphinx Organization in 2006. Sphinx is a national non-profit organization focused on building diversity in classi-cal music and providing access to music education in underserved communities.

Harlem string Quartet is:

ilmar gavilán (violin)—A native of Cuba, Ilmar has studied in Moscow, Spain and New York. He has taught violin at the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, Pre-College Division and is the first violin for the Quartet.

melissa White (violin)—Melissa made her first recording at age 14 with the Czech National Symphony Or-chestra. In the summer she serves as faculty of the Sphinx Performance Academy. Melissa plays second violin for the Quartet.

Juan miguel Hernandez (viola)—In September 2009, Juan Miguel won the first Prize at the 16th International Joanne Brahms Competition in Austria and in 2010 he was honored with the medal of the National Assembly in Quebec.

Paul Wiancko (cello)—Paul made his performing debut at age 16 at the Dorothy Chan-dler Pavilion in Los Angeles and won the grand prize at the Pasadena Showcase Com-petition. He has performed with Yo-Yo Ma and Joshua Bell.

Walter PistonA prolific composer of 20th century

American chamber music; taught at Harvard and received two Pulitzer

prizes. See the quartet play a Piston composition:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7cxRcCyBCY


Harlem String Quartet is currently touring with jazz legends Chick Corea (pia-no) and Gary Burton (vibraphone), accompanying Chick and Gary’s jazz tunes with string arrangements that underscore the piano and vibraphone. For the Hop’s school matinee performance, Harlem String Quartet will play both jazz and classical compositions. Selections will include:

“The Adventure of Hippocrates, Movement 1, ‘Tango’” by Chick Corea

“Take the ‘A’ Train” by Duke Ellington Check out the quartet’s video of the performance: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iadirGswrts

“Ragtime” by Wynton Marsalis

“String Quartet in F Major, Movement 4” by Maurice Ravel

“String Quartet in D minor” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

What is A string Quartet?String quartets have been around since the mid-1700s. A string quartet is a family of four instruments: two violins, one viola and one cello. The viola is a little larger than the violin, and the cello is the largest of all. The bigger the instrument, the lower the sound; the cello has the deepest voice and the violin has the highest. Each instrument has four strings. Together the four instruments have musical conversations, like a family at dinner or a group of friends talking about the weather, about the govern-ment, about their feelings, or about life in general. Ideas grow through conversation, and while the string quartet “talks,” anoth-er conversation is taking place between the composer, the per-formers and the listener. The composer has an idea and writes music to express it; the performer interprets that idea as he/she performs the music; and the listener hears the idea in the music and interprets it again in his/her own way. This is how the origi-nal idea continues to grow with each individual’s participation. Conversation–the communication between composer, performer, and listener–can truly take place only in live performances. When we imagine what the music is saying, we become part of the performance. It is essential to the music that a musical idea is heard and interpreted. Therefore, we must listen actively. This makes the music complete. A composer often tells us about what was happening when the music was written: the structure of government, social trends, cultural traditions, or even the fashion of the times. Many composers lived a long time ago, or in countries we may never have visited. However, the stories they may have been trying to tell us can still be heard and understood today. This is because we can identify with music personally, through our experiences and through our imagination. We can imagine our own stories.

ABOUT THE PErfOrmAncE

cOnTExTUAl BAckgrOUnd

so Why Are They Playing Jazz music?

Part of developing a high level of musicianship is studying

and playing different styles of music. Harlem String Quartet also strives to make classical music accessible to people who may think it’s boring or stodgy. By combining these traditions, the quartet is able

to open up the world of classi-cal music and engage a variety of listeners. This also allows for another musical conversation

to occur—one that crosses between genre and style.


some classical sheet music Terminology: A composition is the musical notation that comprises a larger work, similar to how

a book has several chapters. Style and content can vary widely depending on the composer.

If a composition is a book, a movement is a chapter in that book. Several move-ments make up the entire composition.

A string quartet is a type of composition, written specifically for two violins, viola and cello.

A symphony is a composition, usually with four movements, written for orchestra.

