The Listening Room Podcast – Series 3 Episode 1 – Handel

THE LISTENING ROOM PODCAST SERIES 3 – UPPER PRIMARY
Written and presented by Rob and Lauren Fairbairn.

Welcome to The Listening Room for upper primary – a series of musical appreciation lessons mainly for primary or elementary students aged between about 9 and 13+.

The series is sponsored by Bushfire Press and available free during the current home isolation emergency.

Each lesson provides guided listening and movement activities with links to optional follow-up activities.
Perfect to help young people stay grounded and broaden their experience and appreciation of classical music.
Find out more about the Listening Room at www.thelisteningroom.net

An Introduction to The Baroque – Handel.
This episode is from Listening Room 3, published by Bushfire Press
and written and presented by Rob and Lauren Fairbairn.
This podcast presents two pieces of music by one of the leading composers of the Baroque era,
George Frideric Handel. The Baroque era was from 1600 to 1750.

KIDS’ LINK
Tell your students to go to www.kidslisten.net and choose Orange No.1 – Handel

LISTENING ROOM PODCAST HOME PAGE: 
www.thelisteningroom.net

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RESOURCES
For this unit students will need
Pens or pencils
Piece Poster 1 – The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
Piece Poster 2 – The Hallelujah Chorus

FOLLOWUP
I hope you enjoyed this brief introduction to the glorious music of the Baroque Era.
You can hear different versions of our two pieces and watch orchestras play them
in the extension section of the lesson.
You might also like to hear more of Handel’s music by Googling or by exploring YouTube
and other sites on the Internet.

ASSESSMENT

Teacher/parent/carer to student:
Please make sure to complete your Piece Posters while you are listening to this lesson

Teacher checking in with student:
Share your Piece Posters with your music teacher.
I would love to see your Piece Posters. Please send me pictures so that I can see how you went with this lesson

FOR YOUR CLASSROOM
This lesson is from our series Listening Room
Each level is available in book printed form with accompanying audio, charts and assessment materials in digital form.
Find out more at www.bushfirepress.com.au

This lesson will shortly be available through Music Room Connect
It will include the full lesson plan and everything you need to deliver this lesson yourself in your classroom

• An audio copy of this podcast (almost set and forget – great for relief teachers)
• Text of the lesson
• All audio tracks
• Full versions of all pieces used
• Evaluation and Tracking materials (Learning Outcomes, Australian Curriculum Band and Content Description, AUSVELS, IB(PYP) etc.

ABOUT THE PIECES

The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
(from the oratorio Solomon 1749).
George Frideric Handel
An oratorio is an opera without the dramatic content i.e. dialogue, costumes, sets, etc.
and it is written to be performed in a concert hall rather than on a stage.
While Handel wrote 42 operas in the Italian style between 1705 and 1741, his English audiences
became tired of them and he turned to writing oratorios.
The libretto (lyrics) of Solomon is from the biblical stories of wise King Solomon.
The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba is an instrumental piece, or sinfonia,
and was scored for strings and two oboes.

The Hallelujah Chorus
(from the oratorio The Messiah 1741).
George Frideric Handel
The text for this oratorio was from the King James Bible and from the Psalms in the Book of Common Prayer.
The Messiah was Handel’s 6th Oratorio and remains his most popular.
It has become a Christmas favourite.
Much of the vocal music of the baroque was religious or contained religious ideas, themes or texts.
A scholarly and knowledgeable friend of Handel, Charles Jennes compiled
or helped the composer prepare the text or libretti for many of his oratorios between 1735 and 1745.