Educational Goals
Tales of Myth and Memory is a 50-minute education concert designed for students in grades 3-6. This interactive performance explores how composers use music to bring stories to life, turning ancient myths into vivid musical adventures. Anchored by selections from Stravinsky's dramatic The Firebird Suite (1919), the concert demonstrates how four key elements of musical storytelling—melody, rhythm, harmony, and orchestration—work together to create characters, build suspense, and transport listeners into magical worlds.
Tales of Myth and Memory
How Music Brings Stories to Life
Educational Goals
Tales of Myth and Memory explores how composers use Rhythm, Orchestration, Harmony, and Melody as powerful storytelling tools. Students will discover how thundering rhythms can represent a hero's footsteps, how different instruments can become characters with unique voices, how harmonies can create feelings of danger or safety, and how melodies can carry us through magical adventures. Through these musical elements, composers bring to life the timeless stories and legends that have captivated audiences for generations.
A few primary questions guide the tone of the entire concert include:
-
How do composers use rhythm, melody, harmony, and orchestration to create characters and tell stories without words?
-
How do different instruments become the "voices" of characters in a musical tale?
-
How does understanding music as storytelling change the way we listen to and experience an orchestra?
-
How can we hear the connections between ancient myths and the stories that surround us today?
Stravinsky: Selections from The Firebird Suite (1919)
Two selections from Stravinsky's The Firebird Suite serve as the dramatic anchors of the concert. These pieces demonstrate the extremes of musical expression throughout the concert: from the aggressive, driving rhythms of the demons' dance to the serene lullaby and glorious finale. Students experience how a single composer can use the same orchestra to create vastly different moods and tell a complete story.
Beethoven: Overture to Creatures of Prometheus
Beethoven's explosive opening chords from the Prometheus Overture seize students' attention from the first moment, instantly demonstrating the raw power of musical drama. These commanding sounds launch the concert by showing how a composer can create immediate excitement and draw listeners into an epic story.
Ravel: "Les entretiens de la belle et de la bête" from Ma mère l'Oye
Music can express specific characters of a story, and Ravel's Conversations of Beauty and the Beast introduces students to the magic of musical dialogue. As they listen, students can follow the 'conversation' between Beauty's sweet, singing melody and the Beast's growling bass line, discovering how the composer makes instruments talk to each other just like characters in a play.
Schwartz/Ricketts: Highlights from Wicked
Contemporary selections like Schwartz/Ricketts' Highlights from Wicked create an essential bridge between classical and modern musical storytelling. By including music from students' cultural world, the concert demonstrates that the storytelling techniques mastered by composers centuries ago remain powerful and relevant today.