A sonata is a composition written for no more than three instruments. It’s typically broken down into three separate movements--a fast beginning, slow middle and faster ending.

Though you won’t hear any of these from Harlem String Quartet, a concerto is a composition written for a solo instrument with orchestral accompaniment. It also normally has three movements.

Opus is the Latin word for a composition. It is the classical equivalent of “song.”

Tempo is Italian for “time.” The tempo of a classical work changes as it progresses including largo, very slow, adagio, slowly, allegro, brisk, lively, and andante, “walk-ing speed.”

key is a system of related notes in a scale beginning on a particular note.

And now you can decipher the title of a classical music piece:

ViOlinFamous violinists:

Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Leila Josefowicz

ViOlAFamous violists:

Julia Rebekka Adler, Julian Rachlan, Shlomo Mintz

cEllOFamous cellists:

Yo Yo Ma, David Finkel

cOnTExTUAl BAckgrOUnd

did You know About the Bow? the hair is horsehair, several strands, that when drawn across the strings produce

sound.the screw is used to tighten and loosen

the hair.the pad is where the forefinger rests.

the frog helps adjust the tension the hair on the stick.


cOnTExTUAl BAckgrOUnd (cont.)composers’ corner: Who you’ll Hear at the Hop

full name: Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart (as if that wasn’t enough, he went by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as an adult)

Years active: 1756-1791

number of compositions: 626 number of string quartets: 23

style: The epitome of Classical music. Mozart’s music is well-balanced, witty and frisky. There isn’t much varia-tion in speed or dynamics (the posh word for changes in volume), and the structures he used usually followed well-established classical techniques.

He died young, right? That’s right, at the age of 35. This meant that he just missed the transition from the Classi-cal to the Romantic era. The former being full of precise, well-balanced pieces, and the latter being defined by the rise of emotional and musical freedom.

Holy cow, he wrote a lot of pieces! Yes he did. In gen-eral the further back you go, the more pieces each com-poser wrote. However, some of the pieces sound pretty similar. Part of the reason for this is that there used to be way more rigid ideas about what the “perfect” symphony (or concerto or whatever) should sound like, whereas freedom of expression became trendy later on. Another reason is that Classical composers were often employed as Court Composers, which is like the 18th century ver-sion of Pandora, for rich people. They’d just keep churn-ing out whatever music their boss requested, seriously limiting their creative vision.

full name: Joseph-Maurice Ravel


number of compositions: 61

number of string quartets: 1

style: Ravel is that guy who is able to combine the rules of tra-ditional classical music with folk music and other forms to come up with something completely unique and awesome. He wrote

music for ballets, operas, chamber music and orchestras. Like the Harlem String Quartet, Ravel was influenced by jazz music heard both in Paris, his home city, Harlem and New Orleans. Many of his later compositions contain themes inspired by jazz.

dueling Artists: Ravel composed two ballets for Sergei Diaghilev, the founder of and producer for the famous Ballet Russes. The first composition, Daphnis et Chloe, was a great success. The second piece, La Valse, was dis-missed by Diaghilev as being completely unfit for a bal-let. Ravel never spoke to him again. At a chance meeting years later Ravel refused to shake Diaghilev’s hand which so infuriated Diaghilev that he challenged Ravel to a duel (a SERIOUS duel, one in which the participants would most likely be seriously injured or die). Thankfully, friends convinced Diaghilev to recant the demand.

majorly secret musician grammarWhen a composition is in a minor key you write it with a lower case m—“minor.” But

when a composition is in a major key the “m” is capitalized—“Major.” Shhh. Don’t tell the

musicians where you heard it.


cOnTExTUAl BAckgrOUnd (cont.) composers’ corner: Who you’ll Hear at the Hop

full name: Edward Kennedy Ellington (nicknamed “Duke”)


number of compositions: 4,700—but that number is up for debate among scholars

style: Duke Ellington was a composer, arranger, bandleader and pianist. He called his music “Ameri-can” music, not jazz, though he referred to himself as a jazz musician. He brought a level of sophistica-tion to the genre of jazz music that had not been experience before. When asked what inspired him to write, Ellington replied, “My men and my race are the inspiration of my work. I try to catch the character and mood and feeling of my people.”

