Educational activity based on the short film Leitmotif
Describe and compare sounds. Listen to works from the musical heritage.
Identify and name differences and similarities between two extracts
Leitmotif © The Animation Workshop
TitleLeitmotif
ThemeAnimals, Memory, Music
Genre & keywordsComedy, Jazz, nostalgia, musical instrument
Age (for the film)6-11 years old
Duration07 min 06 s
DirectorJ. Nørgaard & M. Thorhauge & M. Jørgensen & M. I. Holmriis
MusicJ. Baumgartner & T. R. Christensen
ProductionThe Animation Workshop (Denmark, 2009)
Listening activity. Discover what makes jazz distinctive.
After a first viewing, ask the students to name the instruments they recognized, saw, heard... Do they know this style of music? If necessary, watch the video a second time to build the full list of instruments together: piano, trumpet, saxophone, double bass, drums. We can particularly emphasize the last part which is very interesting because it introduces the instruments one by one, then the jazz orchestra as a whole. We can then discuss the families of instruments: strings, wind instruments (brass and woodwind) and percussion.
After this stage, it would be interesting to have the children listen to other jazz pieces and get them to compare: identifying the instruments, style of music (which makes you want to dance)... For this we can have the students listen to iconic artists such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Claude Nougaro...
In particular, we can compare “Go down moses” sung by Armstrong and “Armstrong” by Claude Nougaro which pays homage to the latter with a cover. We recognize the melody, some instruments, and other, more modern ones (synth), and the lyrics are different. See a very thorough resource on Azraelle's blog...
After these listening sessions, we can better define what jazz is: a musical genre created by African Americans (Black Americans) in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. It is a music born of cultural blending, one that leaves plenty of room for improvisation. We can ask older children to do research at home and share it in class. Jazz on Wikipedia...
Activity sheet written by: Valérie du blog Val 10. Discover the Val 10 blog...
