Feature: Music for Kids             Back to Features page

Classical music plays a key role in film - many children get their first introduction to classical themes in movie soundtracks. We offer a guide to help your children expand on this with some curious and amusing anecdotes about composers and their works.



Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

When George III (the one that went mad) was king of England, Mozart was in Vienna writing music. A bit like Britney Spears and Charlotte Church, Mozart was famous from a very early age. He started playing the piano when he was 3, and started composing when he was 5. He got better as he got older, and he wrote this piece when he was 31.

Eine Kleine Nacktmusik


The French Horn

For those 77% of children who don’t know, a French horn looks like this. It has a huge range (high to low), and is supposed to be one of the most difficult instruments to play. Although the modern horn was designed in Germany, the instrument is named after a style of hunting horn used in France more than 400 years ago.

Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4 (Rondo)

 


  Pachelbel’s Canon

Pachelbel was born nearly 100 years before Mozart. He was a church organist, and he wrote a lot of hymns. His most famous piece is the Canon in D, originally written for three violins and harpsichord. It is based upon a repeated sequence of eight chords (D, A, B, F#, G, D, G, A).


 Canon in D

 


Vivaldi's The Four Seasons

 A concerto is a sort of “showpiece” for one instrument. Vivaldi's The Four Seasons is a showpiece for the violin. Each of the four pieces is supposed to evoke the character of one quarter – Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

The Four Seasons 

 

 

Beethoven's 'Fifth'

Duh-Duh-Duh-Duuurgh (Or G-G-G-E-flaaat) is probably Beethoven’s most famous piece. If you listen carefully, you can hear that the whole piece is based on the first four notes. It is quite angry music, but then Beethoven was going deaf when he wrote it.

Symphony No. 5

 

Treble Clef

This musical squiggle tells you which of the five lines of the "stave" is a G. It is used for high pitched instruments like the Flute, Violin and Trumpet. It is supposed to look like the letter G, as opposed to the bass clef, which is supposed to look like an F.

Bruch's Violin Concerto (Last Movement) 

 



Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries

Wagner was around at about the same time as Queen Victoria, but he lived in Germany. He wrote an extremely long opera called The Ring (it takes a week to perform), from which the recording below is taken. This was the basis for both Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings.

Ride of the Valkyries 


Conductors

The man who stands in front of the orchestra waving his arms does a variety of different things. He is in charge of the rehearsals, and makes sure everybody knows how to play the music. His gestures ensure that everybody plays together and he can control the balance of the orchestra. If there wasn’t a conductor, it would be difficult to play in time.

  Here Herbert Von Karajan conducts the last movement of Tchaikovsky's Pathetique symphony:

Symphony No. 6 (Last movement)  

 

Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata

Being deaf didn’t stop Beethoven composing, although it did make it rather difficult for him to conduct. The Moonlight Sonata for piano gets it’s nickname from a poet called Rellstab, who said it reminded him of the moonlight falling on lake Lucerne.

 'Moonlight' Sonata


Stravinsky's Rite of Spring

Although it is often described as a modern piece, Stravinsky's Rite of Spring was written more than 80 years ago. It is a ballet about an ancient pagan ritual. Although parts of it sound like the orchestra is making it up, it is all written down and is extremely difficult to play.

The Rite of Spring