Purpose: This unit draws upon the Ancient Civilization of the Aztecs, using maps, plans, places, artefacts, wall paintings, pictures, reconstructions, stories, and myths to open up opportunities for the creating, composing, improvising, and performing of pupil’s own music as a response to some of the issues raised and sources examined. The unit explores two key musical concepts, over a series of three lessons each: Rondo Form and the Leitmotif. With the additional resources included each of these ‘projects’ could be extended and developed into half a term’s work each, the unit lasting a whole term. The unit begins with the great city of Tenochtitlan as a stimulus, as pupils work towards creating a class ‘Aztec Rondo’. Taking the winding streets and canals as the class A theme, pupils create a musical journey around the city of Tenochtitlan visiting the Chinampas (floating gardens), market square, war stone, calendar stone and the great palace of Moctezuma as contrasting episodes (B, C, D etc.) within their class ‘Aztec Rondo’. Pupils listen to an example of music in Rondo Form and sing an ‘Aztec Rondo’ song, to develop their understanding of the ABACADA musical structure, and explore music by composers who have been inspired by similar venues, places, and objects to those in Tenochtitlan. Aztec myths and legends tell us about the Aztecs way of life, beliefs and religions and provide good stimuli for musical activities. The unit uses the Aztec myth of How music was made to create leitmotifs as character music, which are then developed, altered, varied, and changed according to the mood or situation of that particular appearance in the story. Like other Musical Contexts units within the Ancient Civilizations group, it is difficult to explore music ‘of the time’, although there are examples of ‘reconstructed Aztec music’. Pupils also explore Aztec musical instruments based upon wall paintings and artefacts, comparing these with modern-day and classroom instruments.
 
Outcome: Pupils show understanding of Rondo Form as a large type of musical form and structure. They develop original leitmotif ideas through variations, extension, manipulation and use the Elements of Music and develop ideas within larger musical structures. Pupils show understanding of Aztec timbres and sonorities, using similar sounds and instruments in compositions and performances and rehearse and perform in independent groups before performing as part of a larger class ensemble.
 
Key Words, Theory and Musical Knowledge 
Form and Structure (Rondo Form, ABACADA, Theme, Melody, Episodes) Leitmotif (A frequently recurring short musical idea which is associated with a character, place, object, or situation; development of a leitmotif according to mood or situation of subsequence appearances)
 
This fully-resourced KS2 Primary unit comes complete with 6 fully-resourced lesson plans, each containing a Lesson Plan, Worksheet and PowerPoint Presentation with all embedded audio files (also available separately as MP3 and WAV files).  Also included is a unit Knowledge Organisers.