Understanding By Design Unit Plan

Historical Music Influences

6th Grade Music Class
STAGE 1: DESIRED RESULTS
Essential Understandings (and GLIs)
1. Compare and contrast styles and
Examine the chronological
forms of music from various
development of various musical
historical periods.
styles.
Identify the major periods or
genres in the development of
world music history.
2. Identify composers and classify
Identify selected composers and
them according to chronological
their works and place them in the
historical periods.
appropriate historical period.
3. Describe how events during
various historical periods have
influenced the development of
music.

Recognize and identify historical

and cultural contexts (time and
place of a music event) that have
influenced music.

Essential Understandings:
1. Students will understand that different composers had different influences in
their music because they lived at different times and places and were
affected by what was going on around them.
2. Students will understand the chronological sequence of historical periods.
3. Students will understand the differences between the historical periods and
how the influence of major composers changed music over time.
Essential Questions
1. How did were composers influenced by time, place, and cultural current
events?
2. What purposes were composers writing for, and how did this affect their
style and form?
3. Why did musical form change over time?
4. What are the influences in music today?
Students will know:
Students will be able to do:
The components of each
Analyze a piece of music
historical musical period.
according to form by listening to
it.
The historical influences that
Classify a piece of music into a
influenced composers and in turn
structural musical genres.
specific historical period using
stylistic clues.
The motives/influences of some
Describe how what is happening
major composers (Palestrina,
Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Haydn,
around them influences their

Mendelssohn, Shubert, Debussy,

Copland)

feelings/expressive actions.

STAGE 2: ASSESSMENT/EVIDENCE
Performance Tasks:
Scenario for assessment: You are living in Salzburg between 1788-1790.
Austria and Vienna are at war. How would this affect your work as a
composer of music?
Scenario for assessment: You are a composer living in Europe in the late
1800s. What kinds of stylistic influences could be seen in your work? Which
composers would you be most likely to model yourself after and why?
Other Evidence:
Students will prepare a timeline that includes each historical musical era and
highlights some major composers of each.
Students will compile a list of influential factors for each historical musical
era and create a scrapbook of these influential factors.
Students will keep a journal that will be written in daily and checked daily by
the teacher. Journal will include scenario-based prompts and reflections.
Students will use graphic organizers to identify the specific form to different
pieces from different eras.
Activities:
Goals
Es. Und.
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Brief Description of Activity

Students will complete a webquest to learn about Baroque
music focusing on Bach and Handel. After completing this,
students will journal about the historical occurrences in
Germany during this time period and stylistic qualities of the
Baroque era.
Students will jigsaw read (and take notes on a graphic
organizer) a chapter about the Classical period. Categories on
the jigsaw are composers, countries, historical context, and
musical styles. Students will then journal about how the styles
of Europe were different from the styles of Asia.
Students will create a Venn diagram in their journals and use it
to compare and contrast the two eras (Baroque and Classical).
The Venn diagram should include composers, styles, and
possible influences for each era).
Students will read an article on the Romantic period using a
graphic organizer to write down their notes. Students will
then answer a scenario-question in their journals: Mozart was
born in Salzburg Austria but worked much of his life in Vienna.
Imagine you are living in Salzburg between 1788-1790.
Austria and Vienna are at war. How would this affect your
work as a composer of music?
Students will notice the chronology of the different musical

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eras. Students will answer the following scenario-question in

their journals: You are a composer living in Europe in the late
1800s. What kinds of stylistic influences could be seen in your
work? Which composers would you be most likely to model
yourself after and why?
Students will complete a webquest on the Modern (post
1900s) era. After completing this, students will journal about
the historical occurrences throughout the world during this
time period and stylistic qualities of the Modern era.
Students will create an outline for a piece of music they would
compose in this post 9-11 era. The outline should include the
form of the piece, a short list of composers who influenced it,
instrumentation, and a few musical excerpts (drafts) of the
piece.
Students will create a museum exhibit that features a major
composer from each era (student chooses), their musical style,
and how they influenced their time period.
Students will create a timeline that lists each major era, the
overlaying style of each era, what was going on in the world
during that time, and a few composers from each era.
Students will create a scrapbook that highlights the major
political and historical occurrences of each era, along with
composers and how their influences match the political and
historical occurrences listed.