His Treasure Seekers

Last month we started becoming familiar with the music of French composer Claude Debussy.  There weren’t a lot of extras to go along with our study, but that didn’t lessen our enjoyment.  I’m realizing that one composer a month is rather a quick pace, for I’m finding myself surprised when we come to the end of a month and move on.  This first year I’m really only trying to introduce the whole idea of composer study, so I think we’ll keep with my original plan.  However, next year will be Ian’s official “Kindergarten” year, and I think then we’ll slow down a little and just do one composer per term, probably sticking with the suggested schedule from Ambleside Online.  (Actually, I included their composers for this year in our own schedule because I knew we wouldn’t be doing a full study and I wanted to hit all the major composers this year as an introduction.)

Here’s what we listened to in our month with Debussy:

• “Voyage to the Moon” (based on “Claire de Lune”) from Beethoven’s Wig: Sing-Along Piano Classics
• Classics for Kids episodes on Debussy
• Prelude to an Afternoon With a Fawn, La Mer and Nocturnes from CDs we found at the library
• “Nuit d’Etoiles” and “La Belle aus Bois Dormant” recordings from my senior vocal recital in college
• My First Classical Music Book section on Debussy (book with CD)
• “Arabesque No.1” from The Story of the Orchestra by Robert Levine (book with CD)