Classical Music for Children
Swan Lake, Peter and the Wolf, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker, and more!
May 4, 2006
When drawing up a list of top classical works for children, I am always tempted to resort back to the favorites that formed the staple of my own childhood listening. The pieces I liked were primarily narrative; the music acted like the illustrations in my aural picture book. I bring you a few of my favorite memories here:
1. The Nutcracker. This ballet suite by the Russian composer Tchaikovsky (also know for Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty) is perfect for children as it follows the adventures of a 12-year-old girl and her nutcracker doll that magically comes to life.
Full of sword fights and fairies and exotic characters and set to music whose steady, upbeat tempo makes it extremely danceable, this piece is sure to enthrall little listeners.
2. Peter and the Wolf. Prokofiev's little narrative about Peter, who with the help of a few animal friends captures the wolf terrorizing the woods surrounding his Russian farmhouse, is also an excellent introduction to the timbre qualities of several different instruments in the traditional orchestra.
Peter (the protagonist) is characterized by the violins, while the cat is voiced by the nimble clarinet. The oboe presents the reedy timbre of the duck. The pompous, bumbling lower registers of the bassoon illustrate the grandfather.
The horns, traditionally associated with hunting parties, indicate the hunters, and finally, the wolf is treated by the lower, menacing registers of the brass instruments. Also on the particular CD linked in this article is Saint-Saen's Carnival of the Animals, full of musical depictions of lions and swans and elephants and more.
3. The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. Benjamin Britten composed a work of music especially designed to take children on a tour of the orchestra, exploring the sounds of each major section and introducing how the different families of instruments work together to create a full ensemble texture.
