Music at the Core of the Curriculum

This is a version of a handout that students can collect from Myplace.



Marching Mystery by Dougie MacLean

http://www.dougiemaclean.com/

Listen to the recording of the song Marching Mystery by Dougie MacLean


What is the song about?

The 12th century Chess pieces (The Lewis Chessmen) made from walrus tusk and found on the beach in the parish of Uig on the Isle of Lewis (Hebrides) and now in the British Museum, were found in 1831 buried in a sandbank in the Isle of Lewis, the largest island of the Outer Hebrides (Scotland). The sea carried away the sandbank uncovering a mysterious building (a small brick oven) that had been buried under the sand.

Carved of walrus ivory, they may have come from Iceland, although recent investigation suggests that the Lewis Chessmen may have originated in Trondheim, the medieval capital city of Norway, and home to the Norsemen during the eleventh and twelfth centuries who were the overlords of the Isle of Lewis. It seems that they brought the Chessmen with them from Norway when they voyaged to the island. Some authorities
date them to the 12th century. There were four sets, not all complete.

Now listen again to the words of the song. This time, think about what the words mean.
Who is ‘she’ and who might her ‘heavy horsemen’ be?


Teaching the song.

Although written music notation is available for this song, the easiest method of teaching the instrumental parts is by ‘rote’. This means that the teacher plays the selected part a number of times and the class gradually join in. Another related method is pattern and echo. The teacher plays or claps the pattern and the class ‘echo’ this back immediately without a break. For pitched instruments it is also helpful to identify the notes required beforehand. So, for the first drone part, low C (nearest the left hand side of the glockenspiel) and the G above this are needed.



Add some unpitched percussion instruments. Teach by rote. All clap shaker part, then drum part. All play along while others clap these rhythms.

Add the drone glockenspiel and guitar parts. Teach by rote to a few.

All play along.

Add xylophone part. Teach to one or two pupils by rote while song is playing and others are playing and clapping along.

Add tricky glockenspiel part.

All decide when instruments play and when they stop. Practice a few times.

During last few times, encourage class to sing along with parts of the chorus at ‘marching

on’ and ‘marching, marching, marching mystery’.

After listening a few times, class might join in with ‘They burn upon the open hand’ etc.



How the song can be used to develop learning in other areas.



Language and Creative Writing

Since there is no single version of the how the chess pieces arrived in Lewis, it would be possible to invent a story. Why were they travelling to Lewis? Were they a gift for someone? Why did they end up in a secret location? There may have been some dark deeds associated with this treasure being hidden. In order to develop the story, some background research would be needed. This would involve finding out who the Norsemen were.

http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/youth/history/TheStoryofMankind/chap30.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/vikings/who_were_the_vikings/



Geography, Maths, Physics

Where is Lewis?

Who were Norsemen and what kind of ship would they have sailed in?

If the chessmen came from Trondheim in Norway, estimate how far away from Lewis that is and work out how long it might have taken a ship in the 11th century to travel from there to Uig. For this exercise, a scale map of northern Europe would be required. The speed of the vessel would need to be approximated and the time calculated.

What if they came from Iceland.? How far away is that from Lewis?

Estimate the journey time.



Explore the geography of the Northern Isles. How good is your own understanding and awareness of the geography of Scotland?



Origins of chess



Chess is a game of strategy involving pure abstract thinking. Players need to plan ahead inside their mind and to anticipate what their opponent might do in response to a move or strategy. It is played on a board of 64 squares, arranged in 8 rows of 8 squares.

The legend about the origins of the game is interesting. It says that a king asked one of his advisors to invent a new game for him. When he was presented with the chess set the king was delighted and asked the inventor to name his reward. The clever man asked for a grain of wheat for the first square, two for the second, four for the next and so on, doubling the amount of wheat for each square. Try calculating the number of grains of wheat that the inventor would have by the end of the first row. Remember, the amount increases exponentially, so you must remember to add the each number to the previous number, then the previous two and so on.

1+2+4+8+16+32+64+128 =



After 64 squares the number turns out to be 18,445,744,073,709,551,515 grains of wheat.

When the King worked out the answer to this puzzle, he allegedly had the inventor executed. Why do you think this was?





Find out how each chess piece moves.

The exact square that pieces begin on or move to can be described by means of a map reference type grid.

Columns are named as letters from a to h from left to right (or x axis) and rows are numbered from 1-8 from bottom to top (y axis).
What is a diagonal? Which pieces are allowed to move in a diagonal? Are there any pieces which can only move diagonally?


How many pieces does each player start with?



Learn to play Chess.

This web site provides some fun games that help learners to discover how each piece moves. http://community.netidea.com/smartbar/index.html

Where might children have heard or read the word ‘diagonally’ before? Diagon Alley from Harry Potter.



Abstract thinking.

The King and Queen always start next to each other. So, if the Queen always starts on her colour, what colour of square is the black King on?

How many squares are in between the black Knights?

Can a Knight move ‘over’ another piece?

What is the fewest number of moves needed for the Knight on g1 to arrive at c5?





Briefing for Task




Music at the core of the curriculum

Task and Presentation



In preparation for the third Music class, work in small groups, select a song that you know which can be used in a similar way to the ideas that were presented within the ‘Marching Mystery’ activities.



Think about ways that children can engage with the music, i.e. perform, sing along at certain points (or throughout). You may use a wide variety of instruments and please feel free to make use of any musical talents and abilities that you have. You may need to check things like the ‘key’ of the music. Ask someone who would be likely to know about the key a song is in. If you cannot find anyone within your groups or class, come and ask me, Charlie Byrne, room A36 or e-mail c.g.byrne@strath.ac.uk





Decide on specific tasks for each member of the group. e.g. bring CD, develop links with a specific area of the curriculum, locate poem / book, prepare OHT, poster, mindmap etc. (This is neither prescriptive nor exhaustive.)



Include ideas for links with other areas of the curriculum and describe the sorts of activities which children could do.



Present your ideas to the class as follows:



Teach the song to the class using a CD. Bring a copy of the words on OHT.



Teach the class the instrument parts that you have designed for playing along with the recording.



Show on an OHT or Powerpoint (even a poster would be fine) the overall plan of how you would use the song. e.g. What will the children be doing, when will they be doing this and how will they learn to do these things?



Indicate linking activities that children might do.



Try to prepare as much as possible although some time will be allocated at the start of the next class to allow your group to do some last minute adjustments. If you need access to musical instruments then please arrange to book room A32 for some time. This can be done at the office in the Tom Bone building.