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Confession about compossers
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I just wanted to second lgeurink’s suggestion of classicsforkids website. This is what got us into learning composers through listening to classical radio. Blessings!
I haven’t read the “Pictures at an Exhibition” book, but I do think the piece is fantastic, and I loved it even more once I learned about the paintings that the movements portray. I think it’s a great gateway into classical music. (And FWIW, I’ve had such a lifelong love for Mussorgsky that I used “Promenade” as the processional at our wedding!)
A friend bought us a cd called Beethoven’ Wig. Some people have made up funny songs that go along with Beethoven’s most famous pieces. They play the pieces and sing these silly songs to them. Afterwards, the pieces are played by themselves with no words. I dont know if charlotte mason would condone such an introduction or not, but I know my kids love the cd and my 4 year old recognized a piece by beethoven when she heard it somewhere else (“Mommy, isn’t this beethoven?”). I want to check and see if they have other composers, but i haven’t yet…
I can totally relate, Misty….and I’ve been trying to get up enough courage to mention it here! And it gets worse….I majored in music in college!
Of course, I was a vocal major, so I sang a lot and really stunk at piano, but I had all of the music history classes and such. I feel I have no excuse, although I have sort of walked away from classical music and made it a very minor part of my life in the past decade or so. (Probably because my husband didn’t care for it at all and my stepsons weren’t interested either–I wasn’t homeschooling them.)I tried valiantly to introduce something nice and upbeat to them in the fall (portions of Vivaldi’s Four Season’s, I think), but they totally protested within the first 30 seconds! They simply refused to have anything to do with it. Now, we do participate in worship music at our church at least a couple of times a week (which they love), but it’s all contemporary worship music. We have done a little hymn studying on the heels of Christmas carols, but not to any great extent.
Yesterday, I had an idea that I would try to find “Hooked On Classics” (you know, from the 80’s?) and play it for the kids since they are always asking about things from my young adulthood. (Although, it’s pitiful to have to admit that I used to do aerobics to that music!) I might be able to use it as a springboard to listen to the original to get them to see how they are different.
I do remember one music history professor who used to teach us little “songs” to remember certain pieces of music, such as the first movement of Mozart’s 40th symphony….it went, “Little Mozart is locked in the closet, let him out, let him out, let him out….” I don’t remember the rest of the lines, but that was enough to recognize the melody and connect it to the composer for a test, and I still think of it when I hear that melody today…..uh, 30 long, long, loooong years later.
Sue
Of course, I was a vocal major, so I sang a lot and really stunk at piano, but I had all of the music history classes and such. I feel I have no excuse, although I have sort of walked away from classical music and made it a very minor part of my life in the past decade or so. (Probably because my husband didn’t care for it at all and my stepsons weren’t interested either–I wasn’t homeschooling them.)
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