Hearing History: American Music during the Revolution, Civil War, Civil Rights Movement, and Vietnam War
Seminar Leader: Dr. Elizabeth Crist is Assistant Professor of Musicology in the School of Music and Associate Chair of the Center for American Music at The University of Texas at Austin
Throughout American history, music has served as social and political commentary as well as entertainment. This teacher seminar examined the historical significance of songs from the American Revolution through the Viet Nam War era. In the following resources, Hearing History seminar materials have been focused and refined into practical classroom applications that busy teachers can easily fold into their existing course curricula.
Toolkit offerings include:
Contrafactum: New Lyrics for Old Songs - Students use a graphic organizer to write contemporary, current event based lyrics for Civil War era songs in this TEKS aligned lesson. Designed for 8th grade U. S. history, but can easily be adapted to other grade levels and courses in English language arts and music.
- Contrafactum Lesson Plan (PDF)
- "John Brown's Body" lyrics (PDF)
- "John Brown's Body" (Audio)*
- "Battle Hymn of the Republic" lyrics (PDF)
- "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (Audio)*
- Student Graphic Organizer (PDF)
*Audio requires RealPlayer.
Hearing History Music Compendium - This TEKS aligned activity includes lyrics and audio files for music from the American Revolution through the Viet Nam era as well as a song analysis form. Designed for grade 8-12 courses in U.S. history and music courses.
- Compendium List of Songs (PDF)
- Compendium Song Analysis Form (PDF)
- Compendium Song Lyrics and Audio (Directory)
Annotated Bibliography - Print and Internet resources related to historical and contemporary songs and songwriting.
Send feedback, questions, or comments about this resource to education@humanitiesinstitute.utexas.edu. PDF documents on this page require Adobe Reader, which is available for free for both PCs and Macs. Download the latest version of Adobe Reader.
Photo credit: Children's festival for pupils of the Federal Music Project classes
held in Central Park, New York City, undated.
National Archives, Records of the Work Projects Administration
(69-N-18359)
Project funded by UTOPIA