On our tour of the funny classical music for kids We bring another ideal selection to enjoy with the little ones. Because all music can be fun, we just have to listen to it at the right time. And this descriptive classical music can become a game while unleashing the imagination of young and old.
In this selection of fun classics, fireworks, bustling Paris, a summer night or a fun tongue twister await us.
A holiday: fireworks in Debussy
Again we stop again in a composition of the French Claude Debussy, who made us move to the rhythm of the sea, playing with the waves, and showed us the hypnotic siren song. This time we are partying with the last of the twenty-four "Preludes" for piano (which are divided into two books of twelve each), titled "Feux d'artifice", "Fireworks".
Of all the preludes, this may be the most difficult to interpret, since it requires a great technical mastery of the instrument from the pianist. And all to reflect the atmosphere that lives before the contemplation of a pyrotechnic castle: flare lights, rockets that ignite, carcasses that draw luminous streams. Enjoy the show.
A cat dancing the waltz
Leroy Anderson, the American composer that we talked about in the previous installment, leaves us another fun work apart from "The typewriter" or "The syncopated clock". This is "Waltzing cat", "The vase cat", which allows us to listen to a cat's meowing at a rhythm We perfectly imagine the dance of a couple of felines in love ...
An American in Paris
"An american in Paris" is a symphonic classical music by composer George Gershwin, created and released before the public in 1928. In addition to the usual instruments of the symphony orchestra, Gershwin used car horns, which we can hear at the beginning of the work. For the premiere, the composer was brought from Paris taxi horn.
Gershwin said of his composition: "My purpose here is to portray the impressions of an American who visits Paris; while he walks through the city, hears several street noises and absorbs the French atmosphere ... The first part is developed in a typically French style, in the Debussy way. "
The work begins with a walk through the Champs Elysees and a fight with a taxi driver. Surely you recognize this music, since it was used as soundtrack of a well-known movie with the same title, which was directed in 1951 by Vincent Minelli and starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron. She was awarded six Oscars, including the best film and the best adapted soundtrack.
The shouts in the market
We are still in Paris, but we travel back in time to an old market. Clément Jannequin is a French author of the Renaissance, who stands out for having composed more than 250 chansons, many of which are programmatic, that is, their music descriptively reflects the content of the text, using, on many occasions, onomatopoeic sounds. So, we found bird songs in Le chant des aiseaux, women "chattering" in Le caquet des femmes or war alarms in The war, one of his most famous pieces.
In the work at hand, we find the noise of a street market. In "Les Cris de Paris", "Los critos de Paris", after starting with a question addressed to the audience, "Do you want to hear the cries of Paris?", Jannequin transports us to a market in the French capital in the century XVI, in which we are bombarded by the shouts of the vendors of the various stalls offering everything from wine to pine nuts, mustard, turnips ...
A song or a tongue twister?
During the Victorian era, librettist W. S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan wrote 14 operettas together between 1871 and 1896, of which "The Pirates of Penzance" stands out. Inside we find "The song of the general", a fun tongue twister Impossible to reproduce at such speed. Therefore, apart from the video that appears under these lines, where we see the aria interpreted (from the minute one begins with the well-known "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General"), I also leave the link to this other in which the letter is read.
Josquin's cricket
Josquin des Prés was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance. In addition to sacred music, Josquin wrote numerous "chansons", some of which were very popular and circulated throughout Europe, reaching today. Many of them are sung regularly by vocal groups a capella.
"El Grillo" exploits the onomatopoeic possibilities offered by the insect. It is possible that through this song the author mocks a Milanese singer named Carlo Grillo. Here you can listen to the interpretation, and below you have the video with the lyrics in Italian and English: "Cricket is a good singer, who sings for a long time ..."
I hope this new installment of the best classical music for children I found it interesting. We will return with new visions of descriptive classical music ideal to enjoy with the little ones.
