Jamie Gass

“Music is liquid architecture” – 15 Resources for K-12 Education

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , /by Jamie Gass
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

Louis Armstrong, Life magazine, cover of the April 15, 1966 issue,

“Music is liquid architecture” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

In Pioneer’s ongoing series of blogs here, here, and here on curricular resources for parents, families, and teachers during COVID-19, this one focuses on: Introducing K-12 schoolchildren to timeless music.

“Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten,” reads Plato’s Republic from 375 BC. Given this ancient wisdom, and the fact that music is too often neglected in K-12 American education, we’re offering a variety of classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, and country music resources for parents, teachers, and schoolchildren to explore, including:

 

1 ) Classics for Children: Peter and the Wolf; Carnival of the Animals; Nutcracker Suite, conducted by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops and narrated by Sir Alec Guinness (ages 4 and up)

“What can be better than Peter and the Wolf narrated by Alec Guinness? Then you even get the best parts on The Nutcracker too. I bought this to replace my old one which had gotten scratched and I couldn’t live without it.”

Amazon Link

 

 

2 ) Maestro Classics 12 CD Collection (ages 5 and up)

 

“The Maestro Classics 12 CD Collection includes all 12 CDs from the award-winning Stories in Music series. Each CD contains a 24-page activity book. Set includes: Peter the Wolf, The Nutcracker (featuring Jim Weiss), The Story of Swan Lake, Carnival of the Animals, My Name is Handel: The Story of Water Music… Casey at the Bat, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, The Soldier’s Tale and Juanita the Spanish Lobster (English edition).”

Amazon Link

 

3 ) Lives of the Musicians: Good Times, Bad Times (and What the Neighbors Thought), by Kathleen Krull (ages 8-12)

“Kids learn best when they can get back stories into the personal lives of historical figures, especially if they are fun, funny, or outrageous! The book is glossy paged with vivid colorful artwork. This is going to be a fantastic supplement to our homeschooling music history studies.”

Amazon Link

 

 

 

 

4 ) Getting to Know You!: Rodgers and Hammerstein Favorites, illustrated by Rosemary Wells (ages 4-8)

“This curious little picture book sets out to accomplish the odd–but surprisingly worthwhile–task of assembling some classic Rodgers & Hammerstein lyrics into a kid-friendly, sing-along format. Getting to Know You! samples songs from some of the Broadway duo’s better-known musicals (Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, and The King and I), acting them out with a cast of cute animals…”

Amazon Link

 

5 ) Hallelujah Handel, by Douglas Cowling (ages 4-6)

“Thomas, a street urchin in eighteenth-century London, is mute except when he sings. He and his friends live under the control of the Keeper, a wicked man who hires him out to sing for the gentry, including George Frederic Handel. When Thomas disappears one day, his friends enlist the composer’s help in finding him. Studded with references to Handel’s life and works…”

Amazon Link

 

6 ) How Sweet the Sound: The Story of Amazing Grace; By and By: Charles Albert Tindley, the Father of Gospel Music; John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane; RESPECT: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, The Sound that Jazz Makes; and The Roots of Rap: 16 Bars on the 4 Pillars of Hip-Hop, by Carole Boston Weatherford (ages pre-school to 3)

“An incredibly moving picture book biography of the man behind the hymn “Amazing Grace” and the living legacy of the song Caldecott Honor–winning author Carole Boston Weatherford and award-winning illustrator Frank Morrison.”

Amazon Link

 

7 ) The Long Gone Lonesome History of Country Music, Bret Bertholf (ages 6-9)

“This tongue-in-cheek overview features a folksy narrative of how and why country music developed in the barns and back roads of rural America. The text doesn’t miss a beat—it covers instruments, early recordings, yodeling (with a humorous spread on how-to), the Great Depression, gospel, movie cowboys, a “paper-doll” spoof of singers’ costumes, hillbilly jazz, World War II, acceptable country pets (hound dogs, varmints, hawgs), country “vee-hickles,” Nashville, the age of TV, the 1990s explosion of country sound, and much more. While poking fun at itself with a “country words” dictionary and a segment on “country hair,” the book offers a vast amount of historical fact amid a multitude of caricatures of country stars.”

Amazon Link

 

8 ) Tito Puente, Mambo King, by Monica Brown (ages pre-school to 4)

“In this vibrant bilingual picture book biography of musician Tito Puente, readers will dance along to the beat of this mambo king’s life. Tito Puente loved banging pots and pans as a child, but what he really dreamed of was having his own band one day. From Spanish Harlem to the Grammy Awards—and all the beats in between—this is the true life story of a boy whose passion for music turned him into the “King of Mambo.””

