With snow days and early dismissals, our schedule has been confusing at best. My students walk thru the door and say, “Is it movie day today?”  They have been working very hard on their theory and trying to get in practicing. I have been having a difficult time picking the “right” movie.  It has to tie-in to our history topic; this year our history is circling around geography.

Yesterday, as I was absorbed in the Olympic Ice-Dancing competition, the announcer said, “Our last four groups will all be skating to the music of Russian composers.”  I thought, “Perfect!! That’s it!”  For our “movie” I will be replaying these four performances for the students. These Russian composers are some of my favorites.  Their music is rich in emotion and the skating highlights that element.

The pieces are, in order of appearance: Prokofiev’s Romeo & Juliet; Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake; Glazunov’s The Seasons; and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade.  Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov, and Tchaikovsky are all considered Romantic Era composers while Prokofiev is a Modern Era composer.

If you have the Shazam app on your phone while you are watching the skating, you can easily find out the name of the pieces and the composers.  It is quite educational and fun.

This exercise is a way to demonstrate that music is a part of our everyday life.  We just need to open our ears and invite it in.  This is why I like to say, “Music Lasts a Lifetime.”