Why “duke?” Growing up in the early 20th century, Duke Ellington’s mother was determined that her children would have good manners and dress well. She started him on piano lessons at age seven and surrounded him with dignified women. When his grace and sense of style took hold his school mates took to calling him “the Duke” because he acted like a young nobleman.

Hmmmm, where have i heard this music before? Probably everywhere. Ellington’s signature songs have been used in movies, commercials, and even the reality competition show So You Think You Can Dance. Even though he died in 1974 his music will truly live forever.

full name: Armando Anthony “Chick” Corea

Years active: 1966-present

number of total composi-tions: Over 100 albums so around 1500 songs—the man is a machine.


style: Uh, EVERYTHING!! But most musically inclined folks would label him as “jazz

fusion.” This means he is a jazz musician playing jazz but borrowing from all forms of music along the way. He has mixed jazz with rock music, electronic music, classical music and Latin music. The man just loves music. Loves. Music. No matter what genre it may originate from, Chick’s music has exceptional rhythms and timings, probably because he is an in-credible pianist AND percussionist. His lyrical, mem-orable melodies make his compositions favorites of jazz performers everywhere.

collaborator Extraordinaire: Throughout his long career Chick has continually created partnerships with fellow musicians. A lot of big names in music have worked with him—Bela Fleck, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny—and his current tour with Gary Burton on vibraphone and Harlem String Quartet is no ex-ception. This spirit of collaboration with other musi-cians is one of the things that has fueled Chick’s long and amazing career as a musician.

full name: Wynton Learson Marsalis

Years active: 1981-present

number of compositions: Still going—check back later

number of string quartets: 1, with a second in the planning stages

style: Though he is from New Orleans, Wynton is not married to any particular style of jazz, or to music in general. He plays Dixieland, be-bop, blues, spiri-tuals, swing and Chicago-style. You name it he knows it and knows it well. He also plays classical music and has had classical instruments accompany him. Wyn-ton is known for his skills on the trumpet.

Paying it forward: Wynton is a mentor to Harlem String Quartet’s first violinist Ilmar Gavilan. Ilmar recounted that when he played violin for Wynton, Wynton asked why he was playing so many notes. For Ilmar it was a lesson in “less is more.”


cOnTExTUAl BAckgrOUnd (cont.) composers’ corner: Others You should know

full name: Franz Joseph Haydn


number of total compositions: Frickin’ tons. Lots. Mucho.


style: Humorous, playful and precise, Haydn wins the award for “composer most likely to be mis-taken for Mozart.” In fact, Mozart

and Haydn basically make up the entire “Classical” era (1750-1820). Typical Classical music is light and elegant. A lot of it was commissioned for rich people’s parties, or coronations, or extravaganzas, so they didn’t want any-thing that would distract people from the main event, i.e., them. That means a lot of it sounds very samey, and stereotypically classical.

so it’s all boring? Certainly not! Haydn actually did a lot to push the genre forward, and was very good at it. In fact Haydn is actually known as both the “father of the sym-phony” AND “father of the string quartet.” That’s a lot of fathering. Despite this, there is still much less variation in his music compared to the later composers.

Anything else? Sure, here’s a fun fact: Haydn’s head was stolen. After he died of course. And he didn’t get it back for 150 years. Now he has two. No really. Read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haydn%27s_head.

full name: Ludwig van Beethoven


number of total compositions: 138 (plus a few smaller ones)


style: Grand, elaborate and not afraid of expressing his emotions or of using complex musical structures. Beethoven is famous for moving music out of

the Classical and into the Romantic era.

so what’s romantic? Well it isn’t called that because it’s a soundtrack to bouquets of flowers and walks on the beach in the rain. It’s romantic in a less modern sense of the word, which we might nowadays call “soulful.” It was soulful because up until that point music had gener-

ally been pretty boring. There were a few exceptions of course, but the bulk of what most composers had been writing was quite literally background music for rich people’s parties. Essentially 18th century muzak. Then along comes Beethoven and decides — shock, horror — to write music which clearly expressed his passion, anger and joyfulness. Everybody realized that this was way more awesome, and so began the Romantic era.

