Papa Haydn's Playhouse

A WebQuest for 9th-12th Grade

Introduction

Franz Joseph Haydn contributed to the development of the modern symphony and the string quartet. He was a prolific composer who wrote over 100 symphonies (Beethoven wrote 9).

He was also a prankster who loved humor in music. Many of his pieces contain comic moments, and at least three--the Suprise Symphony, the Farewell Symphony, and the Joke Quartet were written for humorous purposes.

Now “Papa” Haydn has returned to the funniest and most musical Web Quest ever!

Task

First, you will visit some web sites searching for examples of comedy in the work of Franz Joseph Haydn. You will collect these examples and develop theories as to why Papa Haydn wrote what he wrote.

You will also visit a couple of other sites dealing with comedy in music and rate them according to how funny the music is.

Then, based on Haydn’s prankster nature, you will develop ideas for quirky music pieces of your own, with purposes you will decide, and perform them for the class.

Process

Part 1: Visit one or more of the following websites about Franz Joseph Haydn. Look at the questions below and email me your findings...

http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/milestones/990303.motm.haydn.html

http://wawa.essortment.com/franzjosephhay_rwml.htm

http://www.npr.org/programs/specials/milestones/990303.motm.haydn.html

http://home.planet.nl/~cmr/haydn/

http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/haydnj.html

http://www.composers.net/database/h/Haydn.html

http://web02.hnh.com/composer/btm.asp?fullname=Haydn,%20Franz%20Joseph

http://wicr.uindy.edu/Education/Composers/HaydnF.html

Questions:

A. On what month and day was Haydn born?
B. What did his wife do with his compositions?
C. What was Haydn's purpose in writing the Farewell Symphony?
D. What was Haydn's purpose in writing the Surprise Symphony?
E. How did the Miracle Symphony get its name?
F. What is the joke in the Joke quartet?

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Part Two: Visit three websites devoted to comedy music or comic musicians. Rate each site as to how effective the site is and how funny the music. You may choose from my list below, or you may locate your own. Please exercise good judgement in the sites you select--sometimes comedy can get a little, um, tasteless.

http://carter_55331.tripod.com/carterswebsitefordudes/id11.html

http://www.corporateentertainers.ca/kennyshaw.htm

http://www.picklehead.com/elmo.html

http://www.capsteps.com/

http://www.elizabethgray.com/

http://drdemento.com/

http://www.weirdal.com/

Rating: Give each site one, two, three, or four Baryton's, and write how you came to your determination.

Extra credit: What's a Baryton?

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Part Three: In groups of three, determine two humorous pieces you would write if you were Franz Joseph Haydn. For example, you could create the "Slamming Door Symphony" that was written for, well, slamming doors.

Perhaps you could do better than that one.

Write the description of the pieces and email them to me. Then, choose the best one, and act out the piece for the class, and let the class guess the name.

Then, if you want, let the class rate your symphony by giving it an award of one, two, three, or four items with a name you choose.

Evaluation

As part of your web quest, please evaluate yourself according to the following rubric. I will also do an evaluation and will make a final determination after considering both yours and mine. For parts one and two, the evaluation will be for individuals, for part three it will be for your group. Remember that grades are deadly serious.

Yawn

Chuckle

Bellylaugh

Side-Splitting
Hysteria

Score

Analysis of Haydn Examples

Never laughs at all.

Is familiar with Haydn.

Grasps musical importance of Haydn's work.

Grasps key concepts in Haydn's work, including his humorous purposes.

Rationale for Comedy Site Rating

No sense of humor.

Visits comedy music sites.

Rates comedy music sites.

Rates comedy music sites and provides well-conceived rationale for opinion.

Creativity of New Haydn Pieces

A frowning stone.

Suggests new Haydn pieces.

Suggests new Haydn pieces that have at least a sliver of humor.

Suggests new Haydn pieces that demonstrate understanding of Haydn's spirit.

Conclusion

Hopefully this exercise has introduced you to one of the great composers in human history, Franz Haydn, and shown you that even people who lived 250 years ago had a sense of humor. Music that may sound stuffy or "classical" to us was then the popular music of the day, and like some artists from today, included some comic elements.

Credits & References

Instructor for this course is Dr. Mike Charles at the College of Education at Pacific University.

I also received invaluable help from Jeff Cooper at Pacific.

Please visit The WebQuest Page and the Design Patterns page for the latest version of this template and training materials.

We all benefit by being generous with our work. Permission is hereby granted for other educators to copy this WebQuest, update or otherwise modify it, and post it elsewhere provided that the original author's name is retained along with a link back to the original URL of this WebQuest. On the line after the original author's name, you may add Modified by (your name) on (date). If you do modify it, please let me know and provide the new URL.

Last updated October, 2002. Based on a template from The WebQuest Page