Curated OER
Orfeo: Sinfonie e Ritornelli
Students identify the dramatic expression made by performance and how it relates to the content of the story L'Orfeo. They determine the form of orchestra and each instrumental group within the orchestra for this piece.
Ducksters
Ducksters: Quiz: Renaissance Music and Dance
History Questions: Renaissance Music and Dance Quiz, Test, and WebQuest
Other
Music History Online: Music Before the 16th Century
Learn about music dating from the early Neanderthals to the Proto-Renaissance period. Also included is music from the Greeks and Romans as well as the early Christian church.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History: Music in the Renaissance
Learn how the political, religious and economic changes in Europe during the Renaissance affected the music of the period. A slide show introduces viewers to a variety of instruments which were developed in conjunction with the new music.
Library of Congress
Loc: The Moldenhauer Archives
The Moldenhauer Archives at the Library of Congress contain approximately 3,500 items documenting the history of Western music from the medieval period through the modern era.
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: English Renaissance: Background
This lesson provides background for an English Renaissance unit; it compares the English Renaissance with the Italian Renaissance. It features Queen Elizabeth I's influence and provides a poem written by the queen, "When I Was Fair and...
John F. Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center: Musical Harlem
The Kennedy Center's ArtsEdge offers a great unit for introducing jazz to students. Its use of Harlem as the "glue" which binds together elements such as jazz history and jazz terminology, makes it particularly effective for the...
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: Sti Lesson 38: Robert Plant and Jimmy Page
Many adolescent boys are consumed by theLed Zeppelinsong 'Stairway to Heaven.' The analysis of this song can be used to interest students in the music of the Renaissance minstrels. It will also serve as a means of making students aware...
PBS
Pbs: The Story of Jazz
A supplement to a ten-part film series on jazz, this resource describes the growth and development of jazz music from the gritty streets of New Orleans to the Lincoln Gardens on Chicago's south side, where Louis Armstrong first won fame,...
Ducksters
Ducksters: Renaissance for Kids: Music and Dance
Kids learn about the music and dance of the European Renaissance including choirs, madrigal, instruments, composers, and movements.
Indiana University
History and Literature of Music: Renaissance Instruments
This resource classifies Renaissance instruments in the following categories: winds, plucked strings, bowed strings, keyboard, and percussion.
Smithsonian Institution
Anacostia Museum: The Renaissance: Black Art of the Twenties
Provides an informative description of the "Black Arts of the Twenties," which was better known as the Harlem Renaissance. Learn about the culture, art, music, and writings of this period.
Digital History
Digital History:the Great Migration
The Great Migration for African Americans began during World War I as blacks left the segregated south to find jobs in the north. Read about how segregation followed them into their northern neighborhoods. See also how the Harlem...
Library of Congress
Loc: Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library & Renaissance Culture
This page chronicles an exhibit hosted by the Library of Congress of manuscripts and documents from the Vatican Library. Includes manuscripts of both a secular and religious nature as well as a detailed history of the Vatican Library....
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Smithsonian Jazz: Duke Ellington
This site provides audio clips, photos, and biographical information of this legendary composer and performer. A match game teaches and tests your knowledge of Ellington.
Ducksters
Ducksters: Music for Kids: History of the Violin
Kids learn about the history of the violin. Learn about a family of musical string instruments called the violin on this site. Explore its history and its beginning in the Renaissance period.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: The Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance influenced not only African American culture in the Jazz Age, but all of American culture. Read about some of the shining stars of African American literature and music of the age.
OpenStax
Open Stax: The Jazz Age: Redefining the Nation 1919 1929: A New Generation
Looks at the new morality that emerged in the 1920s. It changed the role of women and the perception of African Americans, the latter facilitated by the Harlem Renaissance and its impact on the music and dance of the Jazz Age. Also...
Varsity Tutors
Varsity Tutors: Web English Teacher: Langston Hughes
This resource focuses on the works of famous African-American author, Langston Hughes.
Classical Net
Classical Net: Timeline of Famous Composers: 1100 1700
A PDF timeline of composers in the Gothic, Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods.
Library of Congress
Loc: An American Ballroom Companion:dance Instruction Manuals (1490 1920)
The Library of Congress has over 200 original dance manuals from 1490 to 1920. This resource includes essays and treatises on etiquette, dance theory and history, theatrical dance, music for the dance, and more.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: American Culture in the 1920s
The First World War had a crippling effect on any notions of positivity in the artists, writers, and intellectuals of that time and they became known as the Lost Generation. This page discusses this group of people, the emergence of jazz...
W. W. Norton
Norton Anthology of English L Iterature: Sixteenth Century: Overview
Introductory material for a survey of sixteenth-century English literature offering information on the period, its major figures, and influences.
Classical Net
Classical Net: Musical Periods
This site contains the most significant artistic output of the most important composers within each historical period.