This music doesn’t sound so crazy emotional to me, it sounds like stereotypical classical music… Yeah, espe-cially if you are coming from modern rock and pop music, which is so explicitly emotional that it sees a psychiatrist once a week. Beethoven’s music definitely sounds old. But after listening to lots of other composers and then coming back to him you can really hear and understand the power underneath. Definitely don’t feel like you are supposed to think he is awesome straight away, just be-cause he is so famous!

full name: Wilhelm Richard Wagner


number of total composi-tions: 113


style: Heavy, slowly unfolding Germanic music; almost all of which is operatic. He pioneered the use of shifting tonality and

increased chromaticism in otherwise tonal music. He is also renowned for his frequent and elaborate use of leit-motifs, which has heavily influenced movie soundtracks to the present day.

Errr, what? Ok, so up until around Wagner’s time people tended to write music which sounded “in key.” However composers started to realize that their music would be more exciting if they added more “off key” bits. This is called “chromatacism,” and Wagner was one of the guys who made it cool.

And leitmotifs? As for “leitmotifs,” well you know how in Star Wars that one bit of music plays whenever Darth Vader appears? That’s his leitmotif. They are snippets of music which represent a certain character or thing. Wag-ner didn’t invent them, but he made them really popular. So there you go, you can thank Wagner for the Imperial March theme.


HEAr YE, HEAr YEThe best way to prepare to attend a chamber music performance is to practice active listening. Listen to some string quartets. And listen to them again.

Q: After listening to the piece once, what were some of the musical themes or leitmotifs in the piece? What emotions or feelings occurred to you while listening? What adjectives would you use to describe the piece? Listen to the piece again. Then repeat with a second piece to compare and contrast.

ACTIVITY: After listening to a piece twice and identifying and discussing its musical themes, try to rep-licate the conversation between the players. Working in groups of four, listen to the music and iden-tify the times when the theme and its variations occur. Based on your discussion about the emotions and feelings in the piece, assign a phrase of written language to stand in for the musical language. At times, the violins may have a different phrase than the cello, or the viola may have a different phrase than the violins. What is your group’s interpretation of the conversation among these instruments?

Some listening options: • Mozart’s String Quartet No. 16 in E flat Major, K. 428: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwlmFGScUFQ • Mozart’s String Quartet KV 387, 1st. mvt. Allegro vivace assai: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK5DvAdujVw • Beethoven’s String Quartet #14 in C# minor, Op. 131: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW8wdpfkpM0 • Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VabeSO7nAF0

likE V. dislikEMaurice Ravel composed a string quartet in April 1903. Gabriel Fauré, to whom the work was dedi-cated, described the last movement as “stunted, badly balanced, in fact a failure.” But then Claude Debussy wrote to Ravel, “In the name of the Gods of music and in my own, do not touch a single note you have written in your Quartet.” Two years later, a critic in the New York Tribune wrote, “In his String Quartet M. Ravel is content with one theme which has the emotional potency of one of those tunes which the curious may hear in a Chinese theater, shrieked out by an ear-splitting clarinet. This theme serves him for four movements during which there is about as much emotional nuance as warms a problem in algebra. It is a drastic dose of wormwood and assafoetida.” Today, the piece is often part of the standard repertoire performed by leading string quartets and has been used to underscore 20th and 21st century films including the end credit segment of The Royal Tenenbaums.

Q: Ravel experienced both positive and negative responses to his work. How do you process criti-cism of yourself and your work? What do you feel when you think something is great and others think it is not? Is there a way to use both positive and negative feedback to learn and grow without feeling judged?

