Music

For my project for this unit, I analyzed some bits of Barber's Adagio for Strings.  However, the song is over 7 1/2 minutes long, and I was only able to play less than half that.  The entire piece is totally amazing, so I thought I'd analyze the entire thing here.

(If that is not viewable, it is also up here.)

So, how does this relate to teaching?  Other than the obvious (me being a music teacher and all)?  I think it tells us that we can find a story in anything; indeed, many different stories.  We need to help our students look beneath the surface to find these stories.  For example, I presented two different stories for the Adagio.  If I were to ask my students what they heard in this piece, they would likely respond with something like "a lot of really hard notes that are played really slowly, with some super high notes."  If they saw the music, they would describe it something like, "a hard piece with a lot of flats."  They need assistance to see beneath the surface and discover a story in a piece.

This also shows us how many different things go into creating a compelling experience.  There are TONS of elements here that contributed, and everyone will interpret every experience a little differently.  It relates to our own experiences and education.  So what may be very compelling to one person, perhaps is not compelling to another at all.  Or it might still be compelling, but perhaps for different reasons, or compelling in a different way.