Anyone looking for an easily accessible music appreciation course for kids should investigate The Classic Composers series from International Masters Publishers. It's a Time-Life send-you-one-disc-of-our-choosing-every-three-weeks kind of a deal. I got a sample disc (Mozart) in the mail yesterday. I usually just throw those things in the trash, but this had an actual CD in it, so I checked it out. It's pretty cool, actually. Each CD comes with a 24-page booklet detailing the composer's bio, a "turning point" in his life, "life and times," "In [historical Context," a listener's guide, the composer's influences and ends with a 20 question quiz (answers provided).
The CD itself comes with ~60 minutes of the composers "greatest hits." The Mozart CD includes the overture to the Marriage of Figaro, the Clarinet Concerto in B Flat Major, the Piano Concerto No. 21 "Elvira Madigan", "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik," the first movement of the "Sinfonia Concertante" (my favorite) and some others, recorded by well-known ensembles. Clearly none of this is in depth information--more of a taste--but from the sample and what I can tell from the promotional literature they sent, it's enough to introduce kids to classical music without overwhelming them.
Yes, they send a junky free gift with your order. "Buy as many as you want, cancel anytime." We decided to get a couple and see if they're all as useful as the Mozart cd is.
Sorry to be snarky, but if you're ever talking to a musicologist (or a clarinetist), it's the Mozart Clarinet Concerto in *A*... :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd surely if they made a mistake like that, there are better sources for classical music and info than this...
Gah! Thanks for the correction. Sometimes it doesn't pay to be too specific. ;-)
ReplyDeleteIn their defense, they did get the Köchel listing right. And I looked through the info in the booklet and it jibes with what little I know about Mozart (including the fact that Salieri did not poison him).
No, this series is not going to substitute for a rigorous musicology class, but I think it's a good introduction for elementary school students and non-musical middle schoolers. My goal, at this point, is for the boys to hear the Clarinet Concerto or the Overture to Figaro and say, "Hey, that's Mozart!" If they know a little bit about the composer, then when a music teacher or choir director mentions him, they've got some prior knowledge on which to build. And maybe that prior knowledge might inspire them to become better musicians. Who knows?