Posted by Dianne Nicolini on November 3, 2009
How does a child hear music? Through her ears, I know. What I mean is, do children hear music without pre-conceived ideas about it? I think they do and it’s a delight to see them embrace classical music with their whole minds and bodies. My real introduction to classical music was a set of LPs that I bought with my own money after seeing them advertised on TV by the old-time conductor of the Boston Pops, Arthur Fielder. Something like “The World’s Greatest Music of All Time”. Anyway, I spent hours as a kid listening to them and can still remember that my favorites included Scheherazade and The Swan by Saint-Saens. (I even remember listening to KDFC when I was young.) What are your kids’ favorites? Here’s a list compiled by the BBC:
Kids’ top 10 classical music
1 John Williams Harry Potter
2 Howard Blake Walking in the Air (The Snowman)
3 Sergei Prokofiev Peter’s Theme (Peter and the Wolf)
4 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (The Nutcracker)
5 Sergei Prokofiev The Duck Scene (Peter and the Wolf)
6 Paul Dukas The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (Fantasia)
7 Edward Elgar Pomp and Circumstance Op. 39, No. 4 (Fantasia)
8 Johann Pachelbel Canon
9 Sergei Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet
10 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Flight of the Bumblebee
If Peter and the Wolf is a big favorite with your kids too, listen for my Prize @ 5 trivia this week to win tickets to hear Linda Ronstadt narrate it with the SFS Youth Orchestra on December 13th.
As a child, I can remember a fascination with Tchaikovsky pieces around the holidays, in mild weather with the Bizet (Carmen) opera, and Dvorak (Slavonic Dances, etc.) pieces as well. The list from the BBC is superlative, but in my view subjects the listener to what is popularly played, i.e., children can not always find out about Chopin nocturnes, or ‘Fur Elise,’ and so forth. Your listing of ‘Peter and the Wolf’ is also really nice and I believe this even ranks up there with an old RCA recording of ‘Peer Gynt.’ Many thanks, as your list will come in handy for gifting during the holidays this year.
Comment by Thomas Spitters — November 27, 2009 @ 1:51 pm