ROLE PLAY AND MUCH MORE

Picture by Irina Ivanova

Shared by Ignacio García: 

This activity consist of a role-play in which a pupil will interview a classmate who will be impersonating a famous composer. 

Working by pairs, the pupils will search for information about the composer and his context, and will design an interview with questions related not just to her/his work and life, but also to the cultural context in which she/he developed the music. For instance, a couple of questions could be referred to literary and artistic tastes.  The pupil who impersonates the composer could be disguised as the musician.

They have to name or show at least a painting and a literary work that could have been the preferred one of this composer. There is no necessary to talk about the real preferences of the musician. That is about linking different expression in a specific moment of cultural History.  

Then, they could propose a composition, and show a picture or read a poem whereas the class listen to the music. For example, one of the pupils could be dressed up as Beethoven, and pretend to be a little deaf. The interviewer could ask for his favourite painter and writer, and Beethoven can name Goya or Friedrich, and Goethe. Then, we can listen the first movement of 6^th symphony, whereas a landscape of Friedrich is projected on a screen. They could even make a video or Slideshare with Goya’s, Friedrich’s, and Turner’s paintings, and sentences or verses from Schiller, Goethe, Schelling…

In a second phase of this project, I could design a cross-curricular activity with another subject’s teacher.

A History teacher and a Literature teacher could carry out the same activity in their classes. The, we could plan a meeting between Napoleon, Goethe and Beethoven, and watch them debating about the French revolution, or organize a press conference or round table about feminism with Emilia Pardo Bazán, Clara Schumann and Emmeline Pankhurst. Finally, we could plan and exhibition of works, sentences and music of this people.