Celebrating Mozart’s 250th birthday

It has been 250 years since Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria.

Mozart was a child prodigy. By the age of three years he was playing on a keyboard, at just five he'd written his first composition, and when he died aged 35 in Vienna he left behind a huge body of some 630 works including 41 symphonies and 27 piano concertos.

Today, more than 200 years later, Mozart remains one of the best-loved and well-known composers of classical music. Even if you haven't heard his operas, you will  be familiar with his 'Twinkle twinkle little star'. Even those in outer space may be familiar with his work – Voyage 1 took off for the edge of the Solar system in 1977 it was carrying in its time capsule a recording of Mozart's Magic Flute among other examples of Earth music.

This Hot Topic contains resources that you can use with your classes to study the man, his music, and his lasting impact. 

Resources on TKI

Composers

Music/1/6/ - O version 3  
This assessment material entitled ‘Eine Kleine Nachtsmusik – Mozart’ supports internal assessment for New Zealand music achievement standard 1.6, AS90017 – Demonstrate knowledge of music works. The activity focuses on how the elements and features found in the work contribute to unity and variety, and the historical context of the development of the orchestra.
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/ncea/music1_6Ov3_30jan03.doc

Composers
This website contains biographical information about musical composers from throughout history. It includes links to information about classical music, a comprehensive glossary of musical terms, and a New Zealand section.
http://www.naxos.com/qcomp.htm

Studying classical music

Four Seasons Music Composition – ICT Learning Experience  
This ICT Learning Experience describes how students created electronic music to represent the four seasons. The class explored Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and then created their own modern versions using HammerHead Rhythm Station software. Examples of students’ work and helpsheets are included. Glen Eden Intermediate Cluster as part of the ICT Professional Development Clusters Project developed it.
http://www.tki.org.nz/r/ict/ictpd/fourseasons_e.php

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Opera

The NBR New Zealand Opera
This is the website of The NBR New Zealand Opera. It has information about the operas being performed, school tours, the creative team, and the cast. Includes an education section with a beginner's guide to opera entitled ‘What is Opera?’, guidelines for creating an opera, study guides, and a quiz.
http://www.nzopera.com/

Cosi Fan Tutte - A Study Guide for Schools - Years 7-13 (PDF  1.44MB) 
This study guide to Mozart's opera Cosi Fan Tutte, has a junior focus for years 7–10 and a senior focus for years 11–13. The learning activities introduce students to the background of the opera, the language of opera, behind the scenes, the synopsis, what they know about the composer, and for the senior students there are further activities which focus directly on the music. These music activities are based on NCEA achievement standard levels 1–3 music but note that they do not constitute fully developed activities for assessment purposes.
http://www.nzopera.com/content/docs/study_guides/cosi.pdf

Don Giovanni - Study Guide 
This study guide for years 9–13 of the New Zealand arts curriculum is intended to give students the opportunity to learn about the conventions of opera and Mozart's music, with a focus on Don Giovanni. It uses a thematic approach based on a crime scenes investigation with the students as detectives. The learning activities are divided into two sections, the 'context' of the opera and the music. They may be used to prepare students for attending a live performance, as a follow up to attending a performance, or along with a high quality DVD or video of a performance of this opera.
http://www.nzopera.com/education/dongiovanni/index.cfm

Please note: These links were valid when this page was posted. However the Web is very volatile, and TKI has no control over outside websites. Please let us know if you find anything inappropriate, if you find a broken link, or if you have an update for a link by emailing links@tki.org.nz. Te Kete Ipurangi recommends that teachers view all websites we link to before using them with students.

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