Teacher Name: Amy Jackson

Content & Grade Level: General Music 6

Unit Title: Visual Art and Music Integration

Essential Question(s):
● How does music influence visual art?
● How does visual art influence music?
● How do the arts impact society and culture?

Unit Question(s):
● What do music and visual art have in common? What is different?
● Who are some artists and musicians that influenced each other to create their
art?

NCAS/State Standards:
● MU: Cr1 1.16🡪 Generate simple rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic phrases
within AB and ABA forms that convey expressive intent
● MU: Cr2 1.6🡪 Select, organize, construct, and document personal musical ideas
for arrangements and compositions within AB or ABA form that demonstrate
an effective beginning, middle, and ending, and convey expressive intent.
● MU: Cr3 2.6🡪 Present the final version of their documented personal
composition or arrangement, using craftsmanship and originality to
demonstrate an effective beginning, middle, and ending, and convey expressive
intent.
● MU: Pr4 2.6🡪 Identify how cultural and historical context inform performances
● MU: Re7 1.6🡪 Identify the context of music from a variety of genres, cultures,
and historical periods
● MU: Cn 10 1.6🡪 Demonstrate how interests, knowledge, and skills relate to
personal choices and intent when creating, performing, and responding to
music.
● MU: Cn11 1.5🡪 Demonstrate understanding of relationships between music and
the other arts, other disciplines, varied contexts, and daily life.

State Standards
● 6CE Describe roles and skills musicians assume in various cultures and
settings
● 5PR🡪 Read, write, perform and compose rhythm patters and simple melodies
in 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, and 6/8
● 3RE🡪 Communicate the importance of music in everyday life
● 4RE🡪 Desceibe ways that music relates to other art forms using appropriate
terminology.
● 5RE🡪 Compare and contrast subject matter common to music and other
subject aresas.
 ● 6RE🡪 Explain and apply skills developed in music (e.g. critical thinking,
collaboration) to other disciplines.
Measurable Unit Objectives:
● Students will demonstrate knowledge about artistic techniques used in both
music and visual art, and how they coincide.
● Students will be able to compose a short piece based on a piece of visual art.
● Students will be able to compose a piece of artwork based on a piece of music.
● Students will receive a brief introduction to musical theatre.

Academic Language:
● Composition: a work of music, literature, or art
● Synesthesia: the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part
of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body

Unit Plan Rationale:

The purpose of this unit is to allow students to formulate connections between music
and the visual arts. In order to do this, it is important that students see and hear
examples of both music that influenced art, and art that influenced music. In addition
to this, students must also create both a piece of artwork and a piece of music so that
they can learn through self-discovery. Another important aspect of this unit is to allow
the student’s mind to be open to experiencing art forms in a new way. This unit
requires a lot of abstract thinking, and in 6th grade, students are still comfortable
trying creative approaches to learning. This unit is second in the series of three units
because the week on “Sunday in the Park With George” provides an excellent transition
between this unit and the following unit on Opera/Musical Theatre.

Duration of Unit:
● 3 Weeks
● Lessons will be taught Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
● Total of 9 lessons

Calendar of Lessons:
Lesson 1: Music that Influenced Artwork
● Students will engage in a lecture and discussion about artists that were
inspired by music
o Wassily Kandinsky
▪ Synesthesia
● Sound and color relationship
▪ Paintings evoking ideas about musicians and musical
instruments
● “Composition IV” and “Composition VIII”
Lesson 2: Music that Influenced Artwork
● Students will continue to engage in a lecture and discussion about artists that
were inspired by music
o Other artists
▪ Georgia O’Keefe
 ● “Music, Pink and Blue No. 2”
▪ Marc Chagall
● “The Triumph of Music and The Source of Music
▪ James McNeill Whistler
● “Harmony in Pink and Grey: Portrait of Lady Meux”
● “Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs.
France
▪ Pablo Picasso
● Three Musicians
Lesson 3: Music that Influenced Artwork
● Students will apply what they have learned about music and artwork by
creating their own paintings/drawings based on the music they hear
o Music TBD
o Students will have to express how their painting represents the music.

Lesson 4: Artwork that Influenced Music

● Students will engage in a lecture and discussion about artwork that influenced
music.
● Students will look at the paintings, while listening to the music they inspired
and discuss the connections between the two.
o Katsushika Hokusai’s “The Great Wave off Kanagawa”
▪ Claude Debussy’s “La Mer”
o Thomas Cole’s “The Course of Empire”
▪ Nell Shaw Cohen’s “The Course of Empire”
o Willhelm von Kaulbach’s “Die Hunnenschlacht”
▪ Franz Liszt’s “Hunnenschlacht”

Lesson 5: Artwork that Influenced Music

● Students will engage in a lecture and discussion about artwork that influenced
music.
● Students will look at the paintings, while listening to the music they inspired
and discuss the connections between the two.
o Viktor Hartmann’s “Illustrations”
▪ Modest Mossorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”
▪ Maurice Ravel’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”
o Arnold Böcklin’s “Die Toteninsel”
▪ Sergi Rachmaninoff’s “Isle of the Dead”
o Vincent Van Gogh’s “Starry Night”
▪ Einojuhani Rautavaara’s “Starry Night” from Symphony No. 6

Lesson 6: Artwork that Influenced Music

● Students will apply what they have learned about music and artwork by
creating their own short compositions based on the painting they see.
o Painting TBD
o Students will have the option to work in groups or individually, and may
use the ukulele or the voice for their compositions.
 o Students will also have to express how their composition represents the
painting.

Lesson 7: Sunday in the Park with George

● Students will engage in a lecture and discussion on Georges-Pierre Seurat’s Un
dimanche après-midi à l’Île de la Grande Jatte (A Sunday Afternoon on
the Isle of Grand Jatte)
o Pointillism
o Seine River in France
● Students will then engage in a lecture and discussion on Stephen Sondheim’s
musical “Sunday in the Park with George”

Lesson 8: Sunday in the Park with George

● Students will watch Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with George”

Lesson 9: Sunday in the Park with George

● Students will continue to watch Stephen Sondheim’s “Sunday in the Park with
George”

Planned Assessments Rationale:

Because this unit is project based, I am choosing to utilize a series of rubrics to assess
my students. The rubric for both the composition and the painting will be graded on
creativity and ability to express how their composition/painting relates to the
composition/painting that inspired it.