More Gioachino Rossini

Gioachino Antonio Rossini (1792-1868) 

 Last Thursday we introduced to you Gioachino Rossini. You listened to The Barber of Seville by Rossini. Today we will listen to Rossini's William Tell.

Music...

Gioachino Antonio Rossini (1792-1868)

Gioachino Antonio Rossini was born in Pesaro, Italy on February 29, 1792.

 (Information taken from Making Music Fun.com)

Rossini was born into a musical family. At the age of six he was already playing the triangle in his father's band. Due to bad decisions of his father, his father went to jail and his mother moved them all to Bologna to support them as an opera singer. Rossini, as a child, preformed as an apprentice opera performer and later entered the Conservatory of Bologna to study cello and composition. Because Rossini was so taken with the music of Mozart his fellow classmates called him, "the little German."

By the early 1820's Rossini had been appointed the Director of the San Carlo Theater in Naples. During his 19 years in this position, he wrote 36 operas that are full of humor and beautiful melodies. Then suddenly he stopped writing music. For the next 40 years of his life he did not compose at all.

Rossini died on November 13, 1868. His most successful and best known works include his operas The Barber of Seville completed at the age of 18, and William Tell, his final opera.

Now we will listen to The Barber of Seville. Like lots of classical music, Rossini's was used in older cartoons like Bugs Bunny Show.

More Antonio Vivaldi

 Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

We are back with Music Study Thursday's to  finish up listening to Antonio Vivaldi, The Four Seasons.

Today we will listen to Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, Winter.

In case you missed the introduction to Vivaldi, Spring , Summer, Autumn.
 

More Antonio Vivaldi

 Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

We are back with Music Study Thursday's to again become a little more familiar with Antonio Vivaldi. If you'd like to review a short biography of Vivaldi please visit our introduction to Vivaldi. Last Thursday we listened to a piece of Vivaldi's most famous concerto, Spring: The Four Seasons. Today we will listen to a second piece of The Four Seasons, Summer.

More Antonio Vivaldi

Antonio Vivaldi ( (1678-1741)

Last Thursday we introduced you to Antonio Vivaldi and his most famous work, The Four Seasons.

Today we are going to take a closer look, well, rather closer listen to the different seasons. We will begin listening to Spring.

(Spring Sonnet provided by Making Music Fun.com) 

Spring Sonnet

Allegro
Springtime is upon us.
The birds celebrate her return with festive song,
and murmuring streams are softly caressed by the breezes.
Thunderstorms, those heralds of Spring, roar, casting their dark mantle over heaven,
Then they die away to silence, and the birds take up their charming songs once more.

Largo
On the flower-strewn meadow, with leafy branches rustling overhead, the goat-herd sleeps, his faithful dog beside him.

Allegro
Led by the festive sound of rustic bagpipes, nymphs and shepherds lightly dance beneath the brilliant canopy of spring.

Music....

Antonio Vivaldi

Our study today is about Antonio Vivaldi. Vivaldi was born

March 4, 1678 in Venice, Italy.

 

Antonio Vivaldi was taught to play the violin by his father Giovanni Battista, who before becoming a violinist himself worked as a barber. Vivaldi's father taught him how to play the violin when he was young. Vivaldi and his father then toured Venice together playing their violin's.

A violin is a String Instrument.

 At the age of 15 Antonio Vivaldi began training for the priesthood. At the age of 25 he was ordained a priest named, II Prete Rosso, "The Red Priest" (known for Red Priest because of his red hair). Due to health problems however Vivaldi left the priesthood after only 3 years and pursued his love for music.

The quality of Vivaldi's music was so joyful and playful that it could be enjoyed by all, not just college professors. Vivaldi's most famous works is The Four Seasons (composed in 1723). It is a set of four concertos for violin. Along with the concertos Vivaldi wrote sonnets to match each season. 

These sonnets and information for this biography can be found at Making Music Fun.com.

Look for these books to read along with our study of Vivaldi. Some books might be able to be found at your local library.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Meet Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

(1756-1791) Austrian Classical Era Composer

For a great kid friendly biography go to Making Music Fun.

Here you'll also find great activities, lesson plans, sheet music, etc..

Don't forget to also look back at how we use Music Study in our homeschool. Also listen to our other composers: Bach & Handel. This completes the three composer list for Music Study 1.

We always try to go along with Simply Charlotte Mason in our homeschool. So please also look at the other composers that they have put together in a list for you.

George Frideric Handel

Meet George Frideric Handel

 (1685-1759) German Baroque Era Composer

Another great composer.

For a great kid friendly biography go to Making Music Fun.

Here you'll also find great activities, lesson plans, sheet music, etc..

We talked about last time how Charlotte wanted us to be able to hear the great composers of our time. I also noted on that posts how and when I use Music Study. I thought I would go ahead and post for you guys the three main composers we are studying this year. So our first composer was Bach. Now our second is Handel, and our third....well you'll have to wait till next Thursday. I know you're all itching with excitement. :) But for now let us listen to the wonderful work of 

George Frideric Handel...

Johann Sebastian Bach

 

Meet Johann Sebastian Bach

(1685-1750) German Baroque Era Composer

For a great kid friendly biography go to Making Music Fun.

Here you'll also find great activities, lesson plans, sheet music, etc..

 

Charlotte wanted kids to be able to hear the great composers of our time. I like Music Study because we can simply pick a composer and listen to him/her at various times throughout the week. I like to do these studies and the youtube read alouds when we are out running errands. I simply plug my phone into our radio's system and the kids can listen to it will running errands (makes it a little more enjoyable too) :) Continue to listen to pieces by the same composer for several weeks until the children become familiar with that composer’s style.

If you have or are starting a Book of Centuries don't forget to add your composer in that as well. We usually choose one composer to study per semester/term of our school year.

Now for you, another great YouTube find,...Bach!

Music Study Thursday's

Well just like our YouTube books I have found great resources on there for music study as well. I started to search for it when I got an email from Amazon.com saying that certain digital products that you purchase could actually earn you $1 credit off of mp3's. (FYI in case you wanted to go buy your digital products for $1 off credits) But this made me think, "Okay I've got a $1 off credit that I could use on mp3 of the composer that we will be studying. But wait, I bet there are already a lot of composer music on YouTube."

And guess what....

I was right! (Shocking I know haha)

There is a LOT of classical music on YouTube. In fact this channel is completely classical music by composers. A really great find.

We will begin to put together our own Music Study series on Thursdays.

So stay with us next Thursday for the first of our Music Study series.

What composer do you study?