Just got the Children's Corner (hope that's right - title didn't print) from Debussy (www.imslp.org), and just sight read through Dr. Gradus ad Parnassum. I've done Debussy before (Reflets dans l'eau, Arabesques), but I wasn't expecting this. Awesome! Simple, yet incredibly beautiful. A great kid piece! Can't wait to go through the rest of the suite.

Thanks to this board for tipping me off to this excellent music.

It's funny, I work my (posterior) off trying to play Liszt, Alkan, Rachmaninoff etc. etc. etc., but I just had a really great moment playing a kid piece. Maybe there's something to be said for keeping it simple.


Anybody know of other great classics for kids? I'm not talking entertaining a room full of strangers (recent thread), but my own kids who have heard quite a lot of classical music. They are going to really love this Debussy! Anybody know of some other cool pieces to play for one's own kids? Their other major favorites right now are the Khachaturian Toccata and Rachmaninoff's Bumblebee transcription.

Perhaps pieces that have been used in cartoons or elsewhere in pop culture? I'm thinking specifically of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 and the piano transcription of Franz von Suppé's Poet and Peasant Overture, both of which totally captivated me when I was a kid.

I loved Chopin's "butterfly" etude (25/9) and the etude in thirds (25/6), too. They were both on a 78-rpm disc that I bought at a rummage sale and played to death before I was even old enough to go to school.

Steven

Serenade for the Doll - what a haunting and captivating piece.

gerg!

It's so good to see you again in these parts. Please stick around! (Don't let me beat you to the 1000-post club!)

Steven

Thanks Sotto Voce! What hooked me on piano was my Dad's box set of Reader's digest LP's - "Chopin, Poet of the Piano". About 8 vinyl records of Richter and others playing Chopin. Awesome.

I do the Liszt #2 for the kids, but there's about 8 bars towards the end (big ascending runs over the inverted bass) that I can't quite handle in tempo, so it loses effect a little. Oh well.

I haven't worked up the gumption to attempt either of the Chopin etudes you mentioned yet. I am forcing myself to get Op 10. #1 down perfectly before I mess with any of the rest of them again. Major struggle.

WildWillie

Debussy´s childrens corner is not for kids (!), but about kids. In other words, the suite is not like for instance Prokofievs music for children, which is a collection of 10 easier pieces written to be performed by kids. From what I´ve heard, Childrens corner was written for adult players, and Debussy´s intention with this suite was only to evoke memories of childhood.

dava, if you reread the OP you'll see that it refers to pieces to play for kids rather than for kids to play (i.e., stuff that one would predict children to find entertaining).
Steven

Carnival of the Animals, Saint-Saens (sp?)

Some pieces from Pictures at an Exhibition, like the Gnome or Ballad of the Unhatched Chicks.

Exactly. The same way that Schumann's Kinderszenen is not for kids but about kids. People get the wrong impression from these works' titles.

What are the 10 "Prokovievs music for children" pieces so I can take a look for my kids to play? Any other such pieces written for kids to perform on the piano? Thanks.

Is there any reason to think children shouldn't listen to compositions with themes of childhood or find them entertaining—even if they weren't conceived as pieces for children to perform?

"Not for kids" sounds like a description of an adult movie.

Steven

Prokofiev's "Music for Children" Op 65 contains some real gems, and the music is interesting enough -not surprising with Prokofiev- for an adult to enjoy. I hear them on the radio occasionally, just delightful! I was going to recommend you download the score from IMSLP, but it seems to be temporarily blocked.

Jason, I got the same message—but it's non-public domain in the U.S. and EU, too.

I wonder if the message correlates with the location of one's IP address, or if it's blocked worldwide "pending copyright review."

Steven

I have the music for Prokofievs Music for Children" Op 65, and though it´s a suite of 10 pieces, I would especially recomend no´s 4 & 12, as personal highlights.

i think schumann's childhood pieces are great. ive only learned the first and the traumerei however.

My kids like Beethoven's Rondo a Capriccio (Rage Over a Lost Penny) and, dare I say it, Fur Elise.

Faure's Dolly Corner is also a wonderful set of pieces. I'll recommend Ravel's Mother Goose suite, too.

I hear Finissey wrote some pieces for his children-- they must be quite the virtuosos!

And how could we forget Bizet's Jeux d'enfants Op. 22? Delightful work for piano four hands.

Very true statement. I purchased my score for this suite over a year ago. The foreward reads:

"These pieces are not designed to be played by children or meant to entertain children, but are rather small humorous pictures inspired by childhood... seen through the eyes of adults."

Uh, most kids can't play this piece, you do realize??? That piece is Level 9-10 in our state's syllabus, and even if kids get to that level, it's still a difficult piece to play well.

If you want easier "kid music," try "Desert Suite" by Carol Klose. Real artistic gems in that one.

Or Lowell Liebermann's "Album for the Young."

Or Kabalevsky's Op. 27 "Thirty Children's Pieces."

Or Bartok's "For Children" (Book 2 is more interesting than Book 1).

I just wanted to point out the pun in the title of the thread.

Why don't more people take the time to read the OP and subsequent messages before they respond? That's NOT what was meant by "kid music."

Dang! :rolleyes:

Steven