Virtual Teaching Resources for Music Educators & Lifelong Learners

George Marriner Maull, Artistic Director of The Discovery Orchestra, and Midnight Media Group have created an entertaining music listening series that helps viewers connect – both intellectually and emotionally – with classical music. Conceived and presented by Maestro Maull, Fall In Love With Music offers streamlined, effective pathways to musical understanding based on the educational strategies of Dr. Saul Feinberg, a pioneer and recognized authority in the teaching of music listening skills. In addition to sharing music excerpts on the piano, Maestro Maull uses recordings from the Naxos Music Library as well as live performances by string and jazz quartets to demonstrate the listening concepts. Each episode, enhanced with engaging visual graphics and a bit of humor, has a special focus and builds upon ideas explored in previous episodes to create a larger understanding of the listening process. However, each episode can be enjoyed on its own:

Episode 1: Our Musical Focus – Maestro Maull jumps right into creating an “aha” around listening versus hearing and the process of noticing detail in music using the third movement of Bela Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta as the vehicle.

Episode 1 on YouTube

Episode 2: Why Aren’t We Listening? – This episode examines the factors that predispose people not to listen, but also offers an opportunity for some focused guided listening in the first movement of Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 "Italian". Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 makes a humorous appearance, and a portion of the third movement of Bela Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta is reprised.

Episode 2 on YouTube

Episode 3: Is This Music? – Viewers are asked to think about what are the most basic ingredients of music. Brief excerpts from the Gregorian Chant Victimae Paschali Laudes; the Medieval Song Quan vei la lauzeta mover; the 3^rd movement of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3; 1^st movement of Mozart's String Quartet, K. 387; 3^rd movement of Rachmaninoff's Symphony No.2; 1^st and 2^nd movements of Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, and Desmond's Take Five, played by the Dan Crisci Jazz Quartet, are used to stimulate this thought process. Morton Subotnick's electronic music composition Silver Apples of the Moon is used to encourage speculation about what can be considered to actually be music... or not.

Episode 3 on YouTube

Episode 4: The Elements of Music - The elements or basic ingredients of music are defined. Some of the musical excerpts in Episode 3 receive brief encores to prod the viewer’s memory. Very brief references to the 1^st movement of Mozart's Piano Sonata, K. 545; Bach's Little Prelude in D, BWV 936; 3^rd movement of Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2; 1^st movement of Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4, "Italian" and Morton Subotnick's Silver Apples of the Moon – as well as a bit of humor - are all used to refine these definitions.

Episode 4 on YouTube

Episode 5: How Listening Affects Us – What happens to us, psychologically-emotionally, when we listen to classical music? Open-mindedness and flexible thinking as prerequisites are explored using visual puzzles and musical examples. Handel's fugue from his Concerto Grosso, Op.6, No. 7 reinforces flexible listening. Effective surprise in music is presented using Bela Bartok's For Children Vol. II, No. 12 for piano. The 3^rd movement of Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 2 is used to demonstrate tension and release.

Episode 5 on YouTube

Episode 6: Paragraphs Without Words - Listeners are encouraged to grasp larger chunks or "paragraphs" of musical information. Ruby My Dear by Thelonius Monk is played by the Dan Crisci Jazz Quartet. Robert Schumann's piano composition Wichtige Begebenheit from his Kinderszenen presents another opportunity to notice larger sections and introduces the concept of program music. Mozart's clever Variations on Ah! vous dirai-je Maman, K. 265/300e also for piano solo, reinforces the concept of open-minded listening.

Episode 6 on YouTube

Episode 7: Leave It to Beethoven! Episode 8: Putting It All Together, provide an in-depth exploration of the 4th movement of Beethoven's String Quartet, Op. 18, No. 2. Concepts presented in the previous six episodes are revisited in this "new" context. The members of the Amphion String Quartet join Maestro Maull for this opportunity to experience an entire movement of classical music. Each episode contains a complete performance of the movement: one at the beginning of Episode 7, prior to the detailed investigation - the other at the conclusion of Episode 8.

Episode 7 on YouTube

Episode 8 on YouTube

Virtual Music Listening Lectures

Looking for a complimentary 30-minute interactive music listening lecture for your classroom?

Maestro Maull regularly visits music students and provides short, interactive and engaging lectures about noticing more detail in classical compositions.

This can be done virtually with your music students anywhere you are located!

Some of his prior lectures have been on Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto #4 and Handel’s Royal Fireworks Overture. If there is something else your group would like to learn about, please ask us!

Just remember the focus will always be on noticing more detail in classical music, and would be best suited for middle school and older students.

For more information, please email Diane@DiscoveryOrchestra.org

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All of the shows I have been to have helped me to realize how pieces of music, well, “click”. This is especially helpful with complex orchestra pieces.

— Intimate Afternoon attendee

Virtual Teaching Resources for Music Educators & Lifelong Learners

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