Educational activity around the short film Leitmotif
Describe and compare sound elements. Listen to heritage works.
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 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)
Musical listening. Discover the specificities of jazz.
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 complete with them in order to make the complete list of instruments: piano, trumpet, saxophone, double bass, drums. We can particularly emphasize the last part which is very interesting because it presents 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 will be interesting to have the children listen to other jazz pieces, and get them to compare: recognition of the instruments, style of music (which makes you want to dance)... For this we can have the students listen to emblematic works such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Claude Nougaro...
We can notably 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, certain instruments, other more modern instruments (synth), and the lyrics are different. Discover a very complete file on Azraelle's blog...
After these different listenings, we will be able to better define what jazz is: a musical genre created by black Americans in the United States at the beginning of the 20th century. It is a music of cross-breeding which gives ample 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...
