Name: Teach Them Diligently (Branson)
Start: 2025-05-15T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-17T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Branson, MO

Tagged: Classical, composer study, contemporary, modern artists, music, music education

This topic has 16 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 2 months ago by Karen.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 17 total)

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January 13, 2015 at 1:56 am
anniepeter
Participant
Why only classical? My daughter asked me this question the other day. I gave her my thoughts…which were a bit meager…but I’ve been wondering since. After looking over the info I printed off this site a few years back, I see that the suggested composers are NOT all classical (or what I considered to be that anyway). I would like to include more variety in our studies. I accept that much modern music is twaddle or worse – but there must be more contemporary artists worthy of our attention. While I enjoy classical music to a point, it does quickly get old if it is not very carefully selected (in my opinion, that is). The ones I have so far are: Joplin, Sousa, Copland and Foster. Anyone have other recommendations? We are going to start in with Joplin this week, and I am hoping this will help to engage my reluctant 14 yo daughter. She loves ragtime music and wants to learn to play it.
January 13, 2015 at 7:03 am
JenniferM
Participant
We follow the music study rotation at “All Things Bright and Beautiful” blog:
http://www.classicalmusicnartcharlottemasonstyle.blogspot.com.
Sousa and Copland have been among our favorites. The host of that blog does a nice job of rotating classical with more contemporary composers. I have learned of composers and artists I’d never heard of (though perhaps, more “cultured” mom have).
We listen to a variety of music in our family. Most of the time it is contemporary Christian music, with a dash of 80s and 90s thrown in. :). There’s culture for you!
January 13, 2015 at 7:11 am
missceegee
Participant
We do composer study as part of our CM go-op. You can see a list here at RCHA Scope and Sequence. John Williams is always a favorite because of familiarity. FInd other movie composers, too. Currently, we’re studying Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington and jazz. You can see the plans at the above link or here – http://www.charlottemasonincommunity.com/duke-ellington–louis-armstrong.html
January 13, 2015 at 8:52 am
Christy
Participant
Hi! This is our sixth year of homeschooling, but first actual year to do a real music study. We are doing 8 weeks per composer. We read one of the Getting To Know the World’s Greatest Composer books for each one and then simply listen to 8 pieces (1 per week). I confess that I am enjoying it much more than my kiddos are. 😉 This year we are studying Bach, Chopin, and Stravinsky. I have decided to do the last 8 weeks study on what I would call modern artists. I just picked 8 songs out and put them on a playlist. If I can find a short biography on each one to read each week, I will, but if not, we’ll just enjoy them. Here is my list:
The Battle (Chronicles of Narnia)
The Fellowship (Lord of the Rings)
Hedwig’s Theme (Harry Potter)
Over Hill (The Hobbit)
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Disney uses this some)
Superman: Theme
Star Wars Theme
Indiana Jones Theme
I have an 11 year old daughter and 9 year old son. This is what I chose to put on my list because I knew that they would recognize them from the movies and enjoy them. Just an idea of what we do in our home. 😉
Christy
January 13, 2015 at 9:00 am
Karen
Participant
I think the “Only Classical” music thing is not because only classical music is good, but in an attempt to only listen to the best, we listen to what has endured. So, in our time, that will be different than in Charlotte Mason’s time.
These are “classical” but not classical composers: Gershwin, Bernstein, I second John Williams (composer of movie scores) AND John Williams (the guitar player – classical guitar). How about John Cage, for some odd and avante garde compositional techniques? Or Arnold Schoenberg from some truly avante garde compositions (hard to listen to, in my opinion, but fascinating!) Claude Debussy – impressionist-type composer.
How about composers of scores for musicals? I’m thinking about Meredith Wilson (The Music Man) or Lerner and Lowe (My Fair Lady, I think) or the Hammersteins (The Sound of Music). Maybe Leroy Anderson? (a favorite of a couple generations ago – Grandfather’s Clock, Sleigh Ride, etc., all orchestral, but SO easy to listen to).
If you could stand it, you could do opera for a bit. *L* Or, how about just the overtures to go along with the operas, that’d be easier.
I know, operettas! Gilbert and Sullivan – so much fun!
How about composers of different countries? Isaac Albeniz (Spain), Percy Grainger (Australia), Heitor Villa-Lovos (Brazil), Jean Sibelius (Scandanavian), etc. OOOh, Edvard Grieg (New World Symphony).
