KS2 Music: Heroes of Troy
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.
Full details in the Teacher's Notes.
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.
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 bodyguard 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.
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:
- Song tutorial video (around 15 minutes in length)
- Karaoke full vocal version of the song (for rehearsal)
- Karaoke backing track of the song (for performance)
- A video of the story episode that links to the song
- Lyrics to display or download
- Music to display or download
- A transcript of the story episode
- Teacher's Notes describing the content of the tutorial and how best to use it.
Additionally there is a Clips page where you can access all the video files on a single page - as well as download the mp3 audio files of the full vocal and backing track versions of the songs. You will need these if you wish to stage your own musical performance of Heroes of Troy.
