Composer Review Of the Year

One Composer we talked about this year combined R&B with Gospel styles to help create Soul Music. He never let the fact that he was blind stop him from changing music. His name was..

• J.S. Bach

• Ludwig Beethoven

• Ray Charles

• Bruno Mars

We started the year watching a line rider video to one of the most famous songs by Norwegian composer, Edvard Grieg, which was written for a play called Peer Gynt describing the escape of the main character from Trolls! The song was called:

• Morning Mood

• In the Hall of the Mountain King

• Spring

• Tutti Fruitti

This year we learned about the 12 bar blues and the two Women who spread the blues throughout the south and the north. Their nicknames were "The Mother of the Blues" and the "Empress of the Blues". Their real names were..

• Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith

• Jennifer Hudson and Beyonce Knowles

• Aretha Franklin and Etta James

• Dolly Parton and Patty Labelle

A composer we learned about that tried to tell a story or paint a picture from the sounds in his music was Antonio Vivaldi. He wrote the famous "Four Seasons" with a movement describing each season of the year. Which season did we listen to and identify the musical sounds for hunters, hounds and a fox trying to get away?

• Spring

• Summer

• Winter

• Autumn

We listened to a song by Stevie Wonder called "Sir Duke" where he references Jazz pioneers Sir Duke, and Satchamo. Who was he referencing?

• Rick Ross and George Michael

• John Lennon and Ringo Star

• Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong

• Drake and Chance the Rapper

Like Vivaldi, another composer from France who liked to paint pictures or tell a story with his music was Camille Saint-Saens. He wrote a song about a spooky scary night where skeletons, witches, and death wake up to dance all night. It was called..

• Halloween

• Danse Macabre

• All Hallows Eve

• Dia De Los Muertos

This Musician was known as "The Godfather of Soul" and created the new genre of Funk by using all the instruments in the band like the drums and focusing on rhythms. He Feels Good and He Knew That He Would.. His name is...

• Louis Armstrong

• Little Richard

• Count Basie

• James Brown

This Jazz Singer popularized the style of "Scat Singing" where the singer improvises nonsense syllables like we heard her do in the song "Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got That Swing"

• Ella Fitzgerald

• Marilyn Monroe

• Bessie Smith

• Sister Rosetta Tharpe

One Classical Composer we studied played the Piano and Organ. He came from a big family that were all musicians. He was fired and put in jail when he refused to write the kind of music his employer wanted! He wrote the famous song played at Halloween called "Toccata and Fugue" and his name was...

• Edvard Grieg

• J. S. Bach

• Antonio Vivaldi

• Ludwig Beethoven

He was one of the Pioneers of Rock and Roll, his guitar solos are legendary, and we listen to his song "Run, Run, Rudolph" every year! His name was..

• Stevie Wonder

• Ray Charles

• Duke Ellington

• Chuck Berry