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Has there ever been a composer that appeals to the child in us all? There is Seuss for Books, Disney for film,
A Composer of Children's Music
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That is a good one, but perhaps too complex for how I envision Classics for Kids to be. I think a lot of my art is for the Child in us all.Perhaps Children's Corner suite for solo piano by Claude Debussy.
This is tricky. There are things that appeal to children under 5-7. Older children want to be taken seriously and are offended by e.g. fairy tale character of the opera Zauberfloette, or Saint-Saens musically imitating the animals in Carnaval animaux.
I myself was quite irritated by the Nursery song of Mussorgsky, when they took us to an educational concert at school.
I myself was quite irritated by the Nursery song of Mussorgsky, when they took us to an educational concert at school.
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Carnival of the Animals is a good one, for sure!
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When I was quite young, my piano teacher introduced me and some of his other students to The Magic Flute. The Met has a special children's version of the opera directed by Julie Taymor, who did The Lion King. There's also the Bergman film.
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A lot of Disney and other things are not only targeted towards kids, but are sensitive to adults too at the same time. Most Saturday morning cartoons (back in the 80's, early 90's) I grew up with are cringeworthy now in my eyes of as an adult, while Disney masterpieces are not. The first movie I watched in a theatre was the Black Stallion. It even had a picture book I bought, as a kid. But the movie is in the Criterion Collection, and in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
A good example is Brahms' Lullaby, which is very well crafted, and can stand up to any music for adults
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I'm really enjoying Elfman though, a lot of it anyways!
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Burton/Selick/Elfman should write a children's opera for film!
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Ravel's Ma mere l'Oye (Mother Goose)
Maurice Ravel - Ma mère l'Oye/Mother Goose Suite (Orchestral Score Video) - YouTube
Maurice Ravel - Ma mère l'Oye/Mother Goose Suite (Orchestral Score Video) - YouTube
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Who knows, but Stravinsky once quipped "My music is best understood by children and animals."
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Richard Wagner - Die Feen (children's version)
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I think the distinction between music about children and music designed to appeal to children should probably be stressed. Chick Corea wrote a series of Children's Songs for piano, but I can't think of any child who would be interested in listening to any of them. As a former child (perhaps, still ongoing), I was always vaguely put off by TV, books, music designed for or directed to children. I tended to find it condescending. Perhaps I was overly old for my age, but adult things always seemed more exciting and appealing. It took me many decades to find out that adult things are not necessarily always somehow "better"..
The only real pieces of music for children (and not exclusively just for children) that I can think of are Britten's Young Persons' Guide to the Orchestra and Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals is a bit too slicky sly (nod, nod; wink, wink) to be for children alone. Perhaps some of Arvo Part's music ("Fuer Alina", "Spiegel im Spiegel" for example) might function as a kind of musical Fred Rogers for children.
I am not much of an opera guy, but I have often thought that Carl Orff's "Der Mond" might be staged in a way to appeal to children. Of course, it is interlarded with gobs of symbolic German expressionism, but the basic plot and stage-craft are kind of simple and folk-like and could easily appeal to children. Perhaps even the overly sophisticated, cynical, social-media obsessed children of the 21st century.
The only real pieces of music for children (and not exclusively just for children) that I can think of are Britten's Young Persons' Guide to the Orchestra and Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals is a bit too slicky sly (nod, nod; wink, wink) to be for children alone. Perhaps some of Arvo Part's music ("Fuer Alina", "Spiegel im Spiegel" for example) might function as a kind of musical Fred Rogers for children.
I am not much of an opera guy, but I have often thought that Carl Orff's "Der Mond" might be staged in a way to appeal to children. Of course, it is interlarded with gobs of symbolic German expressionism, but the basic plot and stage-craft are kind of simple and folk-like and could easily appeal to children. Perhaps even the overly sophisticated, cynical, social-media obsessed children of the 21st century.
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I find it touching how "The Discursive Functions of Children’s Music in the German Enlightenment", Zauberkinder: Children and Childhood in Late Eighteenth-Century Singspiel and Lieder quotes
Although these part-songs by Reichardt (a contemporary of Mozart) are simple, the childlikeness is memorable to me. There's also a number like these in his singspiel Die Geisterinsel.
"You must know that I sincerely love all children, if they are good, pious, industrious, and obedient children; that I prefer their company to the most brilliant assembly of adults, because I often observe with pain how much the world sees the saddest betrayal of the hope that they had in their childhood years, whereas I behold in you such greater expectations and hopes. [...] This, my love for you, is even more increased, because I myself am the father of four children, whom I I love more than all the treasures on earth, more than the whole world, yes, I almost want to say, more than my life itself."
—Christian Felix Weisse, writing as “Herr Mentor,” Der Kinderfreund
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I am not sure what age range you envisage but I've enjoyed classical music from a young age (7 or 8). My early listening enthusiasms included Mozart (big pieces - the last symphonies, the Magic Flute), Beethoven and Bach. I found Brahms difficult but Bartok appealed greatly. I must confess, though, that I would sometimes skip slow movements (especially Mozart's). It seems like much music that I still love but now know (feel) to be profound had qualities that also appealed to me as a fairly young child? Before that I heard music in the house and recognised some pieces or sounds that I liked - it was not being played for me but it was in the air that I breathed.
From my gmail chat archive when my son was not quite 3 years old, relaying to my wife a conversation I was having with him:
me We're listening to Carnival of the Animals
me: he guessed quite a lot of them correctly
me: [son]: what's this one?
me: this is the swan
me: [son]: I don't like swans; swans are boring. I want more milk
me: all the animals come back in a minute [I go into the kitchen]
me: [son]: dad! dad! It's happening! The animals came back! Here's the lion! The lion is my favourite!
me We're listening to Carnival of the Animals
me: he guessed quite a lot of them correctly
me: [son]: what's this one?
me: this is the swan
me: [son]: I don't like swans; swans are boring. I want more milk
me: all the animals come back in a minute [I go into the kitchen]
me: [son]: dad! dad! It's happening! The animals came back! Here's the lion! The lion is my favourite!
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