November 4 – March 1 Listening Assignment (remember that listening assignments apply to the weeks during which the listening is assigned.)

Felix Mendelssohn (#1)

• Watch the composer's bio here.
• Read some of Mendelssohn's famous quotes: 
• “People usually complain that music is so ambiguous, and what they are supposed to think when they hear it is so unclear, while words are understood by everyone. But for me it is exactly the opposite...what the music I love expresses to me are thoughts not to indefinite for words, but rather too definite.”
• “Even if, in one or other of them, I had a particular word or words in mind, I would not tell anyone, because the same word means different things to different people. Only the songs say the same thing, arouse the same feeling, in everyone - a feeling that can't be expressed in words.”
• “The essence of the beautiful is unity in variety.”

• Q. 1. Write out the composer's entire name in your lesson plan.
• Q. 2. What era did this composer live/write in?
• Listen to and watch the last movement of Mendelssohn's violin concerto in e minor (one of my favorite pieces of all-time!).played by Hilary Haun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMYQxNGw2rY
• Q. 3. Name 3–5 famous pieces this composer wrote for the piano (or what is now played on the piano, if originally written for a different instrument). Use different pieces if the composer has previously been asked for.
• Q. 4. Name 3–5 stylistic characteristics of why this piece is a part of the musical era you wrote above. (Refer to the new page on the blog on the right called "Musical Period Characteristics" for help.)