HArd TAlkBeethoven wrote music, including string quartets, that taps into a depth of feeling and elicits an emo-tional response from his listeners, yet he was personally unable to connect with people around him: he was able to create a conversation with instruments, but not with humans, fans and critics. It seemed that he was much more comfortable communicating large ideas through his music than speaking in social situations.

Q: Do you think Beethoven’s musical conversation compensates for his lack of conversation with oth-ers? What do you do when you cannot think in words? How do you think Beethoven uses the language of music to express himself? Do you have a song or a piece of music (or another work of art) that con-veys a feeling/emotion/mood you can’t express in words?

PrE-PErfOrmAncE discUssiOn QUEsTiOns


VOcABUlArY Archetypal: of or pertaining to the original model

or pattern for things of the same type

Arco: playing a stringed instrument by drawing the hair of a bow across the strings

Assafoetida: a foul smelling and tasting gum resin used as an antispasmodic as well as a repellent against dogs, cats and rabbits

cello: the second largest member of the string family and the lowest sounding member of the string quartet

chromaticism: (from Greek chroma, “color”) in music, the use of notes foreign to the scale upon which a composition is based

dissonance: a combination of sounds that is un-pleasant to listen to

dynamics: loudness and softness in a musical piece

lietmotif: a repeating musical theme usually associated with a character, theme, situation or idea

muzak: piped in instrumental music, often popular music rearranged with simpler instrumentation

and without vocals; used as background music in elevators, retail stores, etc.

Pizzicato: playing a stringed instrument by plucking the strings

string quartet: a musical ensemble of two violins, one viola, and one cello; or a piece of music written for this combination of instruments

Tonality: Tonality is the scale the music is in, usually major or minor.

major = happy

minor = sad

modal = sounds like monks singing in a monastery

pentatonic = eastern sounding- gamelan music, all the black notes

atonal = clashing sounds, nothing nice about it

Viola: the second smallest member of the string family. The viola makes middle range sounds, comparable to that of the human voice.

Violin: the smallest member of the string instrument family. The violin makes the highest sounds of the string family.

Wormwood: a very bitter tasting herb used in making absinthe

OnlinE rEsOUrcEs:See Harlem String Quartet performing a Walter Piston composition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7cxRcCyBCY

Watch Harlem String Quartet’s video for “Take the ‘A’ Train” by Duke Ellington:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iadirGswrts

Watch a short documentary about Harlem String Quartet:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UWpqyKvnyw

POsT-PErfOrmAncE discUssiOn QUEsTiOnsWhat was it like to hear jazz songs played with non-traditional instruments? Did it make the music less or more formal? How were the jazz songs similar to the classical songs? How were they different? Did it work to have the jazz music played on violins instead of brass?


cOmmissiOn YOUr OWn sTring QUArTET: grAdEs 6-8Most composers in the 18th and 19th century worked for nobility and wrote music to celebrate and honor their life events. Select your own life event. It could be a birthday, graduation, wedding, winning an award, etc. The anniversary of a significant event would work also. Select a composer from the list above, the one whose style most fits you and your life event. Write a letter to the composer requesting a new string quartet composition to celebrate and honor your event. Be sure to include the who, what, when, where, how and why, as well as the date you want the premiere. For the “what,” use adjectives and abstract words to describe the way you want the music to sound—be sure to keep your specific event in mind. What color is the music? Is it loud? Is it soft? Is it both? Does it make you homesick, miss something or someone? Can you dance to it or do you sit and listen? Does it reflect a certain animal or part of nature (the ocean, the forest, etc.)? Is it like a race car, a demoli-tion derby or a space shuttle? How many movements should it have? At what kind of tempo is each movement played? See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo for tempo descriptions. Present your commission to the class for feedback (maybe someone will want to compose it for you!).

BiOgrAPHY PrOJEcT: grAdEs 6-9Research a composer of classical music. Use the ones in this study guide or find another. Write a 500-600 word biography of this composer’s life and works. Be sure to use proper citations and avoid paraphrasing. Include information about the geo-political climate of the time period and place where composer was working, includ-ing world events that may have had an impact on the work of the composer. What about the composer’s own socio-economic situation and political stance during his lifetime? Who would have been in the audience? Share information with classmates and look for connections and divergences between the various composers.

