Authors: Robert Levine. Robert T. Levine.
Hardcover, 96 pages
Publisher: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers
Publication Date: 2000-10-02


Reviews :

    Eye-catching illustrations, engaging text and delightful musical selections on the accompanying 70-minute CD lead children ages 8 to 12 (and parents, too!) on an exciting and educational tour through the instruments and music of the orchestra. Illustrated in exquisite and colorful detail with over 100 original drawings and photographs, this package is a fun and exciting musical journey for children. The engaging text is broken into three sections: an introduction to each instrument of the orchestra from the cello to the timpani, the stories of famous composers from Bach to Stravinsky and an explanation of different musical styles from Baroque to Modern. Each step of the way, children can listen to actual musical examples of what they are learning about. Young readers will hear the sound of an actual violin as they study the instrument and enjoy the playful tune of a Mozart minuet as they read about the composer's precocious exploits as a child....

Authors:
Hardcover, 32 pages
Publisher: Atheneum
Publication Date: 2007-10-02


Reviews :

   

We three kings of Orient are;

Bearing gifts we traverse afar,

Field and fountain, moor and mountain,

Following yonder star.

Over two thousand years ago, three great kings journeyed across the desert, riding through the heat of day and dark of night. Each from a differentregion, each beckoned by the same gleaming star, each bearing treasures, each wishing to welcome a newborn asleep in a manger's hay -- a baby namedJesus, who would change the world.

This beloved Christmas carol, written in 1857, celebrates the wise men'sjourney and the first Christmas night. Internationally renowned artist Gennady Spirin pays his own type of homage with paintings so exquisitelydetailed and wrought that they, too, are a gift -- to that baby in the manger and to you....

Authors: Anita Ganeri.
Hardcover, 64 pages
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
Publication Date: 1996-10-01
Edition: Book and CD-ROM

Reviews :

    A beginning guide to orchestral music invites readers to listen to each individual instrument on the CD and then turn to the pages in an introductory text to discover more about the orchestra and its sections....

Authors: Neil Ardley.
Hardcover, 72 pages
Publisher: DK CHILDREN
Publication Date: 2004-08-02


Reviews :

    New Look! Relaunched with new jackets and 8 pages of new text!

Here is an original and exciting look at the fascinating world of sound and music. Superb real-life photographs of instruments ranging from zithers and panpipes to electric guitars and synthesizers offer a unique "eyewitness" view of ancient and contemporary music. See how strings vibrate to make a note sound, how an invisible "column" of air sounds a pipe, which instrument resembles a peacock, how sousaphone players wear their instruments. Learn who invented an important new key system, how to master the bagpipes, why pipe organs have "ears" and "mouths", and why French horns are "doubled up". Discover how a vegetable gourd charms snakes, why tangled fingers led to the invention of the piano, why spiders add a "buzz" to xylophones, where reindeer toe-bones were used as whistles, and much, much more!...

Authors: Helen C. Haidle.
Hardcover, 40 pages
Publisher: Zonderkidz
Publication Date: 2003-10-01


Reviews :

    "Excellent for Homeschool Use"...

Authors: Kathleen Krull.
Paperback, 96 pages
Publisher: Sandpiper
Publication Date: 2002-03-01


Reviews :

    It's no secret that Beethoven went deaf, that Mozart had constant money problems, and that Gilbert and Sullivan wrote musicals. But what were these people--and other famous musicians--really like? What did they eat? What did they wear? How did they spend their time? And--possibly most interesting of all--what did their neighbors think?
Discover the fascinating and often humorous stories of twenty famous musicians--people of all shapes, sizes, temperaments, and lifestyles, from various countries and historical periods. Beginning with Vivaldi and ending with Woodie Guthrie, Lives of the Musicians brings musical history to life!
...

Authors: Wilborn Hampton.
Paperback, 208 pages
Publisher: Puffin
Publication Date: 2008-07-03
Edition: Reprint

Reviews :

    For fans of the king, the newest installment to the Up Close biography series!

Elvis Presley made a sound so different it ushered in a new kind of music: rock and roll. He was able to combine gospel, honky-tonk, country and rhythm and blues to create a unique sound that crossed racial and cultural divides. Though he was incredibly popular, at heart, Elvis was a shy and polite man, and the demands of fame began to take a toll. While his dependence on prescription drugs cut short his life, Elvis’s influence on music and popular culture endures to this day....

Authors: Anna Harwell Celenza. Joseph Haydn.
Hardcover, 32 pages
Publisher: Charlesbridge Publishing
Publication Date: 2000-07
Edition: Book and CD-ROM

Reviews :

    Includes a full-length CD recorded by the Orchestra of St. Luke's, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras.

History and music come alive!

Prince Nicholas isn't easy to work for--just ask composer Joseph Haydn. When the prince isn't demanding chamber music, operas, and ballets to entertain his guests, he wants dance music for balls and dinner music with his meals. Haydn and the other musicians are kept quite busy at the prince's summer estate in Hungary. As summer fades into autumn, however, the musicians grow increasingly homesick. When Haydn mentions the musicians' distress, the prince threatens to fire the entire orchestra! How will the talented composer convince the mighty prince that it's time to bid farewell to the summer palace?

Memorable characters, carefully researched text, and expressive illustrations tell the story behind Haydn's famous Symphony #45....

Authors: Pam Munoz Ryan.
Hardcover, 40 pages
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Publication Date: 2002-10-01
Edition: 1st

Reviews :

    Marian Anderson is best known for her historic concert at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, which drew an integrated crowd of over 75,000 people in pre-Civil Rights America. While this momentous event showcased the uniqueness of her character, and the struggles of the times in which she lived, it is only part of her story. Like the opera arias Marian would come to sing, Ryan's text is as moving as a libretto, and Selznick's pictures are as exquisitely detailed and elaborately designed as a stage set. Wheat emerges most profoundly from their shared vision is a role model of courage....

    As this skilled duo did with Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride, Pam Muñoz Ryan and Brian Selznick bring to life the story of yet another remarkable American woman, gifted black contralto Marian Anderson.

Undoubtedly one of America's greatest singers, Anderson was hardly known in her own country because of her race--music schools ignored her applications ("We don't take colored!") and even after she began singing professionally, many venues only featured white performers. Ryan's well-paced story becomes especially poignant as she recounts Anderson's overwhelming success in Europe ("one newspaper in Sweden called it 'Marian Fever' ... In Austria, the world-famous conductor Arturo Toscanini announced that what he had heard, one was privileged to hear only once in a hundred years"). The book reaches its climax with a wordless, deep brown two-page spread from Selznick, a crowd's-eye view of Anderson singing at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, an historic concert that drew an integrated audience of over 75,000.

Ryan's simple, metered text (punctuated frequently by lyrics) captures the quiet drama of Anderson's story, and kids will especially identify with the confusion and frustration of young Marian. And as with the pair's previous collaboration, Selznick's rich illustrations ably convey the undeniable strength and courage of a talented, determined woman. (Ages 4 to 8) --Paul Hughes...

Authors: Ann Rachlin.
Paperback, 24 pages
Publisher: Barron's Educational Series
Publication Date: 1992-06-10


Reviews :

    Focuses on the childhood and early musical training of the prolific eighteenth-century German composer, Johann Sebastian Bach....