Music Day 2019 – Moonlight Sonata

This year Beethoven was the subject of music day.
In 4 weeks we set KS3 classes on a challenge to find out more about this composer. We focused on one performance piece and 2 installations in the school displaying one of his letters to his Immortal Beloved and a bridge decorated with excerpts of written music copied by the students of his piano piece Moonlight Sonata.

For final outcomes we made an Exhibition consisting of:

  1. “Moonlight Bridge”. We used a bridge in the school and we decorated it with A3 copies of each bar of music from moonlight copied by the students. This was a great way to talk about “Music Grammar” and why stems point up/down, how to join groups of 3 notes and how the written connects to the sound. As people walked through the bridge Moonlight was playing in the background.
  2. We used a stair case and students copied out words from the letter Beethoven wrote to his then lover. Students had to solve math problems to ensure that every step had words.
  3. We put an opened piano (to see all the moving parts inside) and we let students play freely during break. A pop performance happened at lunch and many students from both primary and secondary enjoyed some music.
  4. Finally, a video of all the students playing moonlight Sonata bar by bar. This was a challenge to put together and i thought there was going to be a lot of problems with tempo but I was pretty amazed at how students (most of them) played right (ish)! Piano suffered a bit because of the heat and humidity in Vietnam…

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