Extension: Repeat for a jazz composer and compare and contrast findings with the classical composer.

mOViEs And (cHAmBEr) mUsic: grAdEs 9-12

String quartet compositions are often used as movie underscoring. Find a scene from a movie that uses a string quartet as part of their score (see list on next page). Why did the director and producer decide to use a string quartet performance rather than another kind of music? Discuss how the song helps or hinders the storytelling. Does it introduce or represent a character? Highlight an event in the character’s journey? Does it support an emotion or feeling in the scene? Even if you’re not familiar with the movie, what does this music tell you about the overall story of the entire film? Are there other sound effects in the scene that work with or against the quar-tet music?

Extension: Have students replace the string quartet with a different piece of music. Play the scene on mute with the other music playing over the scene. Does this new music improve or detract from the action? Why?

WHAT’s THE sTOrY, mOrning glOrY?: grAdEs 9-12Charles Ives, a composer in the Romantic period, encouraged listeners and performers to relate his music to specific images. The manuscript for his Second String Quartet bears the following text:

String quartet for four (men) who converse, discuss, argue (politics), fight, shake hands, shut up, then walk up to the mountainside to view the firmament.

Select a string quartet piece (see list on next page for ideas), close your eyes, and listen to it twice. While you’re listening be mindful of the images that come up in your head. Open your eyes as needed to make notes or draw things inspired by listening to the music. Do you see images of nature? Of school? A book you read? An event in your or someone else’s life? What is the conversation the instruments are having? Who are the charac-ters? After you have finished listening, examine the images you noted. See if you can connect your images to-gether to make a story. These stories do not need to be narrative or traditional, but more abstract. Draw images into a storyboard, write them out like Charles Ives did, or create a play or film script by writing the conversation out in dialogue form. Share your story in a small group or with the entire class. How many different types of stories came out of the same piece of music?

lEArning AcTiViTiEs:


The Royal Tenenbaums—Ravel String Quartet in F Major, 2nd movement

The Avengers—Schubert String Quartet No. 13 in A minor “Rosamunde”

Titanic— Sarah Flower Adams “Nearer, My God, to Thee”

Dark Knight—Haydn String Quartet Op. 3 in A minor

Sherlock Holmes—Haydn String Quartet Op. 1 No 3 D Major Adagio

Alice in Wonderland—Haydn String Quartet Op. 1 No. 2 in E, 2nd movement

Mission Impossible III— Haydn String Quartet Op. 1 No. 1 in B Major “La Chasse”

Daddy Day Care—Haydn String Quartet Op. 74 No 1 C Major

National Treasure—Haydn String Quartet Op. 33 No. 2 in E flat “The Joke,” and String Quartet in A Major, 3rd movement

Silver Surfer and Vampire Diaries (episode 2.4)—Haydn String Quartet Op. 62 in C Major “Emperor”

The Duchess—Mozart String Quartet No.1 in G Major, K80 Rondeau allegro and Haydn String Quartet Op. 1 No 3 D Major Adagio

Because of Winn-Dixie and Star Trek: Insurrec-tion— Mozart String Quartet No. 17 in B flat Major “The Hunt”

BiBliOgrAPHY“The Story of the String Quartet.” Chapters 1 and 2 written by Larissa Roesch. Contributors—Eliza Gib-

son and Fontaine Roberson. Revised by Jean Hadley and Melanie Smith. Chapter 3 written by Jean Hadley and Melanie Smith. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 written by Jessica Ivry, revised by Jean Hadley and Melanie Smith. Questions written by Christine Lim. Copyright: San Francisco Performances.

www.getintoclassical.com

www.dukeellington.com

http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/de-tour/Tq2.htm

www.wyntonmarsalis.org

www.classical.net

http://www.acmerecords.com/chickpaper.html

lisT Of mOViEs And sTring QUArTETs

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