Classics For Kids

Fanny Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn’s older sister, was a talented pianist and composer. So was Clara Schumann, wife of composer Robert Schumann. Also featured: music of Elizabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre, […]

A child prodigy, Felix Mendelssohn began composing when he was 10. This week on Classics for Kids hear about other composers who started just as early — or even earlier.

Probably no playwright has had more music based on his work than William Shakespeare. Felix Mendelssohn, Henry Purcell, Hector Berlioz, Giuseppe Verdi are just a few of the composers who’ve […]

When Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn put on Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream to entertain their family, the two of them played all the characters! Mendelssohn's music for A Midsummer […]

By the time he was a teenager, Felix Mendelssohn was already an excellent pianist and composer. And Mendelssohn was very talented in other areas. In addition to German (his native […]

William Grant Still was a 20th century African-American composer. But hundreds of years before he lived, there were other black composers. ‘The Music of Freedom The songs that helped the […]

After William Grant Still wrote his Afro-American Symphony, he found bits of poetry that he thought went with each movement. The poetry was written by Paul Laurence Dunbar, the first […]

William Grant Still wanted to put the sound of the blues into a symphony. His Afro-American Symphony is centered on a bluesy theme. Still took that theme and did something […]

William Grant Still has been called the Dean of Afro-American composers. William grew up listening to his grandmother tell stories about her life as a slave on a plantation in […]

Antonin Dvorak and his fellow Czech composers were among the first music nationalists. Here’s a look at many others, including composers from America.

All across Europe in the 19th century, there was a wave of nationalism as people fought for political independence. Composers started wanting musical independence, too. When they started putting folk […]

In 1892, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s trip to the New World, a wealthy New Yorker invited Antonin Dvorak to visit America. Tchaikovsky, Albeniz, and Delius were […]

At the time when Czech composer Antonin Dvorak was born, the Czech people had no country of their own. The regions where they lived — Bohemia and Moravia — were […]

Many composers used European dance forms in their work. Dvorak, Haydn, Chopin and Beethoven are just a few of the composers featured here.

The Hungarian Dances by Johannes Brahms were never really intended for dancing. But that doesn’t mean that people in Hungary don't dance! Richard Graber, the director of a Hungarian dance […]

When he was a young pianist, Johannes Brahms accompanied a Hungarian violinist, and fell in love with Hungarian music. His own Hungarian-flavored dances were written to entertain his friends at […]

Brahms, Bach, and Beethoven are known as the “Three B’s” of classical music. Brahms always knew that he wanted to be a composer — by the time he was six, […]

Even though Schubert’s Marche Militaire has the word “march” in the title, it was never actually meant for anyone to march to. Several other composers wrote march music without bands […]

Franz Schubert wrote his Marche Militaire for piano four hands — two people playing the same instrument. Here are some more pieces for piano four hands.

Songs in classical music are usually called “art songs.” In German, art songs are called Lieder. Franz Schubert was a master of writing Lieder. Each of his songs combines poetry […]

Franz Schubert’s father expected his son to be a teacher in the school that he ran. But Schubert didn't last long at that job — he was much more interested […]

A collection of musical firsts, including the first string quartet, the first use of trombones in a symphony, and the first professional musician to make a recording.

In the “Farandole” from Georges Bizet’s Arlésienne Suite, there are examples of all three kinds of harmonic texture: monophony, homophony, and polyphony. Hear those terms explained in words and in […]

In celebration of the Christmas season, some classical compositions that have Christmas carols in them.

Georges Bizet was not Jewish, his father-in-law was. Bizet married the daughter of his composition professor, Jacques Halevi. To celebrate Chanukah, we learn about some other Jewish composers of classical […]