Middle School Lesson Plan

Standard: Students will make connections between music, the other arts, and other curricular areas

Indicators of Achievement: Students will:

• compare characteristics of two or more arts within a particular historical period or style and cite examples from various cultures
• illustrate ways in which the principles and subject matter of other disciplines taught in school are interrelated with those of music

Standard: Students will compose and arrange music within specific guidelines

Indicator of Achievement: Students will use a variety of traditional and nontraditional sound sources and electronic media when composing and arranging

Materials:

• copies of "Backward Bill" by Shel Silverstein in A LIGHT IN THE ATTIC. Harper & Row, 1981
• an image of "Day and Night" by M.C. Escher (find on http://www.worldofescher.com or http://www.nga.gov/ search by artist, then scroll through the Escher prints until you reach “Day and Night”
• an 8 or 16 measure "retrograde" melody on a transparency, other examples of "retrograde" music such as J.S. Bach "Crab Canons"

Preparation: Read through "Backward Bill" with the students. Have them pick out the repeated phrase, point out backward items in the poem and in the drawing, note the palindrome "gnab" and "bang." Have students volunteer to read a stanza using as much oral expression as possible.

Next have the students focus on the M.C. Escher print for a full minute without discussing what they see. Then ask questions such as: What color are the birds? How many saw the black birds first? How many the white ones? What is the subject of the wood cut? How many discovered the river at night first? How many saw it in daylight first? Why would mathematicians find Escher's work fascinating? How might Escher have envisioned this piece? What technique did he use to create it? What kind of balance did he use to create the composition?
Discuss mirror images, e.g. the work of Escher, palindromes. Have the class develop a list of palindromes. "Solos" is a good example.

Activity: Have the students observe the musical score on the transparency, noting that the last measure is an exact reversal of the first measure--a mirror image. Introduce the term "retrograde." Ask students to find the center of the 16 measure composition, in this case measures 8-9. Working forward and backward have students match each measure with its mirror image. Have them identify paired measures.

Have students devise "retrograde" rhythms using body rhythms. Have them write out their rhythms to include in their portfolios.
Further enrichment might include analyzing pieces that use retrograde as a construction technique. J.S. Bach "Crab Canons," as well as twentieth century pieces are available and can illustrate the inventive use of retrograde by composers throughout music history in diverse cultural contexts.

Assessment: forced answer, teacher observation, portfolio

Adapted from a lesson from Seaford Middle School, Delaware