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KS2 Music: Heroes of Troy - Info

Heroes of Troy targets objectives from the Music curriculum at Key Stage 2. Vocal coach David Grant has seven exciting songs to learn, each one linking to an episode of the story of the Trojan War. Each of the songs has a tutorial video in which David teaches the songs in a lively style that will engage with a young audience. There is also a playscript which incorporates the songs and music in a performance. Overall it's an ideal resource for combining music with the history topic Ancient Greece.

The Trojan War

The events of the Trojan War are written about in a number of works of Ancient Greek literature, including Homer’s epic poem The Iliad, which is at least 2,500 years old. The cause of war is Helen’s elopement from the Spartan court with Paris, a Trojan prince. Helen is the wife of Menelaus - King of Sparta - and he musters an army led by his brother Agamemnon to sail to Troy to take Helen back. The war lasts for 10 long years, during which time the main events are concerned with the clashes between the leading characters, climaxing with the death of Hector at the hands of Achilles (as written about by Homer in The Iliad) and continuing with the creation of the Trojan horse by Odysseus, the means by which Troy is vanquished and Helen returned to Menelaus.

The Old Soldier remembers...

Our version of the story is told from the point of view of the Old Soldier looking back 40 years to the time when he was a bobyguard assigned to King Menelaus in the Spartan court. As the Old Soldier tells us: 'I was there at the beginning. And at the end.' He witnesses all the key events, which he relates in a manner that is both gritty and amusing.

Main characters in the story

Name Who is...
Helen Queen of Sparta
Menelaus King of Sparta - husband of Helen
Paris A Trojan prince
Priam King of Troy - father of Hector, Paris and Cassandra
Agamemnon Brother of Menelaus - leader of the Greek army
Hector A Trojan prince - brother of Paris and Cassandra
Cassandra A Trojan princess - sister of Hector and Paris
Odysseus A hero on the Greek side
Achilles Another Greek hero
Patroclus Young cousin of Achilles

Using the Heroes of Troy web pages

The content for Heroes of Troy is structured on the seven songs to learn. Each song appears on its own dedicated page and includes the following resources (with links to examples from Song 1: 'Is it love?'):

Additionally there is a Clips page where all of the video content has been aggregated and a Resources page where the following additional resources can also be found:

To download the videos you will need to right click on them and then select the apprpriate option for PC or Mac.

Use the Tutorial video to begin learning each song: David Grant steers pupils through each song methodically...and with passion! Refer to the Teacher's Notes for each song to establish whether the class needs to be split into groups before starting the tutorial (for example to sing in harmony).

Use the Story video to watch an episode of the story. Each episode links to the song on the same page and is about 6 minutes long.

Use the Full vocal and Backing track versions of the songs to revise them in preparation for a performance.

The songs

Series resources