Classics For Kids

There are many pieces of classical music — besides “The Flight of the Bumblebee” — that are about bees, birds, and other winged creatures. Composers use various instruments to imitate […]

Many pieces of music from Russian operas have become much more famous in the concert hall than on the opera stage. Some of these pieces include Tchaikovsky’s Waltz and Polonaise […]

The Flight of the Bumblebee comes from an opera called The Tale of Tsar Saltan, which is based on a story by the famous Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. In the […]

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov became a navy officer in order to follow in his older brother’s footsteps. But his real talent lay in music. After leaving the navy, he became a teacher […]

Vivaldi is not the only composer who wrote music about the seasons, or about spring. Many other composers wrote springtime music.

Concertos got their start in 17th century Italy. The history of violin concertos follows the history of great violinists.

Vivaldi based each of his The Four Seasons concertos on a set of sonnets — poems. The music in each of the Four Seasons describes exactly what’s going on in […]

Antonio Vivaldi was the oldest of six (some say nine) children. His father was a barber, baker and violinist. Vivaldi inherited his father’s musical talent, and his flaming red hair. […]

When Johann Sebastian Bach sent a set of six concertos to the Margrave of Brandenburg — a German official — the Margrave probably never even looked at the music. Bach […]

A concerto is a piece of music in which one or more solo instruments get to shine in front of an orchestra. A concerto can be written for any instrument. […]

Johann Sebastian Bach was married two times, and had a grand total of 20 children! All of Bach’s ancestors were musicians, and his sons were expected to follow in his […]

Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a musical dynasty. The Bach family had over 300 years’ worth of professional composers and musicians, but Johann Sebastian was the most famous of […]

A Finale is the end of a piece of music. Here’s a look at some famous finales.

Depicting a thunderstorm in music was one of Rossini’s specialties. Here are some more examples of musical thunderstorms.

Usually, an overture is a piece of music played at the beginning of a play, opera or ballet in order to set the mood. But there are also other kinds […]

The William Tell Overture was written to open an opera by Gioachino Rossini. The opera is based on a legend about the Swiss hero William Tell. According to the legend, […]

Italian composer Gioachino Rossini was born in 1792 and died in 1868, so you might think that he celebrated 76 birthdays. But Rossini was born in a leap year, on […]

Lt. Kijé is the story of an imaginary soldier, created when the Russian Tsar misread a smudged name on a list of his men. Everyone around the Tsar was too […]

In music, a suite is a specific collection of pieces. Here are some examples of various kinds of musical suites.

Prokofiev was not the only classical composer to paint a musical portrait of a sleigh ride on a snowy day. Listen as we take you through several other examples of […]

Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev lived and traveled around the world, but found that he was most at home in Russia. This look at his life takes you on his travels […]

For years, the Hoe-Down from Aaron Copland’s ballet Rodeo has been used in a commercial for the Beef Council. A lot of classical music turns up in T.V. commercials. It […]

Copland’s ballet Rodeo tells the story of a cowgirl who is in love with a cowboy, but just can't get him to notice her. Once she finally does, she decides […]

Agnes de Mille loved to dance. She became hooked on ballet as a child, after seeing the famous ballerina Anna Pavlova perform. Agnes de Mille performed all over America and […]

Copland’s first cowboy ballet was Billy the Kid, about the notorious outlaw who lived in the American Southwest in the late 1800's. Then, choreographer (a choreographer is a person who […]