Ballet? Think Nutcracker and Romeo & Juliet (Tchaikovsky) and more modern ones (Copland, Ralph Vaughn Williams, etc.)
I’m a music teacher by training, and I get bored with always doing composers – -so this year, we did Bernstein (I intro’d him by listening to Jim Weiss’s recording of Romeo and Juliet, then explained that Bernstein wrote a modern re-telling – West Side Story, told them the storyline and then listened to some of the music from WSS. Our girls are too young to experience the movie (cursing, etc.). But I felt this was a good intro.)
Right now, we’re working through the instrument families in the orchestra. Later in our schooling, I have plans of spending a term on just choral music or just vocal music…..or even just a performer (Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday – I’m not sure why I’m thinking so much about jazz!). Sometime, I want to explore just piano music or just the music of whatever instruments our girls are studying at that point. Again, not for a LONG time, but a couple weeks would be enough to get a feel for it.
Another thing I’d like to do sometime is do church music through the ages – Hildegard of Bingen (or something like that – nun’s music, Gregorian chant). Right on up through John Wesley and Lowell Mason (who actually had a lot to do with the public school movement in Boston). and then ending with Stuart Townsend and the Getty’s who in my opinion are right up there with the greatest hymn writers of all time.
After spending time with quality music of all genres and generations, you could spend a bit of time on popular music— not necessarily GREAT music, but popular and the discussion of how music relates to the culture (the old Seinfeld question of “Does life follow Seinfeld or does Seinfeld follow life?”) and politics and social condition could be really interesting to a music-nerdy type like me!! So you could bring in country music, current jazz, R&B, Rap??? (is that really music??? I’ve got some qualms about that, personally).
I’m sorry this is such a long post — but I LOVE thinking about all the different ways to study music. I get very excited about it and then realize that we still have to do the other subjects……and laundry and cooking!
Anyway, I hope you’ve found some new names and some inspiration.
January 13, 2015 at 9:36 am
JenniferM
Participant
Karen, wow! Of course with your background and interest, your children are bound to grow up in a music saturated home. That led me to think about how each of us has some particular bent of interest or knowledge that we probably emphasize in our homes and home schools without even realizing it! (I think mine is food connoisseur!)
January 13, 2015 at 10:54 am
missceegee
Participant
Karen, those are great ideas! If you’d be interested in sharing what you put together, I’d suggest submitting your ideas to http://www.charlottemasonincommunity.com. Jenn Stec who runs that site is really trying to compile ideas for classes that different CM groups (or families) can use.
January 13, 2015 at 12:36 pm
Leslie
Participant
I love this thread! Thanks to all of you for the great ideas for expanding our composer study plans. You’ve particularly inspired me, Karen!
January 13, 2015 at 12:54 pm
Karen
Participant
Oh, Christie, I’m not put-together or organized *L*! Those were all just ideas off the top of my head and things that I’ve been dreaming about. I don’t really have anything put together….I usually think something up and make it work as we go. (bad, I know.) If I ever get organized and truly put together, I’d love to share! (When I’m done homeschooling and done being a librarian and done sewing my own clothes, I want to create my own “general music” or “music appreciation” curriculum! )
Cynthia Meyers Ross and Karen Meyers Stangl have a book called <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>The Music Teacher’s Book of Lists</span> — fabulous resource for every homeschooler. It is literally a book of lists: American composers, other nationalities, composers of every genre, rock bands, dates, eras, etc. Just piles of lists. My copy is from 1994, I’m not sure if it’s been updated or not. But I use it for inspiration.
JenniferM, I think one of the best things about the community of homeschooling is the passion we all have for different topics and things. I think it’s probably the greatest strength. I love that about this forum, too. Everyone here is so generous about giving tips and ideas.
As far as emphasizing music in our home, I’m not sure if I do. I mean, I play what we’re studying almost everyday…..and if the house is quiet for a bit, I play whatever I’m in the mood for. I’m actually quite terrible at making sure our girls practice their piano lessons (I just forget! I make them do math, etc., and then I forget to make them practice piano.) I play piano whenever I have a spare 5 minutes or so (or after they’ve all gone to bed). But sometimes there’s quite a bit of bad-mommy-guilt in regards to our daughters’ study of music.