Amazon Link

 

9 ) Beethoven’s Heroic Symphony (Once Upon a Masterpiece), by Anna Harwell Celenza (ages pre-school to 3)

“Discover the little-known story of Beethoven’s beloved masterwork.  As the best pianist in Vienna, Ludwig van Beethoven had everything: talent, money, fame. But he also had a terrible secret. He was slowly going deaf. Though his hearing deserted him, the maestro never lost his music.”

Amazon Link

 

10 )  Becoming Bach, by Tom Leonard (ages 5-8)

“On this elegantly composed biography, Johann Sebastian shares his dream of one day following in his family’s footsteps and becoming a “bach,” that is to say, a musician. For the young dreamer, “there was always music.” Fascinated by different musical instruments, from the harpsichord and violin to the flute and organ, Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) learns to play them all. After the death of his parents, he goes to live with his older brother, who gives him music lessons, setting the boy on his journey to greatness.”

Amazon Link

 

11 ) Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: A Musical Journey (high school to adults)

“Martin Scorsese’s homage to the blues is a truly significant, if imperfect, achievement. “Musical journey” is an apt description, as Scorsese and the six other directors responsible for these seven approximately 90-minute films follow the blues–the foundation of jazz, soul, R&B, and rock & roll–from its African roots to its Mississippi Delta origins, up the river to Memphis and Chicago, then to New York, the United Kingdom, and beyond… There’s also plenty of documentary footage, interviews, and contemporary studio performances recorded especially for these films.”

Amazon Link

 

12 ) Ken Burns: Jazz, and Country Music (high school to adults)

“Jazz is a ten part series that explores the evolution – and the genius – of America’s greatest original art form, focusing on the extraordinary men and women who could do something remarkable – create art on the spot. Jazz celebrates their profoundly enduring, endlessly varied, and infinitely alluring music in the context of the complicated country that gave birth to and influenced it, and was in turn transformed by it. The series offers complex and engaging portraits of many of the greatest figures in jazz – among them Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Bix Beiderbecke, Fletcher Henderson, Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, John Coltrane and Miles Davis.”

Amazon Link

 

13 ) The Folk Songs of North America and American Ballads and Folk Songs, by Alan and John Lomax (high school to adults)

“A book to cherish permanently.” — The New York Times. With this ample collection of authentic ballads and songs, you can immerse yourself in the rich tradition and heritage of American folk music. Discover the diversity, spontaneity, free-flowing melody, and sheer invention of scores of songs sung by cowboys and convicts, lumberjacks, hobos, miners, plantation slaves, mountaineers, soldiers, and many others. One of the remarkable features of this collection is its authenticity. Many of the songs were recorded “on location” by noted folklorist John A. Lomax and his even more famous son, Alan, as they traveled around the United States.”

Amazon Link

 

14 ) Itzhak, by Alison Chernick’s (high school to adults)

“From Schubert to Strauss, Bach to Brahms, Mozart to…Billy Joel, Itzhak Perlman’s violin playing transcends mere performance to evoke the celebrations and struggles of real life; “praying with the violin,” says renowned Tel Aviv violinmaker Amnon Weinstein. Alison Chernick’s enchanting documentary Itzhak looks beyond the sublime musician, to see the polio survivor whose parents emigrated from Poland to Israel, the young man who struggled to be taken seriously as a music student when schools saw only his disability. As charming and entrancing as the famous violinist himself, Itzhak is a portrait of musical virtuosity seamlessly enclosed in warmth, humor, and above all, love.”

Amazon Link

 

15 ) The Triumph of Music: The Rise of Composers, Musicians, and Their Art, by Tim Blanning (high school to adults)

“A distinguished historian chronicles the rise of music and musicians in the West from lowly balladeers to masters employed by fickle patrons, to the great composers of genius, to today’s rock stars. How, he asks, did music progress from subordinate status to its present position of supremacy among the creative arts? Mozart was literally booted out of the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg “with a kick to my arse,” as he expressed it. Yet, less than a hundred years later, Europe’s most powerful ruler—Emperor William I of Germany—paid homage to Wagner by traveling to Bayreuth to attend the debut of The Ring. Today Bono, who was touted as the next president of the World Bank in 2006, travels the world, advising politicians—and they seem to listen.”

Amazon Link

 

Get Updates on Our Education Research

Related Content:

U.K. Cambridge’s Prof. David Abulafia on Oceans, Seas, & Global Trade

This week on The Learning Curve, Professor David Abulafia from Cambridge University discusses the many roles of the world’s oceans in human history and trade. He focuses on how the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans, along with the Mediterranean Sea, have spurred the rise of civilizations. He concludes with a reading from his book The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans.

The Rise of the Grievance Essay?

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision that racial discrimination in college admissions is unconstitutional, Harvard and other elite colleges and universities have adopted new essay prompts that openly invite applicants to air identity-based grievances in hopes of aiding their admissions chances.

A History of Massachusetts’ Peculiar Beach Access Laws

Massachusetts rivals Maine for the lowest percentage of publicly owned and accessible coastal land. What seems a geographic coincidence is actually the product of contentious property rights disputes going back nearly 400 years, to the days of Puritan law.

