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Classics for Kids Introduce children to classical music in a fun and entertaining way.
Classics for Kids

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Classics for Kids

Classics for Kids

From WGUC Classical

Introduce children to classical music in a fun and entertaining way.

Most Recent Episodes

Ralph Vaughan Williams 5: Winter in Music

It's December, and winter has officially begun. This is a program of music with wintery themes.

Ralph Vaughan Williams 4: Christmas Carols in Classical Music

In celebration of the Christmas season, some classical compositions that have Christmas carols in them.

Ralph Vaughan Williams 3: Turn of the 20th Century English Composers

Ralph Vaughan Williams arrived on the scene just as a definite English classical music sound was being established. His three main teachers at the Royal Academy of Music were Arthur Sullivan, Hubert Parry, and Charles Stanford. Edward Elgar and Gustav Holst also had an influence on Vaughan Williams.

Ralph Vaughan Williams 3: Turn of the 20th Century English Composers

Download · 6:00

Ralph Vaughan Williams 2: Musical Fantasies

Originally, a musical fantasy was a piece that instrumentalists made up as they went along. Eventually, fantasies evolved into pieces that composers built out of various melodies they liked — like the Scottish folk tunes that Max Bruch put into his Scottish Fantasy for violin and orchestra.

Ralph Vaughan Williams 1: About Ralph Vaughan Williams

Ralph Vaughan Williams was one of the most important 20th century English composers. He spent years traveling the country collecting English folk songs, writing them down, and publishing them. Many of those melodies wound up in his music.

Charles Ives 4: American Hymns in Classical Music

Charles Ives loved to put hymns into his music. Several other composers borrowed hymn tunes; here are several examples from 20th Century American compositions.

Charles Ives 3: Folk Tunes in Classical Music

The Country Band March has 12 recognizable popular and folk tunes in it. But Ives was not the only composer to put borrowed tunes in his music. Many classical composers — including Ludwig van Beethoven, Mily Balakirev, and Percy Grainger — used folk music in the pieces they wrote.

Charles Ives 2: Marching Through the Country Band March

Charles Ives wrote the Country Band March about amateur musicians — people who make music for the love of it. In the Country Band March Ives combines a tune that he wrote with bits and pieces of many other popular and folk tunes. See how many of them you can recognize.

Charles Ives 1: About Charles Ives

The music that Charles Ives wrote was greatly influenced by his father, George. From the time he was a kid, Ives heard his father experiment with sound. George Ives always told Charlie to "stretch his ears," and Charlie did that with every piece of music he wrote.

Igor Stravinsky 5: Halloween Music

Appropriately spooky classical music for Halloween.

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