This book is the ninth part of the "To The Child Series" edited by the poet Kitajima, and was launched by CITIC Publishing House.
In the past two years, CITIC Publishing House has launched a series of works for children, including "Poems for Children", "Essays for Children", "Ancient Poems for Children", "Chinese Character Kingdom for Children", "Animal Fables for Children", "Beauty for Children", etc. Recently they have launched a book "Music for Children". This is the ninth part of the "To The Child Series" edited by the poet Kitajima, and the famous music critic Liu Xuefeng has selected 320 famous Pieces of Western classical music, which are free to enjoy and explain from shallow to deep.
The historical span of the selection of music in the whole book begins with the Renaissance and Baroque eras, from classicism, romantic music, and ethnic music to Impressionism and modernism, involving 115 composers, 320 works (including wonderful fragments selected from large-scale works), and the whole book takes the keywords of emotional education required for children's growth as the program, including sixteen chapters such as innocence, games, animals, nature, fairy tales, myths, and heroes. The author provides the necessary background introduction and concise guided commentary on the selected tracks, and the book also includes free listening links to the famous editions of 320 classics of Western classical music. This is a very useful book for both children and adults who want to enter the world of Western classical music.
In the preface to the book, liu Xuefeng, a classical music promoter, music critic, connoisseur and scholar, talked about his children's perception of learning music and his daughter's music learning path. We recommend it to parents who are interested in music.
Author Liu Xuefeng
The following is an excerpt from Liu Xuefeng's preface
I am the father of my children and a lover of classical music. My father used to be a musician, and when I was a kid, my father's music career was at its best.
My daughter, like thousands of Chinese children, used to be a piano child. Perhaps, as her violin teacher put it, she is a "good material" for violinists, because she has a good "musical sense", strong visual spectral ability, and is born with a pair of big hands. This last point is very important, if I had a pair of "big hands" like her, I might have learned the piano with my father all the time, even if I can't become a violinist, the fun of enjoying music in the future will be very different.
My daughter ended up not going the way of a violinist. In fact, when she was not in middle school, I figured out a truth - you can enjoy music without majoring in music. At the same time, I would rather see my daughter have a complete and happy childhood. She likes to sing European and American pop songs, likes to read, likes to scribble, and of course is obsessed with Barbie dolls and teddy bears. She began to accompany her violin very early, but it was just one of her favorite toys. I was particularly pleased that the toy had "finally" become her favorite. If she didn't pick up the violin for days to "play", she would be uncomfortable. I remember that after the intense final exam, she would always say, "You can play the violin happily." ”
Indeed, every holiday is the time she practices the most. That's a willing practice! If I think about it, from the first time my daughter was exposed to the violin to the time she graduated from high school, if she had loved the violin so much, I would have thought that a musical genius had been born in the family. Because in my understanding, the so-called genius is a natural fate, and it is barely possible to come at all. Unfortunately, the daughter was not a genius, and her interest in music was slowly cultivated through appreciation.
In China, why not even a million children like my daughter who are piano children but don't expect to take the professional road? What is the purpose of these children learning the piano? Of course, there is no reason to improve self-cultivation, enrich life, develop intelligence, or even add points to exams. However, most of the piano children I came into contact with did not like music because they learned the piano, and some even hated music and resisted it. I think this is the greatest waste, but also the greatest sorrow.
It goes without saying what music can do to children. I only hope that parents who let their children learn to play the piano and children who are already sitting on the piano bench will not live up to the beauty of music. The concert awakens the sleeping soul, like a spring breeze blowing through, and the heavens and the earth are warm as a dream. Once a person's life is accompanied by music, the spirit will get the greatest satisfaction. Music is the magic that can bring people the experience of happiness like the Garden of Eden.
Music is a magical artistic language with extraordinary appeal. Beautiful music has no age limit for appreciation, especially the great classics accumulated over the past thousand years in the history of Western music, which are treasures that everyone should appreciate and love in their lifetime. The beautiful moments presented by some of these works are not only popular in the world of music, but also famous in the history of human civilization.
Perhaps, it is not so easy for children to quickly understand the ideological, religious, and literary nature of some musical works. But, from another point of view, the child's mind may be able to feel the pure emotions of these works more directly, because great musical works always point directly to the human heart.
Enjoying music doesn't matter if you get started or not, anyone can enter from any entrance. We can enter the room through the romantic school first, or we can easily be attracted to the Baroque style, while the classical music school haydon and Mozart exude charm because of their closeness to real life. Everyone's circumstances are different, and the way they enter the world of music is different. The reason why I emphasize chance is that I hope that every child, including the piano child, will fall in love with music completely from the heart and without external interference.
The music is full of unspeakable mysteries. Whether you're in love with Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, or Brahms, Bruckner, and Mahler, or you've gone even further into Wagner, Verdi, Puccini, and Richard Schwarzenegger. In Strauss's world, you can introduce these musicians as confidants, through whom you can perceive the mysteries of everything in the world. Listen to music be sure to listen to "good" music. "Good" music refers not only to good works, but also to good interpretations and interpretations. When there aren't so many high-quality live concerts around you, classic recordings are a good mentor.
The music I choose for children is not limited to "children's music", but rather, not all "children's theme" music. I put more emphasis on exposing children to classical music with a certain content point during the growth of the body and consciousness.