One thing I appreciate about my upbringing (public-school, though it was) is that my parents played a wide variety of music. Christian radio throughout the day; classical piano music (mom and I both took lessons); my dad would play the classical radio station and the old country (Hank Williams Sr., Eddy Arnold, Les Paul – there’s another great one to study! innovator of electric guitar). Dad always sweetened music with a healthy (or not) dose of Spike Jones (made fun of classical music – very, very fun) and Homer & Jethro (made fun of early country/pop music – not always politically correct, or kind, but again, very, very fun). That would make another good study: listen to the “real” version of songs/ pieces and then the parody version. Fun, too.

January 13, 2015 at 1:14 pm
anniepeter
Participant
Wow! This is great! Thank you all so much! That should keep me busy for a long time!! I am a lover of music, but piano lessons, high school band and choir are the extent of my education. I knew there would be would from more music literate people here!
January 13, 2015 at 2:08 pm
Bookworm
Participant
My reason for being very selective with “music study” artists–my kids are growing/grown up. They are largely making their own music choices now. The ENTIRE WORLD is playing modern and contemporary music at them. I simply tried to create a window in which they were exposed to something else—a space they could listen to something enduring, to at least influence their taste just a tiny bit before the rest of the world inundated them with four-chord songs. 🙂
January 13, 2015 at 3:33 pm
Karen
Participant
Solid reasoning, Bookworm!
And let’s hear it for songs with more than four chords! *L* 🙂
January 13, 2015 at 5:30 pm
Kayla
Participant
Wow this is amazing. I seriously know less than nothing about music, except that everytime I try to listen to today’s stuff, country especially, I have to turn it off. It is terrible. Now get me going on color theory and fashion I could ramble all day. This list will definitely be book marked.
February 1, 2015 at 4:22 pm
Karen
Participant
I thought of another composer that would be fun to study — Henry Mancini. Lots of music for movies, lots of interesting pieces. It would be fun for an advanced high school musician to look at what makes Mancini’s music so different from some other movie/soundtrack composers. (John Williams for example…..or the guy who did Mr. Holland’s opus (and Gettysburg?) – Michael Kamen)
It would be interesting to see if the student could discover any “formulas” that each movie composer used and compare and contrast that with the “formulas” that the “classical” composers (Hadyn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, etc.) Perhaps the student would find that there are “formulas” used in the movie music and “compositional tools” used in the classical music. I’m not sure. If I only had more time……..
I was reading through some music books that I haven’t played in a long time and came across a Mancini tune (Pink Panther) and that’s what sparked the thought. Honestly – I hope I have time when I’m done homeschooling to study into some of these burning questions I have! *L*
February 2, 2015 at 6:12 am
2Corin57
Participant
I too, would study other artists as well. I will be especially focusing on Broadway composers such as Rodgers, Hammerstein, Bernstein, Andrew Lloyd Webbers, Irvin Berlin, Gershwin etc…
I also plan to study composers for film movies such as John Williams, James Horner etc….
I plan on studying cultural music from around the world.
We may do some artists studies as well, studying musicians who while may not have had their hand as much in the composing, are still historical performers such as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong etc…
I also plan to do a modern era study (1900+), and study music from each decade. I think if you want to truly understand music, then you can’t just focus on the old classical composers, you have to study ALL the artists who have made an impact. While we may not like the style of some of their music, there are modern artists who will be viewed some day as important as our classical composers. These are modern artists whose music has already become, and will remain legendary – The Beatles, Elvis, Rolling Stones, Johnny Cash etc.. You may not like their stuff – but they had a strong impact on the music world, and modern music history cannot be studied without learning about these revolutionary artists. And to me studying modern music is as important as study classical. Though, I think it’s better suited for older ages, since many of the modern artists came during times when there was cultural strife.
Also, as my children dictate, we will also learn about artists that interest them. Whether that’s Bach, Jeremy Camp or Katy Perry – I honestly don’t care. While I agree that much of today’s music is “twaddle”, at the same time, much of it, isn’t. We are in an era now, where there is so much more freedom of expression and cultural diversity. Once upon a time, all music was for the most part expected to conform. That barrier is gone today.
There is music that I do not like – but who am I to say that that rap star who is creating music in a form that means something to him, that is rapping about his personal struggles, his survival, his culture – is twaddle, just because I don’t like it? Or, who am I to say that that country singer, singing about the abuse she survived is twaddle, when indeed, it is a testament to her power and strength?
All music has the power to move somebody, to leave an emotional mark on them, and as such, all music deserves respect for that reason.