Monday, February 15, 2010

Resources for Children: Orchestra

I never experienced classical music as an outsider. With two musicians for parents it was just a part of life. I went to a lot of concerts and tagged along to a number of rehearsals, and it never struck me that this was an unusual upbringing. Still, the better I got to know orchestral music, the more I enjoyed it. There’s a lot to listen to, and the more familiar I got with the different instruments and the roles they played the more fun it became to listen to how they worked together. There are a number of good resources for children, both books and CDs. Here’s a list of what I’ve found so far:

Animal Orchestra (Little Golden Book)
 Animal Orchestra by Ilo Orleans, illustrated by Tibor Gergely









Carnival of the Animals: Classical Music for KidsCarnival of the Animals: Classical Music for Kids by Camille Saint-Saens and Barrie C. Turner, illustrated by Sue Williams








Carnival of the AnimalsCarnival of the Animals by John Lithgow, illustrated by Boris Kulikov








The Composer Is Dead (Book & CD)The Composer is Dead by Lemony Snicket, music composed by Nathaniel Stookey, illustrations by Carson Ellis








Jake the Philharmonic DogJake the Philharmonic Dog by Karen LeFrak









Meet the OrchestraMeet the Orchestra by Ann Hayes, illustrated by Karmen Thompson








Out and About at the Orchestra (Field Trips)Out and About at the Orchestra by Barbara J. Turner, illustrated by Anne McMullen






The Philharmonic Gets Dressed (Reading Rainbow Book)The Philharmonic Gets Dressed by Karla Kuskin, illustrated by Marc Simont









Those Amazing Musical Instruments! with CD: Your Guide to the Orchestra Through Sounds and StoriesThose Amazing Musical Instruments! With CD: Your Guide to the Orchestra Through Sounds and Stories by Genevieve Helsby








Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf: With a Fully-Orchestrated and Narrated CDSergei Prokofiev's Peter and Wolf by Sergei Prokoviev, adapted by Janet Schulman, illustrated by Peter Malone







The Story of the Incredible Orchestra: An Introduction to Musical Instruments and the Symphony OrchestraThe Story of the Incredible Orchestra by Bruce Koscielniak








Story of the Orchestra : Listen While You Learn About the Instruments, the Music and the Composers Who Wrote the Music!Story of the Orchestra: Listen While You Learn by Robert Levine









The Young Lutheran's Guide to the OrchestraThe Young Lutheran’s Guide to the Orchestra Garrison Keillor









The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (Book & CD)Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra by Anita Ganeri, composed by Benjamin Britten, narrated by Ben Kingsley