Famous Musicians

We follow Charlotte Mason’s approach to studying famous composers and their music.  We select one famous composer for each month and listen to one of his most famous works each week.  We display his portrait on our Composer of the Month Wall Chart.  The children listen to a simple biography of his life and enjoy a symphony or specific composition each week.  In this way, the children begin to recognize the composers’ style and music and make personal connections to the person and his music.

Here are some of the famous musicians we have studied ~

• Ludwig van Beethoven
  
• Johann Sebastian Bach
  
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Antonio Lucio Vivaldi
• Edvard Hagerup Grieg
• Frans Schubert
• Felix Mendelssohn
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
• Frederic Chopin
• (Franz) Joseph Haydn
• George Frederic Handel  
• Johannes Brahms  
• Wilhelm Richard Wagner
• Ralph Vaughan Williams
• Sir Edward William Elgar
• Jean Sibelius
• Joseph-Maurice Ravel
• Hector Berlioz

Famous Musical Composer of Month Wall Chart

Wallchart with portrait & biography

This updated 21-page download Famous Musical Composer of Month Wall Chart includes all the composers listed above and includes a background wall chart, individual pages of each composer with a large colour image as well as a simple personal biography with links to other websites. Laminate the background wall chart and each composer picture. Display your composer of each month and let your children fill in the basic information with a whiteboard marker.  (Please be patient as this is a large download.)

Biography Pages for Famous Composers ~ (click on the titles below) 

• Famous Musicians Biography lined with a map
  

These unlined biography pages are ideal for your child’s own notes, minibooks, pictures and musical appreciation notes.

• Famous Musicians Biography Blank & Map
  

These lined biography pages have black lines and space for illustrations, pictures and extra notes.

• Famous Musician Biography Red_Blue These biography pages are excellent for primary children as they have the blue, red and dotted grey lines widely spaced for beginner writers.

Music Appreciation Log Sheet

We use this Music Appreciation Log Sheet for music our appreciation.  It has a basic form at the top to log the composer, music title and orchestra or artist who plays the music.  There is a lined section for the writing of images or stories that come to mind as they listen to the music piece.  A blank area is for illustrations, colours, patterns or doodles the child draws as they listen to the music.

Famous Musicians Notebook and Minibook page

Here is a wonderful little free download  Famous Musicians Notebook with Minibook page featuring 4 famous classical composers~

• Handel, Bach, Mozart & Beethoven

Notebook page with minibooks

This download includes a biography page for each composer with lines for biography notes and space for interesting facts or illustrations about each composer. The minibooks include a petal minibook and a hotdog minibook which can be used for each composer.  Click here to view the original post.

Fabulous Fine Arts Fridays

We set aside most of our Fridays for Fine Arts – art, music, and poetry, and sometimes Shakespeare.  The simplest way to do all the “extras” was using our Theme of the Day.

It is my kids favourite day of the week! I played Classical music CDs from our collection or we streamed or listened to classical music online as we did our art. (See resources listed below.)  My advice to moms is to keep it simple and fairly informal.  The best lessons were those where we each connected individually and personally to the art and music. Read the rest in my original post.

New Music and Art Timeline

This is a helpful Fine Arts tool, identifying both famous musicians and their music styles, as well as famous artists and their masterpieces displayed in parallel.  Here is the free download ~Art and Music Timeline. Read all the details on my post Music and Art Timeline.

Other posts on Famous Musicians and composers ~

• Notice Board – Famous Artists & Composer

Surround your children with rich, beautiful music and art and cultivate a wonderful fine arts appreciation in your homeschooling! Display your monthly artist and composer on a notice board.  See the original post with details.

• Is Charlotte Mason Too Simple?
• Our Study of Schubert

Other Classical Music & Composer Resources ~

• Classics for kids.com is an excellent online music and composer resource!
• We used the Vox Music Masters 6 CD Set: An Introduction to the Classics with biography narrated over famous music pieces for each composer available on Amazon. (no affiliate).
• Patti prepares a weekly art, music and poetry study with links & sources on All Things Bright and Beautiful.
• Listen to classical music online with Naxos and Classical Archive (you need to register and pay an annual subscription to listen to full scores, but it is well worth it)
• Free mp3 of Classic Cat
• Famous Musicians of the World by Henriette Brower (A Gutenberg public domain e-book – an excellent summary of each composer to read online or print out)

Blessings, Nadene