Music, Children, Kapell and a Wolf...
If you are interested in your child getting a fully rounded education, then you must do some homeschooling so as not to miss out on a world of knowledge and exploration of the arts and culture in our world. In general, culture and the arts are rapidly disappearing from our school curriculums in recent years. What isn't taught at school must be taught at home. Because music appreciation has all but been forgotten in the schools these days, I have taken it upon myself to teach my girls as much as I can.
The lesson I have been teaching my children is to listen to music as it can tell a story even when there are no words. The different instruments create certain pictures in your head and you let your imagination do the rest. You can color the pictures on paper as you hear them and visualize them through the music and you can create stories just for fun! Very much like in Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. My girls love the version narrated by Dom DeLuise. There is also a beautiful version with David Bowie that you can download on iTunes. The story is available online. Teach your children about all kinds of music from all over the world. Exposing them to the sounds around the world will open their eyes and their hearts to other cultures and broaden their horizons immeasurably!
This past week, we have been learning about a brilliant American composer who died tragically and unexpectedly in an airplane crash in the prime of his life. His name was William Kapell. He was born in New York City in 1922. He was a child prodigy who won his first competition at the age of 10. By the late 40's, he had toured the US, Canada, Europe, & Australia to immense acclaim and was widely considered the most brilliant of young American pianists. He married in 1947 and had two children. On October 22, he played his last concert in Australia and on October 29, 1953 his plane, returning home from that final concert, crashed into Kings Mountain just so uth of San Francisco.
