Each week or two, the boys and I read about a composer in our book, The Story of the Orchestra. I check my collection of classical music CDs and play the composer’s music sometime during that week. I also utilize the composer shows at Classics for Kids. My boys often play CDs from our Classical Kids collection, which I highly recommend.
A couple weeks ago we read about Stravinsky. I didn’t happen to have a CD of Stravinsky’s works, so I decided to do an internet search for him. Why, oh, why don’t I think of all the internet resources off the top of my head? Do you know what website I will be using from now on for our music studies? YouTube. That’s right. My dinosaur-loving six year old has watched this segment over and over and over again. I think Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring is permanently embedded in his brain.
When it came time to study Gershwin, I went straight to YouTube. We watched an orchestra performance of Rhapsody in Blue with Leonard Bernstein as pianist. Excellent!
But this is what I really wanted to share with you. Levi, Luke, and I have watched this several times. We had a few interesting chats about living in a city, New York City, and more. Great educational entertainment! Fine arts are boring? No way.Here is the second part for you:
Are we just easily entertained?