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Homeschool Composer Study & Music Appreciation

Heather

Now hear me out, I can’t carry a tune in a bucket, and don’t even ask how well I can play an instrument because I cannot! That said I can still appreciate music, and Charlotte Mason says it best,

I think that all children should take Musical Appreciation and not only the musical ones, for it has been proved that only three per cent of children are what is called ‘tone-deaf’; and if they are taken at an early age it is astonishing how children who appear to be without ear, develop it and are able to enjoy listening to music with understanding.”- Charlotte Mason

I’m grateful that the beauty of music is not limited to those who can play it, like my crazy husband and children who most can play instruments by ear. There are many great resources for this study and you can make it as simple or as complicated as you like, and because of the great advances of technology it is made all the more easy for us than in Ms. Mason’s time. We have recordings not only of the music at our fingertips, but also visuals of entire symphonies playing these master pieces. So let us enjoy this delight!

Use every chance you get of hearing music (I do not mean only tones, though these are very nice), and ask whose music has been played, and, by degrees, you will find out that one composer has one sort of thing to say to you; and another speaks other things; these messages of the musicians cannot be put into words, so there is no way of hearing them if we do not train our ear to listen.”– Charlotte Mason

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

So let me break it down for you in a few different ways. First simple steps, then a few wonderful resources, and finally our family study plan for this subject for 2024.

Simple Steps

  1. Choose one composer per term.
  2. Choose 6 pieces from the composer
  3. Once a week have a focused listening time to a specific piece
  4. Bonus: Read a short biography of the composer.

Wonderful Composer Resources

  1. Tillberry Table
  2. Growing Gardenside
  3. Music Study with the Masters
  4. Composer Study Companion
  5. Ambleside Online Composers Section

Our 2024 Composer Study

We will spend 5-20 minutes each week on composer study. We will spend one week with focused listening to a piece & study guide lesson, and the second week will focus on one of the biography readings. Once every week we will complete a study from The History of Classical Music.

  1. Robert & Clara Schuman
  2. Pyotr Tchaicovsky (focusing on Nutcracker before holidays and Sleeping Beauty after)
  3. Antonin Dvorak
  4. Bonus: The History of Classical Music from Beautiful Feet Books
    • This is a bonus that we are adding because we have such a delight in classical music. It will make up a small portion of our studies each week, but give us a good overview of many composers.

If you are curious about our personal family rotations of composers, here is my general schedule. You can see we are in the second grouping in first column. I created this to make sure I didn’t skip any I truly wanted to study, but also to ensure that we revisit some of our family favorites more repeatedly ensuring my littlest ones get to know them too. However, if we feel led to switch out a composer at any time we will.

Composer Rotation

Composer study need not be a scary thing. Some terms all we do is listen to the composer during meals and other times during the day, and others we do all the things. Either way my children have made a storehouse of friends in the musical compositions. I will never forget the day we were driving home from a far away hike, stuck in traffic, and listening to the local classical station. My daughter excitedly announced, “Wait! That’s Camille Saint Saens! Is that right?” just in time for the announcer to say the current piece was written by Saint-Saens. Her excitement knew no bounds in that moment! Then a few weeks later we watched the movie Babe, and the song the Mr. Hoggett dances to they recognized as Camille Saint-Saens. We looked it up and sure enough it was! Since then they all have been more attentive to the composer pieces, trying to notice nuances. They don’t always know the title or the name of composer, but they recognize old friends.

Not all composer studies have been winners. One term we studied Wagner. We noticed we were grumpier and arguing more, and the composer was the thing we think was spurring it on. We stopped listening to Wagner and lo and behold the crabby attitudes went away. Not everyone has that response to Wagner, but just a reminder that some composers will be a hit and others will not. It’s ok! We all are individuals with individual tastes, just the way we are meant to be.

We spread an abundant and delicate feast in the programs and each small guest assimilates what he can.– Charlotte Mason

We can spread the feast of music, and our children will take what they can!

What are your family favorite composers?

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Published by Heather

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