Music Curriculum

Haydn, Tchaikovsky, and Brahms, oh, my! The beginner's guide to classical music

Classical Music For Dummies is a friendly, funny, easy-to-understand guide to composers, instruments, orchestras, concerts, recordings, and more. Classical music is widely considered one of the pinnacles of human achievement, and this informative guide will shows you just how beautiful and rewarding it can be. You'll learn how Bach is different from Beethoven, how Mozart is different still, and why not all classical music is actually Classical if it's really Baroque or Romantic. You'll be introduced to the composers and their work, and discover the groundbreaking pieces that shake the world every time they're played. Begin building your classical music library with the essential recordings that define orchestral, choral, and operatic beauty as you get acquainted with the orchestras and musicians that bring the composers to life.

Whether you want to play classical music or just learn more about it, Classical Music For Dummies will teach you everything you need to know to get the most out of this increasingly popular genre.

Distinguish flute from piccolo, violin from viola, and trumpet from trombone

Learn the difference between overtures, requiems, arias, and masses

Explore the composers that shaped music as we know it

Discover the recordings your music library cannot be without

Classical music has begun sneaking into the mainstream -- if your interest has been piqued, there's never been a better time to develop an appreciation for this incredibly rich, complex, and varied body of work. Classical Music For Dummies lays the groundwork, and demonstrates just how amazing classical music can be.

Here is the story of Ludwig van Beethoven, greatest master of all, told with feeling and delicate skill for boys and girls. "Perhaps he, too, will become a musician, like all the Beethovens!" said Father Johann...From then on, the four-year-old Ludwig was kept at the piano hour after hour until the long exercises were mastered. The chiming bells in the chapel tower comforted him and wonderful melodies crept into his mind as the twilight crept over the city... "So...then you are a composer, as well as an organist," said Herr Zenser, the chapel organist. "But Ludwig - this is very difficult music - much too difficult for your small hands to play!" "Oh, that does not matter, Herr Zenser," answered the young Ludwig, "I will play it when I am bigger." "Surely he will be another Mozart some day," some said...Later he was to study with Mozart - go to Vienna - lead one of the finest orchestras in all the city - create great symphonies - until the name of Beethoven was spoken everywhere and eager visitors made their way to his door... This is his story...an inspiring story of his achievements against all odds...of his growing deafness..."Long live Beethoven!" shouted the audience ..."But the master could not hear them, and as a singer turned him gently to face the audience, the noble head bowed low as he saw from the flutter of handkerchiefs, the applause that rained upon him...". Thus Opal Wheeler captures the superb quality of musical greatness of Beethoven and communicates it to boys and girls...a deeply stirring tribute to the greatest composer of all.

George Gershwin only has a few weeks to compose a concerto. His piece is supposed to exemplify American music and premiere at a concert entitled "An Experiment in Modern Music." Homesick for New York while rehearsing for a musical in Boston, he soon realizes that American music is much like its people, a great melting pot of sounds, rhythms, and harmonies. JoAnn Kitchel's illustrations capture the 1920s in all their art deco majesty.
Includes a CD of "Rhapsody in Blue" performed by George Gershwin (1925 piano roll) and the Columbia Jazz Band, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.