Dr. Peter Wood on Diversity and Anger in America

This week on The Learning Curve, Dr. Peter Wood, president of the National Association of Scholars, discusses the invention of the modern concept of diversity, the history of U.S. Supreme Court rulings on the concepts of diversity and race in college admissions, and how a culture of anger seems to pervade American life.

UConn’s Prof. Manisha Sinha on The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition

This week on The Learning Curve, UConn Professor Manisha Sinha discusses the influential figures and seminal events that created the abolitionist movement. She describes the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade, Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, and other key moments in the fight to end slavery.

University Presidents Salary Comparison, Pt. 2

See how Massachusetts state schools' presidential salaries match up. Presidents with schools who have less than a 1,000 student enrollment are near the top of the list.

The War on Math in Boston-Area School Boards

Despite long-standing bipartisan agreement that all students need and deserve challenging curricula for educational success, many Boston-area school boards are dismantling advanced math programs in the name of equity and inclusion; such moves only exacerbate educational disparities while ignoring the persisting achievement gaps across racial demographics.

University Presidents Salary Comparison, Pt. 1

See how much each president of a New England public university makes.

U.S. History and Civics Education: Lacking Standards, Little Knowledge

According to both the NAEP U.S. history and civics test results and a national survey emulating a U.S. citizenship test, students and citizens in America are largely lacking the mastery of the subjects. At a time when history and civics education is highly politicized, we must improve their education to ensure future generations of capable citizens.

Pulitzer Winner Tamara Payne on the Life and Legacy of Malcolm X

This week on The Learning Curve, guest cohosts Alisha Searcy and Mariam Memarsadeghi interview Tamara Payne, award-winning biographer, about Malcolm X. They delve into his early life, rise in the Nation of Islam, civil rights movement involvement, pilgrimage, assassination, and ongoing legacy debate. Ms. Payne concludes with a reading from her book.

Johns Hopkins’ Dr. David Steiner on Teaching Wisdom in Schools

This week on The Learning Curve, guest cohosts Charlie Chieppo and Alisha Searcy join Dr. David Steiner for a wide-ranging discussion about the importance of education as a means of transmitting enduring wisdom to young people.

Can Massachusetts Reverse the Decline in U.S. History and Civics Performance?

Massachusetts — home to so much history, including seminal events such as the Boston Tea Party — has much to be proud of in its own students’ history and civics performance. Even as policymakers have supplanted typical curricular standards with “engagement” mandates that students participate in progressive activism, national attitudes towards Massachusetts’ civic education have remained envious.

Pulitzer Winner Stacy Schiff on Samuel Adams & American Independence

This week for the Fourth of July, the Learning Curve interviews Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Stacy Schiff, who explores the American revolutionary Samuel Adams. She discusses Adams’ background, religion, and formative intellectual development, including the influences that Greco-Roman history, the Bible, and Enlightenment thinkers had upon his life and political thought.

Cara and Gerard on Their Time with The Learning Curve

This week on The Learning Curve, Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson close out their time as long-time cohosts of the podcast by sharing highlights and memories from over the last several years. They reflect upon the state of education reform, the growth of school choice, parental empowerment, the impact of the Great Books, and the wisdom of many well-known and influential guests.

Charter School Success: Importance in Suffolk County and College Enrollment

Learn about how charter schools set students up for success, especially in urban areas like Suffolk county. MCAS scores and college enrollment are stats that point to the impact of Charter schools.

A Bird’s Eye View: Massachusetts K-12 Education by County

Massachusetts has had the best public school system in the country for the past two decades: along with some of the highest per pupil spending as well. Among the counties, does high per pupil spending translate to better results? The short answer: not really.

Becket Fund’s Eric Rassbach on Religious Liberty & American Schooling

Eric Rassbach of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty discusses school choice and religious freedom, competing legal philosophies and views of the U.S. Constitution, and why issues pertaining to religion and schools remain so divisive at the K-12 level.

PRI’s Lance Izumi on Charter Schools & School Choice

Lance Izumi of the Pacific Research Institute discusses K-12 education reform, declining test scores, COVID-related learning loss, and the growth of education bureaucracy. He reflects on charter schools, school choice, and how U.S. history and civics should be taught.

Remove roadblocks for charter schools

Worcester, Brockton, Fall River, New Bedford, and other Gateway Cities in Massachusetts have large waiting lists for charter schools plus room to expand under state caps. What's needed are ways to curb obstructionist behavior that is blocking that expansion.

McGill Prof. Marc Raboy on Guglielmo Marconi & Global Communications

This week on The Learning Curve, McGill University Professor Marc Raboy, author of Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World, explores how twentieth-century Italian communications pioneer Guglielmo Marconi made his world-changing discoveries.