Captivate Them: The Orchestra

How do we make our children fall in love with the highest and deepest of stories? Call them the great books, call them the classics – whatever terminology you desire to utilize, you may. Our purpose is one: to foster in our children an awareness of sublime meanings beneath the pages and a recognition of what is well-crafted. I’m so grateful they can hunker down and enjoy an easy, funny read but I also want them to relish digging into those tales that sum up our journey: the paths of mankind, the intricacies of human nature, the questions we continue to wrestle with, and the glimpse of our final end.

In this series of posts, I attempt to offer some ideas from my treasure trove, which I’m sure will continually expand each year of my life. These are some editions and adaptations of classics which have astounded me and enthralled my own children.

The Orchestra

During one year, in which we fixated upon the orchestra and its various instrumental components, we discovered the following captivating musical stories.

1. My First Book about the Orchestra

By Howard Hughes

ISBN: 978-1409597667

This is a delightful book to begin an orchestral study! It is an older published Usborne volume, and the little ones will love it because every page features a “push-me” button, which will play a clip of the instrument being presented. The book stars and ends with a depiction of a full orchestra. On the second page, the children can hear what it sounds as an orchestra warms up and then a violin introduces a melody; on each consecutive page, the featured instrument joins in playing the song until the full ensemble is performing! The descriptions of each instrument are just a few short lines yet still sufficient to give a child an impression of the orchestra’s various components.

2. The Story of the Orchestra

By Robert Levine

ISBN: 978-1579121488

This book is an amazing resource, and actually served as the backbone of our study on the orchestra. The first half is actually devoted to presenting musical periods and a few particularly famous and influential composers. The second half focuses on the instruments. They are presented according to musical families, and the descriptions include the conception of each instrument, their use throughout history and evolution in form, and the various types currently in use. Funny cartoon figures decorate the pages, adding humor to the detailed information and bright photographs. Additionally, a soundtrack accompanies the book so the children may listen to a classical piece (or part of a longer work) featuring that specific instrument. Hints are even given to help with identifying the instrument’s particular voice. My children loved trying to recognize the sounds of various instruments, and accompanying along with their own musical performances (though they didn’t always sound quite as melodious to Mama’s ears.)

3. The Incredible Orchestra

By Bruce Koscielniak

ISBN: 978-0395960523

This storybook follows the format of The Story of the Orchestra, though its descriptions of the instruments are not as extensive and there is no accompanying soundtrack. However, what this book presents very clearly are what instruments looked like in different periods of history. How has the look of the violin changed, for instance, throughout the centuries? More interestingly, how has the modern trumpet come from the early horns of medieval times? This books adds a wonderful historical dimension to any orchestral study.

4. My First Classical Music Book

By Genevieve Helsby

ISBN: 978-1843791188

This is another title that may serve as a base for any orchestral study; however, it definitely the most attractive to younger eyes and, accordingly, also written for slightly younger ears. While I chose the previous titles to better match my vision for the year, I definitely enjoyed reviewing pictures of this one and parents have given it outstanding reviews as well.

5. Peter and the Wolf

By Sergei Prokokfiev and Janet Schulman

ISBN: 978-0375824302

Throughout our year, I broke up our analysis of musical instruments with musical stories, such as these, which used specific members of the orchestra as characters within a tale. With these stories, my children’s imaginations were captured and their ears were trained to recognize specific instrumental tones. “Peter and the Wolf” is perhaps the most famous of these musical stories; my children could clearly recognize the duck-like qualities of the oboe’s voice, how the light musicality of the flute matched a happy bird’s song, and so forth. This particular edition includes a CD, and also features a chart picturing each character with its respective instrumental voice. My four year old son read this book over and over again!

I could not resist sharing the video of this story as well, a remnant from my childhood that they became enthralled with as well!

6. Tubby the Tuba

By Paul Tripp

ISBN: 978-0525477174

Here is another charming story, in which the instruments of the orchestra come to life and the poor little tuba longs for a more glorious role. This book has funny, delightful illustrations; I did look up the recording of the story by Danny Kaye and the orchestra on youtube to follow along, as the accompanying CD was missing in our copy. Kaye’s various voices add a wonderful and comical element; they are always accompanied by the actual instrument “talking” in the background as well. Recordings by Dick Van Dyck and others are also available, as is a cartoon version of the story. This was a funny and popular addition to our unit on the brass family!

7. The Carnival of the Animals

By Jack Prelutsky

ISBN: 978-0375864582

This is a fun set of poems set to the musical piece by Saint-Saens called “Carnival of the Animals.” Whereas “Peter and the Wolf” matches specific instruments to the story’s characters, this is a compilation of orchestral pieces played by an ensemble, where the entire effect is meant to mimic an animal behavior. The emphasis is thus on movement, rather than sound. My children loved this edition, which is accompanied by a soundtrack. Another set of similar poems are written by Ogden Nash to match the music (which can be viewed and heard via youtube); these I found more melodic and fitting, but my children preferred the vivid illustrations of this book. We concluded this musical study with a fun viewing of Walt Disney’s Carnival of the Animals where Daffy and Bugs compete to be the star pianist as they accompany a live orchestra.

8. St. Cecilia’s Orchestra

By Michael O’Neill McGrath

ISBN: 978-1584594758

This storybook features lovely, artistic illustrations accompanying St. Cecilia’s search for the best musicians in the world to comprise her heavenly orchestra. She visits many cultures and encounters various musical styles and instruments; I even discovered a couple I had never heard of! The verse on each page seeks to imitate different rhythms and, naturally, we discover with her that we can all take part to form the most perfect ensemble.

9. Maestro Classics

www.maestroclassics.com

This delightful series presents several musical tales such as “Swan Lake”, “Juanita and Spanish Lobster”, and “Mike Mulligan’s Steam Shovel.” The pieces are performed by the London Philharmonic and include some of the ones I’ve mentioned previously, as well as a couple newer ones focusing on composers such as “My Name is Handel”, which describes the composition of his “Water Music.” The company also offers listening guides and activity books to accompany the recordings, which can be purchased as CDs or MP3s.

10. The Story Orchestra: Four Seasons in One Day

By Katy Flint & Jessica Courtney-Tickle

ISBN: 978-1847808776

I thought I’d conclude with another delightful option for little ones! This series focuses on specific musical stories as well. Each book features “press me buttons” on every page to match specific clips from the orchestral arrangements to the scenes depicted in beautiful, illuminated artwork on the page. In Four Seasons in One Day, for instance, pictures of every season gloss the pages while the buttons play relevant selections of Vivaldi’s four seasons. Since this musical piece was not composed for a particular story-line, the author has provided one of her own: a little girl magically travels through all four seasons in one day, watching the weather around her change rapidly. The illustrations themselves make these books delightful and valuable, while the lyrical prose and accompanying clips tune the listener’s ear to descriptive musical works.