Bravo for another treasure from Penny Gardner! The 40 plus songs in this book provide plenty of material for Christmas programs or supplemental lesson work. Organized according to ease of playing, these pieces presume some prior recorder experience. (For those brand new to the instrument, I highly recommend the original Nine-Note Recorder Method text which includes instruction and 30 familiar Christmas songs.)
This is a beautiful hymnal with all the favorite traditional Catholic hymns and the parts and prayers of the Mass in English and Latin. It avoids any use of "feminized" (a.k.a. inclusive) language, which has destroyed so many of the Church's beautiful hymns and even tried to remove the use of "he" or "him" when referring to Jesus. Our family has taken to pulling out this hymnal every morning after prayers and each person picking out their favorite song to sing together before beginning the school day.
This book consists of a fine selection of favorite hymns, including musical notation, and rather detailed stories about the authors of the text, the composers of the music, giving the student a good idea of how and when the music came about. The author's purpose in writing the book "was to restore attention to some of the finest hymns, in the hope that they might replace the miserable afflictions that keep cropping up in ... "missalettes"...
This is a very beautiful, if eclectic recording of Gregorian Chant, Renaissance Polyphony and some miscellaneous "popular" tunes from numerous European countries (ranging from the 11th to the 17th century). Composers include Hildegard of Bingen, William Byrd, Giovanni da Palestrina and Josquin des Prez. An enclosed booklet gives brief biographies of these and other major composers of the time. I think this is a nice place to start for those unfamiliar with early music. Everyone at our house enjoyed the recording very much.
It is commonly believed today that Mozart's music is so beautiful and well-ordered that it can have a beneficial effect on the brain's development in children who listen to it during their developing years. Using this theory, the Baby Einstein company have made an audio and video package meant to capitalize on these ideas. The audio CD takes some of the most famous (and most beautiful) compositions of Mozart and performs them with alternate instruments (small bells and/or a xylophone I believe) to make them more "baby-friendly." I didn't really care for this version of music.
This audio provides an indepth story of Mozart's life combined with tidbits of his most popular works followed by the complete Serenade Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, one of his most famous works and one that tends to be well-liked by children just being introduced to classical music. Overall, I think the content is quite suitable for children.
Each set in this series contains two or three tapes and a book. The books contains the lyrics and music to a wide variety of folk tunes from around the world, hymns, and Gregorian chants. The Gregorian chants are relatively difficult, but the other songs are fairly easy to sing. I didn't know many of the songs, but we have enjoyed learning them. Each set of a book and tapes is roughly aimed at different ages, but I am having no trouble using the 4th-6th grade set with my seventh grade daughter. The sets are 1st-3rd grades, 4th-6th grades, and 7th-8th grades.
Three time national fiddle champion Bonnie Rideout put together an enchanting collection of songs and poems for children on this CD. She has set traditional poems and nursery rhymes (such as Bobbie Shafto and Wee Willie Winkie) to traditional Scottish tunes and includes familiar songs such as My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean and Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be.
The best part of the CD are the pieces of original and traditional music set to the poems of Robert Louis Stevenson and an absolutely ingenious adaption of the Yeats poem, The Fiddler from Dooney.
Kit includes four sets of 10 flashcards: Keys & Notes, Signs & Symbols, Rhythm & Vocabulary, Intervals & Chords