Carnegie Hall

Melodies Move by Steps and Leaps in “Come to Play,” The Blue Danube, and “Mhande”

• Demonstrate melodic direction that moves by steps by singing or playing a short phrase and asking the students to repeat after you.
  • Example: Do-Re-Mi-Re-Do
• Demonstrate melodic direction that moves by leaps (or skips) by singing or playing a short phrase and asking the students to repeat after you.
  • Example: Do-Mi-Sol-Mi-Do
• Next, demonstrate some simple phrases for the students. Play or sing excerpts from the Link Up repertoire, or make up your own phrases.
  • Did the phrase move by steps or leaps?
  • Which direction did the melody move (up or down)?
• Play “Come to Play” (recorder part 2).
  • Trace the contour of this melody with your finger.
  • Does this melody move primarily by steps or leaps?
  • What is the overall direction of this melody?
• Repeat with The Blue Danube (complete), “Mhande” (kushaura), or with any of the Link Up melodies.

Go Deeper

Visit the Music Educator’s Toolbox to explore the Staff Hopscotch activity, which uses an oversized musical staff on the floor to explore steps and leaps with movement.

Listen to the Motif

Listen to Symphony No. 5 (motif excerpt)

Discuss the Motif

• What is a motif?
• How would you describe Beethoven’s motif?

Play “Forbidden Motif”

• Ask students to repeat the motif’s pattern after you by clapping the rhythm above.
• Or, ask students to repeat the pattern on the recorder.
• Tell students that the motif is now forbidden, and when they hear it they should remain silent.
• Lead the students through a series of call and response patterns, reminding them to echo back all patterns except the forbidden motif. If they play the forbidden motif they are out of the game. Keep going until one “winner” remains.

Play “Pass the Motif”

• Sit in a circle, with one person holding a small object such as a ball or an eraser, which represents the motif.
• Play the Symphony No. 5 audio track.
• Each time the motif is heard, the person holding the object should pass the object to his or her neighbor.
• When the motif is not heard, the person holding the object should hold onto it until the motif is heard again.
  • Did you notice moments when the motif was moving faster or slower, or when something new happened and it disappeared?

Watch the Motif

• Watch the video below, Music Animation Machine, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.
  • How do you know this is a motif?
  • What changes do you see and hear (pitch, instruments, etc.) in the four-note motif?
• Watch the animation again, starting and stopping to point out and list all the ways that Beethoven develops and changes his motif.

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony contains one of the most recognizable motifs of all time. It premiered in Vienna in 1808 on the same concert as his Sixth, or “Pastoral” Symphony. In fact, Beethoven wrote both symphonies during the same time period, and at the premiere it was the “Pastoral” Symphony that was called No. 5. Only later did Beethoven switch the order of the two symphonies.

A motif is a short musical idea that reappears throughout a piece, sometimes exactly the same and sometimes changed or varied. Here are some elements that Beethoven varied in his motif:

• Duration of each note (short, short, short, long)
• Pitch (G, G, G, E-flat)
• Pitch pattern (same, same, same, lower)

• Play Symphony No. 5 (motif excerpt).
• Demonstrate and practice following Mapping Beethoven’s Motif (PDF) with your finger while the excerpt plays.
• Using the map and Mapping Beethoven’s Motif Answer Key (PDF), label the ways Beethoven develops his motif.

• Using My Own Melodic Motif (PDF), create a short motif and develop it just like Beethoven did by starting on a different pitch or by reversing it.
• Ask students to perform their motif on classroom instruments or by singing.
• This activity can be done as a class, in groups, or individually.

• Using My Own Body Percussion Motif (PDF), create a short motif using body percussion movements and develop it by using strategies like repetition and inversion.
• Choose from five body percussion sounds—stomp, thigh pat, chest tap, clap, and snap—to include in your motif. Stomp, which has the lowest sound, appears at the bottom of the staff, while snap, which has the highest sound, appears at the top of the staff.
• Ask students to perform their body percussion motifs.
• This activity can be done as a class, in groups, or individually.

Composers develop motifs in a variety of ways, including:

Repetition: motif repeated with no changes
Transposition: motif repeated at a higher or lower pitch
Inversion: motif repeated with reversed pitch direction, rhythm, or both
Augmentation: motif presented with longer note values
Diminution: motif presented with shorter note values

In dance, a motif is a gesture or short phrase of movement.

• Individually or in groups, ask students to create a four-movement sequence.
• Listen to an excerpt from one of the following Link Up works, which will be used as accompaniment to the dance motif: Danzón No. 2, “Knitting Nettles” from Wild Swans Suite, or “The Dancing Moonlight” (orchestral version).
• As a class, experiment with simple actions such as bending, reaching, falling, shaking, and turning.
• Ask students to brainstorm additional simple actions that can be used in the sequence.
• Assign note values to each movement (for example, whole note, half note, etc.).
• Practice the four-movement sequence.
• Ask students to explore different ways to vary their original motif.
  • Change the level of the motif: Perform the motif at a high, middle, or low level in the space.
  • Reverse the motif: Perform the motif backwards, with the last movement becoming the first.
  • Add the variations together and perform the original motif, the level variation motif, and the reversed motif.

Go Deeper

Share a choreographic toolbox with additional ideas for creating movement motif variations. These can include a change of speed, direction, body part, size, etc. Consider adding locomotor movements by making the movements travel on different pathways (for example, straight line or curvy).

Level: High, middle, low
Speed: Fast, slow, moderate
Facing: Face a different direction
Direction: Change the direction of the movement
Body Part: Use a different body part
Dynamic: Strong, light, sharp, droopy
Size: Big, small
Pathway: Straight line, zig zag, curvy, circular

Accompanied by their chosen excerpt, students will perform their original motif first, followed by 2–4 variations of their motif. Discuss the following below as a class.

• How is a motif in music similar to a motif in dance?
• Have you seen dances with movement motifs that you can identify?
• What happens if you try a popular dance movement really slow or really fast? On a different level? Make it small or giant? Change the body part?