Sunday 15 February 2015

Well done All Saints!

Year 4 and 5 classes from All Saints Primary School performed their versions of The Soldier's Tale last friday, in front of year 2 and year 3 classes. They did absolutely brilliantly in what was a very short amount of time to grasp, let alone perform, quite a complex and unusual story, with some top quality creative musical ideas from some very musical children. Thank you so much from us at BeCreative and Teach-It-Through-Drama!

After a performance full of excitement, Raph, Olivia and year 4 celebrate...


 The beautiful props created by year 4 for their performance: The soldier's hat, the devil's horns, the soldier's violin and the fortune-telling red book...


Tuesday 3 February 2015

All Saints School - Beautiful Storyboards!

Presenting a selection of work from All Saints Primary School children, who have been drawing storyboards that tell the story of The Soldier's Tale in 12 frames/scenes. Fantastic stuff!
These examples were created by year 4 students:




Monday 26 January 2015

Listen Up! The Instruments You Can Hear


This post is a version of page 6 in your listening guide booklet. Here you can listen to musical examples that explore the different instruments used in The Soldier's Tale, by following the timings for the Listen Up! Youtube video posted on the blog.





First use this website to hear what the different instruments sound like on their own:
http://www.beginband.com/sndclips.shtml



Listen to the first part of 'Airs by a Stream', on the Youtube video: 1'58"- 2'40"



Listen to the first bit of the Royal March (10'56") - you hear the trombone at the beginning, followed by the trumpet takes over at 11'08".




Listen to the Pastorale: 4'55" - 8'17".




Listen to the marching music again from the beginning and see if you can pick out the double bass oom-pah - the percussion joins at 0'55". Also listen to the percussion at the very end - 30'45".






Stravinsky in the studio...

This incredible footage is taken from a recording session in 1955, when Stravinsky was living in America. Here you can see him conducting The Soldier's Tale for a special recording of the piece.
See if you can spot and name all the different instruments that you see in the film!


Listen Up! Rhythms and Beats


This post is a version of page 9 in your listening guide booklet. Here you can listen to musical examples of how Stravinsky uses rhythms and beats in The Soldier's Tale, by following the timings for the Listen Up! Youtube video posted on the blog.


Listen to the marching music from the very beginning of the Youtube video (0 minutes) up until 1 minute 35 seconds.




Listen to the Royal March from 10 mins 56 seconds (10'56") up until 12 minutes 11 seconds (12'11").



Listen to the three dances - you'll hear them in the order Tango (17'25"), Waltz (19'37") and then Ragtime (21'54"- 24'15").





The Soldier's Tale - Listen Up!

Here is a version of The Soldier's Tale that you can find on Youtube (it contains the music only - no narration!). You can use this to listen to examples of the music discussed in our listening guide and resource booklet; there is more detail for each Listen Up! page on other posts in this blog.


Sunday 25 January 2015

Take The Soldier's Tale home with you!

Dive into The Soldier's Tale listening guide... You'll find lots of ideas, games and creative things to do on your own and with friends!

Saturday 24 January 2015

Igor Stravinsky

Here are some pictures of the man who composed the music - Igor Stravinsky, an incredibly gifted and important composer who lived from 1882-1971.

The second picture shows Stravinsky in 1918, when he was working on The Soldier's Tale with Ernst Ansermet (pictured to his right) who was conducting the piece. You can also see an original illustration used to advertise the production - it was originally presented in French, hence the title 'L'Histoire Du Soldat'.



Explore the following links to find out more about Stravinsky's life and work:




Here you can see Stravinsky conducting a full orchestra playing his piece 'The Firebird':





Welcome to the Blog!

WELCOME!

You've found your way to an educational blog dedicated to The Soldier's Tale by Igor Stravinsky - specifically a space where you can discover more about the music and drama, and also where you can remind yourself of what you've been learning about in the BeCreative Music Workshops and Teach-It-Through-Drama workshops.

Look to the menu on your right, and click on your school's page to explore ideas based on the work we've been doing with you in sessions.

On the main part of the blog (here!) you'll find regular posts about The Soldier's Tale, audio examples that help you to understand the 'Listen Up!' pages of our specially produced booklet (which you can download from this blog!), and much, much more!

You can post comments and also give any of your creative work to your teacher to send to us; we will upload this to the blog for all to see!

If you want to send something to us directly, whether it is a question about the music or drama, about something we did in the workshops, or some of your own creative work that you would like to see on this blog, then please email it to info@becreative.co.uk.

Have fun!

The BeCreative and Teach-It-Through-Drama team