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Confession about compossers
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I’m going to be honest here: we don’t like compossers! OUCH! I said it. Some of it is good to listen too. We listen to the CD where it tells a story about the composser and then incorporates there music with it. It’s a nice format. But no one really doesn’t care to listen. We don’t get anything out of it. It’s just not for us. I dread composser day.
Do I stick to it? Or do we just drop it next year and look for another way to do a music study? Anyone else just not do it or have found another way to study music? Thanks
Misty, you make me laugh!
We just listen to classical music while doing work at the table or around the house. I also have the Opal Wheeler composer biographies in the home library – they have been read a lot.
Do your kids play an instrument? Encouraging that usually helps their interest in composers. We have some fun piano learning software that teaches a bit about composers as well as piano – it’s called Children’s Music Journey. I’m not a huge advocate of computer based learning, but this is one program we do use.
Gaeleen
We really like the books, “Meet the Great Composers” by June Montgomery and Maurice Hinson. Each book covers about 15-17 composers. There are three or four pages devoted to each one. It gives a short biography with some fun facts and then usually includes an activity such as a crossword puzzle. You can purchase the books with or without a CD. The CD has short excerpts from each composer’s work. Then if you can add in a CD of the composer that you can play as background music and maybe find some other books about the composer it makes it very easy. We also like the books, “Childhood of Famous….” We’e found some good ones there about the composers.
Wait, there’s more!! The Classical Kids tapes/CD’s are great also and many libraries carry these. They are audios of a semi-fictional story of a composer and also include the composer’s most famous music woven into the story. We have also checked out some great videos of composers from the library. Again, a fictionalized account of a composer’s life, but it really helps the kids to remember it.
hth,
Jean
my boys are very young right now, but it seems most enjoyable to play the music while painting, playdough, legos or some other hands on creative activity. they always ask to turn it up. also, it is an aquired taste and there are msny songs I don’t even care for as I prefer “happy” lilting toe tapping stuff. But the more I become familier with a song, it rather grows on me to at least tolerate that one and not skip it. I tried playing it in the car, but they always ask for praise music instead, so that wasn’t working for us. Keep playing at it. As for compooser studies we haven’t done that yer since they’re so young, but a friend found some great videos from the library for kids. don’t let this one thing beat you up. blessings!
Misty, just play the music in the background and don’t stress it – it becomes familiar after a time, and is enriching, so don’t give up. I was raised with it, so grew to love it over the years, it does not mean that I don’t like anything else, I love all music and also love to sing. My parents took me to concerts and operas but in general I learned to love it because my parents played it a lot for their own enjoyment. Point out who the composer is, where he was from and leave it at that for now – then perhaps add the odd fact or two, don’t make it a chore, or your kids will not enjoy it. Linda
I laughed when I read the first two posts.
I have also stressed about this before, but for different reasons. When we tried digging deeper into the lives of many artists and composers I was honestly shocked. Some of the books we got from the library (in the children’s biography section) told much more than we wanted to know about the person’s life 🙂
Now, we just listen and identify composers or enjoy and identify artists without really “studying them”. Does that make sense? My son plays guitar and my daughter is learning violin (per video instruction) so that plus or laid back composer/artists studies is what we do for now.
We just listen during lunchtime. No big focus. I just briefly say this is Beethoven. I’ll find books at the library written for children to introduce them (but I don’t find too many).
Our faves are Beethoven by Nest Family Entertainment (DVD) and Ludwig Van Beethoven by Mike Venezia. M. Venezia has ones on Bach, Chopin, Stravinsky, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, and Handel (as well as artists and presidents). Very funny cartoons to make learning about the person fun!
Otherwise it’s just plain listening to the music a few days a week. They’ll say if they like the song or not. That’s it for us!
Tara
We, too, take a casual approach; As others stated, simply enjoying listening as we go about our day. Even simpler – just turn on a classical radio station & let the anouncer tell you who the composer is and a bit about them
.I am guessing you have looked at the other post recently about composers but in case you have not check out http://www.classicsforkids.com They have free downloads, online games, and radio shows that are less than ten minutes long and are wonderfully geared to kids. They have all the composers for mod 1 and 2 and probably the others, I just have not looked. That is our main study for composer day and usually a kids book when they have one and listening in the car to that composer’s music. Maybe just take a break and try again.
How about mixing in some modern composers now and then? A few very talented modern composers that are easy to find through movie soundtracks are Michael Giacchino, John Powell, Hans Zimmer, and John Williams. Some of the music may have parts that are familiar, which can help spark an interest in orchestral music. I can’t vouch for the quality of many of the movies but some of the music is very good. In fact, it’s not unusual for us to play a soundtrack we like that’s from a movie we’ve never seen.
We love Hans Zimmer and John Williams, and Howard Shore there are many wonderful composers with wonderful music – great idea to mix it up Doug – Linda
I thought I’d post some examples and a few more ideas.
Here are a couple tracks composed by John Powell for the movie How to Train Your Dragon. (I think the music is way better than the movie.) You can listen to samples on iTunes:
- http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/this-is-berk/id359510106?i=359510138
- http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/see-you-tomorrow/id359510106?i=359510504
I have a few other fun ways I like to introduce kids to classical music (besides just playing it in the background as has been suggested.)
P. D. Q. Bach, New Horizons In Musica Appreciation — This is a fun recording of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony presented as a sporting event with commentators throughout. Boys especially seem to like this one. (You don’t have to tell the kids they’re learning music terminology along the way.) You can listen to the normal Fifth Symphony later for comparison.
Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is a nice introduction to classical music. Before listening it’s good to know each movement is a musical interpretation of a painting. A common theme ties it together and a couple promenade movements depict walking between the exhibitions. I wouldn’t go too far in forcing the details, but it’s nice to know the titles while you listen because it gives the mind something extra to form a relationship with the music.
The Toy Symphony is fun because it has parts for toys along with the instruments. It’s fun to listen for the various noisemakers.
One movement in Haydn’s Surprise Symphony has a sudden loud orchestra chord in the midst of an otherwise quiet section. Kids love the story behind it because Haydn was quoted to have said he put it in because “this will make the ladies jump!” Haydn had a sense of humor and employed a number of “jokes” in his works.
I have a series of books in my lending library about the story behind various works. They are written by Anna Harwell Celenza. They also include a CD of the work. This is a link to Pictures at an Exhibition.
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