General Music Class Lessons and Assignments

Welcome to Mr. Hassan's General Music Class.  The course is structured around the following GSEs (Grade Span Expectations)

b.  using aesthetic criteria to compare and contrast student performance with professional performance (e.g.,  “We need to work harder to create good balance with so few violas in our string section.”)

Unit I - What is Music?

In this unit, we will define music, discuss places where we find music, how we use music and why people write music.

Unit II - The Star-Spangled Banner

Star Spangled Banner Test the week of TBA

This unit corresponds with the following National Music Standards:

6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.

7. Evaluating music and music performances.

9.  Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

We will learn the story behind the writing of the Star-Spangled Banner.  We will learn the words listen to and analyze various recordings of our National Anthem. 

The Lyrics - First Verse

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

The History Behind the Writing of the Star Spangled Banner 

Click on the links below to read about the history of the Star Spangled Banner

http://americanhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/

On Sept. 13, 1814, Francis Scott Key visited the British fleet in Chesapeake Bay to secure the release of Dr. William Beanes, who had been captured after the burning of Washington, DC. The release was secured, but Key was detained on ship overnight during the shelling of Fort McHenry, one of the forts defending Baltimore. In the morning, he was so delighted to see the American flag still flying over the fort that he began a poem to commemorate the occasion. First published under the title “Defense of Fort M'Henry,” the poem soon attained wide popularity as sung to the tune “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The origin of this tune is obscure, but it may have been written by John Stafford Smith, a British composer born in 1750. “The Star-Spangled Banner” was officially made the national anthem by Congress in 1931, although it already had been adopted as such by the army and the navy.

Click on this link to hear an mp3 of a 19th Century version of the Star Spangled Banner.  It is a link in the second paragraph.

 http://americanhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/the-lyrics.aspx

Star Spangled Banner Test the week of TBA

The Test

Fill in the Blanks

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early ___________.
What so proudly we hailed at the ______________________________________.        Whose ____________________________________________ thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ___________________  we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's _____________________, the bombs _______________________,
Gave proof through the night that our flag ___________________________________.
Oh, say does that _____________________________________ yet wave
O'er the land of the _____________  and the home of the _______________?

Please answer in complete sentences.

1. Who wrote the words to the Star Spangled Banner?

2. What inspired him to write the words to the Star Spangled Banner?

3. Who wrote the music to the Star Spangled Banner?

4. What does our flag stand for?

5.  Who does the word Brave stand for in the song?

Unit III

The Elements of Music