https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJQ32q2k8Uo
Watch this video recording of Ludwig van Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. While you listen, do some quick research on the orchestra, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, and its conductor, Daniel Barenboim. (Wikipedia is fine.) Then, write a full page response, about 250 words, expressing your feelings regarding the mission of the Divan orchestra. Do you believe that the goals of the orchestra are ethical? Why or why not? Do you think that the creation of this ensemble is an effective way to achieve the goals of the orchestra? Feel free to also comment on their performance of this particular work at the BBC Proms (a music festival in Britain. You may research it to find out more about the venue.)
Listen to this piece of music by the contemporary composer Tan Dun and write a full page long response, about 250 words, regarding your impressions of the piece. Some ideas for topics include: how the piece made you feel; what your thoughts are on the place of the Western classical orchestra in a modern, globalized world; or the challenges you guess the composer encountered while composing a piece that mixed instruments from different genres/cultures. (Do you think the piece was effective at blending the instruments?)
Watch this concert presented by the conductor Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic orchestra in its entirety.
Next, imagine that you are a school teacher at the time that this concert was given. You are bringing a class to see this on a field trip. Create an assignment with 5 short essay prompts for your students to complete the next day at school, addressing concepts they learned in the beginning, middle, and end of the concert. You do not need to answer your questions.
This cello concerto by Edward Elgar became a popular piece to play after it was performed by Jacqueline Du Pre, a beloved British cellist who tragically died young in the 1980s. The performance of this piece in the link above is performed in London by a cellist of color and a female conductor. In the Western classical industry, both of these performers are part of a very small minority. As you listen to this concert, write a page length response, about 250 words, addressing your thoughts and/or concerns regarding the place of Western classical music in education. In most public schools across the US, and in most universities, we assume that a class about “music” means “Western classical music”. Is this appropriate, considering demographic make-up of the population in the US?