Video #4: What Does the Conductor Do?

Curriculum Guide
The curriculum guide below is designed to help you use the MPR Classnotes video as a
teaching tool in your classroom as a means to help teach the highlighted standards below.
Young students may have seen a musical conductors referred to in pop culture, but most kids
dont fully understand what a conductor does. This topic of interest to kids is a great
introduction into the music standards, bringing many music concepts that we teach in the music
classroom to life through the baton. As you show What Does a Conductor Do? to your
students, the following curricula can add value and enrich this experience for your students.

Table of Contents:
Music Standards Link ................................................................................................................. 2
Definition of Terms ..................................................................................................................... 2
Full Length Examples of Audio on YouTube .............................................................................. 3
Background on Sarah Hicks ....................................................................................................... 4
Composer & Composition Background ...................................................................................... 5
Score of Hansel and Gretel ........................................................................................................ 6
Score of Concerto for Orchestra ................................................................................................ 7
Classroom activites .................................................................................................................... 8

Below is a copy of the Minnesota Music Standards. The standards which are the focus of this
video are highlighted in yellow.

2008 Revised Minnesota Academic Standards in the Arts

Perpich Center document adapted from MDE Minnesota Academic Standards in the Arts 2008
To download, visit - http://education.state.mn.us/MDE/Academic_Excellence/Academic_Standards/Arts/index.html

45

Music 4.1.1.3.1 1. Artistic

Foundations

1. Demonstrate knowledge of
the foundations of the arts
area.

4.1.1.3.2

Music 4.1.2.3.1

1. Describe the elements of music

including melody, rhythm, harmony,
dynamics, tone color, texture, form and
their related concepts.
2. Describe how the elements and their
related concepts such as pitch, tempo,
canon, and ABA are used in the
performance, creation or response to
music.

2. Demonstrate knowledge
and use of the technical skills
of the art form, integrating
technology when applicable.

1. Read and notate music using standard

notation such as quarter, half and eighth
notes and rests, the lines and spaces of
the treble clef, and time signatures.

- http://www.pcae.k12.mn.us/pdr/standards/standards.html

Definition of Terms:
TEMPO: The speed of music - how fast or slow
DYNAMICS: The volume of music - how loud or soft
INSTRUMENTATION: The instruments used by a composer The four families of instruments
are the woodwinds, brass, strings, and percussion.
TIME SIGNATURE or METER: Number of beats per measure. What type of note gets the beat
CUEING When a conductor points to an instrument or section of the orchestra to invite them
to play.

http://irvingparkmusic.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/instru_families.jpg
You may want to play the full works of the pieces that Sarah Hicks conducted for your students for
further study or for your students to conduct along. The following YouTube clips would work well for
that exercise.

YouTube example full length works for further listening:

"Hnsel und Gretel" - "The Overture" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fm60b0X51c

The Overture is what is played on the MPR Class Notes Video. Runtime 7:52.
Hnsel und Gretel (Act 1, Scene 1 Highlights) - by Engelbert Humperdinck
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4PnURcL_RM Ottawa, March 20 2014 - Here is
the first part of the opening act of the Engelbert Humperdinck opera, Hansel and Gretel,
staged at the Richcraft Theatre by singers of the YTK Studio. This is a home video, but
is in English and can give students a flavor of the opera.
Witold Lutoslawski - Concerto for Orchestra, I-II
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YADvkF62nFo

Background on Sarah Hicks She was born in

Tokyo, Japan and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. She is
the Principal Conductor of the Pops and Presentations
of the Minnesota Orchestra. She is an accomplished
violinist and pianist with a B. A. in composition from
Harvard University. Her musical focus switched from
piano to violin and then to conducting at age 17 after
battling tendonitis in her wrists.
http://sarahhicksconductor.com/web/bio.aspx
Photograph by Greg Helgeson

Sarah Hicks Videos:

Sting in Venice, 29.07.2011 - When We Dance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=avDAejjkZ5s Ms. Hicks conducts
the orchestra for the Sting Concert.
Meet Sarah Hicks (presented by UNC-TV & John Dancy)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QgkrKfkMzk&feature=player_embedded Great video of Ms
Hicks current life traveling between conducting gigs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Humperdinck_Postcard-1910.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Engelbert_Humperdinck_01.jpg

Engelbert Humperdinck (1854 1921) A German composer, he wrote his first composition
when he was seven years old. He took piano lessons as a child. Though he was discouraged
by his parents to pursue a carrier in music, he went on to become a professor of music. His
most famous composition was Hnsel and Gretel.
Hnsel und Gretel The music for this opera came from four songs that he wrote for his
nieces puppet show in their home. The story of Hansel and Gretel is adapted from the Brothers
Grimm which tells of a hungry brother and sister who are trapped by an evil witch in the candy
built cottage in the woods. They eventually outsmart the witch and find their freedom
Witold Lutosawski (1913 1994) A Polish
composer and conductor. He escaped German
capture during World War II. He then earned
money playing piano in the bars of Warsaw. He
was successful at writing music for the theater
and films. During the 1940s & 50s his more
serious works were banned by the Communist
government for being revolutionary in content.
The Concerto for Orchestra was composed
over a four year period from 1950 1954. This
piece is influenced by many folk songs from
Poland.

Witold Lutosawski. Courtesy of W. Pniewski and L. Kowalski.

http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/scores/bgp3053/large/index.html

http://www.musicroom.com/se/id_no/010500/details.html

Classroom activities that support the

targeted standards:
Standard
Describe the elements of music including melody,
rhythm, harmony, dynamics, tone color, texture, form
and their related concepts.
Describe how the elements and their related concepts
such as pitch, tempo, canon, and ABA form are used in
the performance, creation or response to music.
Class Activities
1. Have your students try their hand at conducting. Below you will find the visuals of the basic
conducting patterns. They can conduct along with the video, mirror you (their classroom
music teacher) as you demonstrate the pattern, or conduct along with the full length audio
listed above through YouTube. You could take the student conducting one step further by
having your classroom play along with
individual student conductors. The class
ensemble could be playing hand drums, Orff
instrument, or clapping the pulse of the
pattern while a student conducts. Have your
students describe how these patterns relate
to the time signature. Does one of the beats
have more emphasis than the others?

2. Have your students listen to Hnsel and Gretel and then move to the dynamics of the piece.
Their bodies can grow with the louder volume and shrink for a decrescendo. This piece is
very fluid, expressive and undulating with its dynamics, proving a great vehicle for dynamic
exploration. Show the students the dynamic diagram at the beginning of this document as a
reference. Play excerpts of the piece and have them name the dynamic level that they are
hearing. Have your students describe feelings or images that come to them at certain
moments in the music tied to these dynamics.

Standard
Read and notate music using standard notation such as quarter, half and eighth notes and
rests, the lines and spaces of the treble clef, and time signatures.
Class Activities
1. Project the score for Hansel and Gretel for your students to see. If you are able to highlight
the instrument families with different colors in the score, this would be very helpful for the
students to see what the conductor sees. Point out the title, composers name, time
signature, and that this first page only represents eight measures of music in the score.
Have the students identify the note values of the whole note, half note, quarter note and
eighth note. Point out the dynamics of piano with crescendo and decrescendo. Then play
the recording of the beginning of the piece and have the students follow along to see
instrument entrances.
Title
Time Signature
of 4/4

Composer

Woodwind

Brass
Crescendo and
decrescendo
Piano

Percussion

Strings