Teaching towards aesthetics

To continue with this week's theme of learning about teaching aesthetic experiences in music, our second assignment in class this week was to come up with a way in how I would teach Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36, Second Movement- Andantino in modo di canzona up to about 2:40 into the work to a sixth-grade class or a high school music appreciation class so that the students would become more aware of its aesthetic qualities with an emphasis on the effect the music has on listeners’ feelings and emotions.  Another large topic to tackle!  Yet again, with the aid of the text statement "ask yourself, 'What about this piece make it interesting and attractive to listen to?'"  (Abeles Hoffer, & Klotman, 1995, p. 84) it somehow becomes very easy.  It is similar to how many of us as music educators teach anyway, just transferring the focus onto feelings and emotions.  The tricky part about this is that the text also mentions how it may be dangerous to try and insert a label, or verbalized word to describe the emotion or feeling being conveyed, because it may be different to each student, and that is perfect o.k. and acceptable.  The emotions and feeling will be different to the entire class, but the musical qualities that elicit those feelings remain unchanged, and those are the areas that should be taught.  

In a classroom setting I would probably just let the students hear the selection first and then ask them what they heard that was interesting, a very vague and ambiguous question to begin the sparks of thought.  I would then start analyzing the piece with them as the piece played, stopping at opportune sections to point out especially interesting things that are happening.  

I would begin with pointing out how the piece begins with the oboe timbre all by itself, and this sound continues with the melody going up and down, spending time to rest on certain pitches along the way that are also slightly accented.  The oboe plays with vibrato, especially on notes held out longer.  As the lines move up and down they also crescendo and decrescendo with the melodic line.  Articulation is smooth and tenuto.  While all this is going on there is a dichotomy with the accompaniment in the strings that is very staccato and sparse with the plucking technique, staying out of the way of the oboe.  Between :19 and :21 some rubato time is taken, as it is about to repeat its melodic theme.  As it begins to change both melodically and harmonically at :36 more time is taken to let listeners experience the "moment".  At :52 I would point out how the low strings move to using the bow, with a very different timbre and articulation than before, and take over the melody, while low brass (and woodwinds) play a new accompaniment that is played with long held out chordal changes.  This time there is less of an ebb and flow with the melody but more dynamic changes in the spots that when the oboe had played them were rubato.  At about 1:25 the oboe comes back in with a subtle harmony played softly to not intrude on the melody of the low strings.  A shift happens in texture and dynamic at about 1:36 as the upper strings enter in the middle of the phrase and the dynamic is significantly louder.  When this happens a bit of the rubato that was heard earlier when the oboe had the melody is repeated though not quite as drastically.  At 2:06 there is clear separation between notes with accents that become stronger and stronger that are reinforced by the winds.  The melodic line continues to go further and further up, with the constant emphasis on the repeated notes/chords that get slight more accented and louder each time.  Finally at 2:26 the line starts to move in a rhythmic pattern that is completely new.  

After pointing out all these points I would have them listen to the selection again and see if they can point out any spots within the music that are interesting that have not been covered.  

With all these nuances in mind, I would play short snippets of the selection at a time, having the student listen with their eyes closed and to create a picture/scene/feeling (the choices would be left up to them) in their mind.  Each time I stop I would have the students write down what they were experiencing in their mind to the best of their ability.  Then I would go on to the next short snippet (each time roughly 30 seconds or so) until the exercise was completed.  I would then take an informal poll asking the student to raise their hand if they believed that the selection was personally more interesting now than it was the very first time they heard it (fully expecting the majority to answer "yes").  Going beyond this though I would ask them why they believed this to be the case, when the music was no different than it was the first time.  After all, it was a recording, and had not changed.  Discussion would follow where some student might share a little of what they had written, but it would all focus on how attention to the detail and investment into noticing the things that made the music more interesting would give it "life".  

I would collect the written reflections each student, mostly for the purpose of getting to see if the students who might not have wanted to share in class connected with the music in any way, assimilating the concepts of the lesson.  As this exercise would be completed, I would point out that sometimes the music will not become interesting until you know what to listen for, but all "art" music in particular requires this type of listening for it to become interesting, and that even though they might not always know everything they should be listening for, using the example of the exercise they had just completed could give them a very good starting point.

I have never done anything on this level with my students before.  I had used small snapshots perhaps, but nothing on this grand a scale.  It has a lot of potential, and I believe it would greatly help music appreciation students not only understand what "art" music is trying to "say", but also how composers, conductors, and especially performers themselves work to try and tell audiences the story of the written notes. 

References

Abeles, H., Hoffer, C., and Klotman, R.  (1995)  Foundations of Music Education (2^nd Ed.). Belmont, CA: Schirmer Cemgage Learning.