ClassEd Newsletter March-April 2000.

Contents:
1. Simple, cheap Ideas for Music Appreciation in the Earlier Stages
2. Composer Study Sheets by Angela Polk
3. Book suggestions for further study
Music Appreciation edited by lmj.

This article is meant to highlight cheap suggestions for incorporating music in your school day. The obvious choices of taking piano, flute, harp and violin lessons, or for your children to join choirs and take voice lessons are not mentioned, though certainly encouraged should the means, ways and time be there.

To incorporate music into our school day we instituted 30 minutes of "Circle Time" (After Breakfast and chores). This is a time of worship, prayer, songs, poetry, finger rhymes and hymns. The songs vary from the toddler variety up through patriotic selections as well as learning new hymns. Likewise, we end our day together with prayer and song at the children's bed sides. We get our inspirations for new songs, finger rhymes, ballads and folk songs the library and we own a hymnal for our ecclesiastical selections.

Given a choice of music style, we prefer classical music on a regular basis. Beethoven's Fifth makes an awesome addition to our 30 minutes morning chore time. We buy classical music CD's for $1 to $4 per CD at electronics and music stores (Circuit City, Best Buy, etc.) Or cheaper yet, we bring home classical music CD's from our local library. Sometimes, we also play music during meals or art classes, but mostly, we prefer to sit still and really listen to the music. (See Angela's Composer study sheets below for ideas on music interpretation).

Music History:

Most the loop moms incorporate music history study with current history studies. This works well for high Middle Ages and up.

Our favorite classical music site is The Classical Music Pages

This web site provides you almost everything you need concerning classical music- its history, biographical information about composers (with portraits and short sound examples), explanations of the various musical forms and a dictionary of musical terminologies.
You can search for information about music or composers according to: Musical Epoch - Baroque, Classic, etc. Musical Form - Opera, Symphony, String Quartet, etc. Composer's Name Musical Instruments.

The Almanac of Classical Music History

is another nice web site which features significant dates in Classical Music History, as well as Composer and Performer birthdates and deathdates.

Additional links:

Classical Instruments and composers This web site is designed to allow people to learn about different instruments of classical music and composers who greatly contributed to the style of classical music
The classical music department of the WWW Virtual Library!
J S Bach Works List
Classical Net featuring reviews of more than 1000 CDs, as well as 4800 files and over 2600 links to other classical music web sites.
Play Music on-line (for kids)
Composer Biographies


Free Concerts:

"I have begun taking the 5 and 6 yo to recitals presented at the small university in our town. I called up the fine arts dept. and got on their mailing list. Each semester we receive a list of all the upcoming performances. I choose a few to attend. We go and listen for the first half and leave at intermission (usually). We have heard a hornist, flautist and organist so far this year. I call ahead of time to find out what pieces are on the program so that I can talk to the boys about what they will be hearing"
.... Susan (TAH)
Composer Work Sheets
by Angela Polk, zoomom@intelos.net


Name of Composer:


Date and place of birth:


Date and place of death:


*Listen to an audiotape or read a book on this composer.


Names of resources:


Write at least three facts about the musical upbringing of this composer:



Name two distinguishing characteristics of either the composer or his music:




Who were two musical contemporaries of this composer?




Circle the musical style/period in which this composer wrote:
Baroque Classical Romantic Modern Post-Modern


Were there any particular adversities which the composer faced during his lifetime?




*Listen to at least three well-known compositions of the composer this month.



Name of Composition:


Where and when was it written?


Where was it first performed?


What is the genre of this work?


For what primary instrument(s) was the piece written?


If you were to describe this piece of music to someone who had never heard it before, what three details would you share which would help the person to recognize it?




If someone were to ask you to illustrate this piece of music, what would you draw?



-- ap

Book suggestions from book store and library:

For K - 2nd grade:

Coloring books by Bellerophon:
A Coloring Book of Great Composers, various Early Composers

The Gift of Music: Great Composers and Their Influence (3rd Edition) by Jane Stuart Smith and Betty Carlson. ISBN#: 0-89107-869-X

Getting to know the World's Greatest Composers Series by Venezia. (Simple, funny cartoonish biographies)

Rookie and Troll Biographies as well as other simple books on individual composers in the Easy(K - 2nd grade) Biography section of the library.

Grades 3-6 :

 A young Person's Guide to Music by Neil Ardley (history of music, and explanation of orchestra with CD ROM)

Lives of the Musicians by Kathleen Krull (covers 19 composers)

Stories of Favorite Operas and More Stories of Favorite Operas by Clyde Bulla (Can be read as early as 2nd grade)

Classical Kids' series by Susan Hammond.
They combine music and history with storytelling to familiarize children with great composers and their works.
Beethoven Lives Upstairs
Hallelujah Handel
Mozart's Magic Fantasy: A Journey Through the Magic Flute
Mr. Bach Comes to Call
Tchaikovsky Discovers America
Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery

The Famous Children Series by Ann Rachlin: Schubert, Mozart, Haydn, Handel, Beethoven Schumann, Chopin. (Easy to read, exciting and life like in portrayals...so far we only read Mozart and Haydn in our family, so I am "recommending" checking out the rest based those two which were excellent).

...and of course any other well written book you fall upon in the Junior 92 biography section = ) .
-- Happy Listening and reading -- lmj