How we do it - Composer Study

We are finishing up our latest composer and I decided to combine two posts into one - How we do it and what we've done for Tchaikovsky.

Here is a wonderful Squidoo Lens on How to do Composer Study - Charlotte Mason style.

First, I pick a composer that we will study for 3 to 4 months, depending on interest. Over the last couple years, we have studied Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, Bach, Vivaldi, and now Tchaikovsky.

The only resource I have personally purchased for composer study is "The Story of . . ." cd series, such as this one for Tchaikovsky, and at the time I bought them they were on sale for about $3 each. These give short biographies and a small selection of the composer's work. Most of these are available through our library so I don't know that I'll be purchasing more once we start to run out.

All other resources I get through our library system starting with a search using the composer's name. The most powerful way my kids have connected with the different composer's is through stories - stories about the composer, or stories the composer wrote or composed music for.

For example, Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky's interest in music began after the death of his mother. He found comfort in composing. His father found a teacher for him and at one point asked the teacher if Tchaikovsky could potentially have a career in music. The teacher advised the father that Tchaikovsky should pursue a career in civil services, which Tchaikovsky did. He later quit his job, attended a music university, became a professor when he graduated, and of course went on to become TCHAIKOVSKY!!

We have also long LOVED the story of The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and many other stories he composed music for, such as Sleeping Beauty and Romeo and Juliet.

A great series of cds is the Classical Kids series mixing a fictional story with authentic details of the composer's life and of course, the composer's music. Tchaikovsky Discovers America is based on a picture book of the same name which we also read.

Another great cd I found for Tchaikovsky was the Story of Swan Lake, part of the Maestro Classics/Stories in Music series.

And there were a variety of music cd's that we checked out and listened to as well.

I try to find picture books for us to read as well. This is a little more challenging because we just aren't interested in reading a "biography" with all the boring names, dates, and places that don't really tell you about the person who is the composer. We like picture books, fiction or non-fiction, that tell a story. Tchaikovsky Discovers America is a good example.

I will also look for videos or opportunities for us to watch a performance related to the composer that are geared for children. Earlier this year we attended a children's production of The Magic Flute by Mozart and next month we will be attending a children's production of The Nutcracker.

I think we will study Sergei Prokofiev next . . . Peter and the Wolf, Cinderella, Pincus and the Pig, The Love for Three Oranges . . . Doesn't it sound fascinating?

The Magic Flute

We ended our Mozart composer study with a BANG today! We attended a family performance of the Mini Magic Flute. Even though we could have taken O & J, they stayed home with a sitter so Mom and Dad could enjoy the performance and some time with A & N.

A few days ago we did a couple low-key things to prep the kids for the performance-

We listened to "Mozart's Magic Fantasy" by Classical Kids for the umpteenth time (My kids can't get enough of these cds).

And we listened to 2 radio shows on the Classics for Kids website - The Magic Flute and Mozart's Operas.

Throughout the day we had several quick discussions about the storyline- Prior to the performance we wondered how the story would be told and what parts of the story would be included, we read through the synopsis given in the program and speculated some more, and afterwards we talked about what parts were missing (No Sarastro!!), which characters were our favorite (Papageno and the 3 Ladies), and our favorite parts.

It was lovely!!

Composer Study - Fall 2009

Ludwig van Beethoven

Biography@Wikipedia

Classic Cat - Free Classical Catalog

Classics for Kids - Biography

Classics for Kids - Radio Shows

The Story of Beethoven

Beethoven Lives Upstairs (Classical Kids CD)

Books from Library, such as Beethoven Lives Upstairs by Barbara Nichol

"Recommend to your children virtue; that alone can make them happy, not gold." -Beethoven

School Updates

Glance over to the sidebar and you can see we are starting some new studies in our school.

For poetry we are reading William Blake.

We didn't keep up our Artist Study through the summer, so we will continue studying Claude Monet's works, starting with Red Boats, Argenteuil.

Our new Composer Study will be Ludwig van Beethoven.

I also thought it would be fun to include some quotes from each person.

Have a great day!!

Bach on the Prairie

On Saturdays I like to listen to "A Prairie Home Companion" radio show on NPR. This past weekend they replayed a show about Johann Sebastian Bach. I really enjoyed the music selections they included in their program, and that the kids recognized who the show was talking about.

Radio show about Bach

NPR

A Prairie Home Companion

Johann Sebastian Bach

How to do Composer Study the Charlotte Mason way: Here.

Free music for Johann Sebastian bach at Classical Cat: Here.

Classics for Kids Biography and Radio Shows about Bach.

Mr. Bach Comes to Call - the amazing Classical Kids ficitonal audio cd's about famous compsers. This one wasn't as engaging for my kids as the one for Vivaldi, but after listening to it a few times they became more interested in it.

The Story of Bach - the Music Masters cd series which includes biography and music selections.

Library Books:

Bach (Famous Children series) by Ann Rachlin

Johann Sebastian Bach by Mike Venezia

Sebastian: A Book about Bach by Jeannette Winter

Bach's Goldberg Variations by Anna Harwell Celenza ***Kids' favorite*** Comes with music cd with all the variations.

Bach's Big Adventure by Sallie Ketchum ***Kids' Favorite***

We did the map activity from Homeschool Share's Bach's Big Adventure Unit Study.

And I read through Harmony Art Mom's Bach Compser Study.

Antonio Vivaldi

We are currently studying Antonio Vivaldi. This is the first composer my kids have really been interested in (we have done several others in the past) and I think it is due to some new resources we found.

A great website is Classics for Kids which has the Classics for Kids radio programs available, as well as musical selections, biography information, etc. on a number of composers. You can find Antonio Vivaldi here. The archive of radio programs are here.

There is a great audio CD series called Classical Kids which my kids have loved and listened to over and over. Even Kurt and I have enjoyed listening to it. The one for Antonio Vivaldi is call "Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery." It is about a young orphan girl named Katarina who is coming to the orphanage where Vivaldi was the music director. With the help of Giovanni, a gondolier she meets when arriving in Venice, she searches for clues to her mysterious past. The story is set to exerpts from Vivaldi's music. The link above should take you to the Amazon page that lists all of the titles in this series.

I also always try to find a good book for my kids to read about the composer we are studying. I prefer to find one that is not just a dry biography with names, dates, and places. For Vivaldi I found a great book called I, Vivaldi by Janice Shefelman which gives biography information told from Vivaldi's viewpoint of his mother's promise at the time of his birth that he would be a priest if he lived, and his own desire to be a musician. We have enjoyed the Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers series by Mike Venezia in the past, but he hasn't written one for Vivaldi. He also does a series called Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists. What I like about his series is they are written for kids and so leave out all the adult details, personal relationship stuff of the composer/artists life that kids don't need to know.

I also pick a few selections of the composers music that I want them to be familiar with. For Vivaldi I picked The Four Seasons, because we already own a cd of that music. I play the music while we are doing school assignments or eating lunch or in the car or whenever. Libraries are a great resource for music and videos, as well as books. Whatever you don't have to buy keeps that much more money in your pocket.