Our Program

MATB Lesson - La Ci Darem La Mano

 

Introduction


Music/Concepts

  1. A duet
  2. Opera
  3. An “aria” (music written to describe specific emotions)
  4. Intervals between the two hands (2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th)
  5. Directionality


Difficulties

  1. Connecting the melody between the two hands
  2. Many different intervals, few steps
  3. A lot of changes in direction

Activities Away From the Piano

  1. Tell the story of the opera and this duet
  2. Listen to the recording or show part of a video of the opera (Point to the melody on the poster when it is heard on the recording.)
  3. Clap the rhythm of the melody using rhythm cards and then the poster
  4. Use the poster to find any measures that are the same or similar
  5. Learn to say the Italian words and then sing the song, phrase by phrase
  6. Treating the poster like a map, point to the path that the melody follows. Ask one/some of the children to come up and do the same.  (They could demonstrate the first time.)
  7. Sing the song saying R.H. or L.H., then numbers and letters
  8. Sing the song, in Italian, and show directionality with hand levels

 

Ear Training

  1. Play the melody and stop randomly – ask the children to follow and point to where you stopped.
  2. Practice singing different intervals (up to a 5th) – all are used in this piece.
  3. Clap one measure of the piece and have the children find it.
  4. Play the melody and have the children hold up their hands when they hear notes longer than quarter notes.  (Do the same with other values.)


Activities at the Piano

  1. Exercise (both hands) : 1-2-1-3-1-4-1-5  Can be combined with ...
  2. Exercise (both hands) : 5-4-5-3-5-2-5-1
  3. Work on 2 measures at a time, then 4 and finally all 8
  4. Sing while playing – saying left or right and then numbers
  5. Divide the class in half, or pairs, each plays one line of the song
  6. Ask half the class to play while the others sing


Extensions/Creativity/Exploration

  1. Make up a short poem (or draw a picture) about love or affection
  2. Make up a song about love or affection  (perhaps combined with their poem)
  3. Pick any story that children are familiar with and have them tell/sing it in the style of an opera


Questions

  1. Who composed this piece?  What do you remember about him?
  2. What is an opera?  Has anyone ever seen or heard an opera?
  3. Which hand has more notes to play?
  4. How many eighth notes can you count?
  5. How many different fingers will each hand use? 
  6. How many times do we switch between hands?
  7. How many dotted whole notes can you find?  Whole notes?

 

More Activities

  1. Talk about operas and what duets are.  Have the children figure out why there would be duets in operas.  Choose a student to help you act out the duet.
  2. Do a mini theory lesson on intervals.  Have the children find the intervals in the melody.
  3. Review some of the Italian learned earlier.  Talk about Italy.  (Music, culture, food, history, etc.) Bring in a map or book with pictures. Make sure the students understand that Mozart was not Italian.

 

Observations and Suggestions

  1. This is likely to be the students’ first encounter with opera.
  2. Take the time to tell the story of the opera and this particular duet.  Listen to the recording all the way through.  See if the children can tell the outcome of the duet (the man and woman finally getting together).  Talk about the ways music can tell stories.
  3. The missing finger numbers confused some of the children. Make sure you spend adequate time preparing them.
  4. Bring a copy of (part of) the opera score for the children to see.
  5. Make connections between this and the other compositions by Mozart in the book.  Perhaps play the recordings again and have the children compare them.  (You could also look ahead to Eine Kliene Nachtmusik.)
  6. Urbanize the story for the kids to understand.
  7. Introduced the story of Don Giovanni in a slightly modified version (excluding the parts about going to hell at the end and various other unsavory things). Tell the kids he was a suave guy with lots of girl-friends.  In the duet “La ci darem la mano” he tries to convince Zerlina to go on a walk with him and hold his hand, but she takes a lot of convincing.  Ask the children to listen and raise their hands if and when the couple finally begin walking. (“Andiam, Andiam mio bene”. )  Some kids got squeamish about “love” though mostly they found the story funny and could easily imagine the characters.
  8. One teacher performed brief examples from Opera and had the children guess what the story was about. She then had the children come to the front of the class and perform ad-lib opera examples with her. The children were amazingly good and very theatrical!