# Classical pieces (or excerpts) for children



## Kornrade (Nov 9, 2017)

Hello all,

I have been trying to create a collection of instrumental classical pieces or excerpts, with the purpose of introducing my daughter to classical music, as well as brushing up on my own knowledge. As you'll probably notice from the rest of the post, I only have general knowledge of classical music, and I "rate" pieces based on subjective criteria rather than technical merits of the compositions.

When starting the list, I intended to put together pieces from various composers and periods, pieces that are (in general) lively, harmonic and short (or shortened to <6 min, keeping the main theme). Also, in order to preserve variety, I tried to not fill the list with Mozart and Bach 

To understand what I mean, here is the list so far, in alphabetical order of the composers.
Bold entries would be the first picks of my daughter.
_
Alfven - Swedish Rhapsody No.1
*Anderson - The Typewriter*
Bach - *Well-tempered Clavier*, Badinerie, Bouree, Brandenburg No.3, Cello suite No.1
Beethoven - *Rondo a capriccio*, Fur Elise, Menuet in G, 5th symphone theme
Berlioz - Rakoczy March
Bizet - Toreadors, Habanera
Boccherini - Minuetto
Brahms - Hungarian Dance Nº 5 excerpt
Charpentier - Te Deum - Prelude
Chopin - April Dreams, Spring waltz
Clementi - Sonatina in C major
Cortazar - Beethoven's Silence
*Debussy - Petite Suite - Ballet*
Delibes - Sylvia - Pizzicato
*Doga - Gramofon*
*Dvořák - New World Symphony - Allegro con fuoco*
Elgar - Pomp And Circumstance Nº 1
Enescu - Romanian Rhapsody - The lark
Francœur - Cello Sonata in E Major - 2nd movement
Fucik - Entry Of The Gladiators
Glinka - Polka in D minor
*Gossec - Gavotte*
Grieg - Peer Gynt - Morgenstimmung, In the Hall of the Mountain King (instrumental)
Händel - Water music, The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
Haydn - Symphony Nº 45 (Abschiedssinfonie) - Finale
*Hummel - Trumpet Concerto - 3rd movement*
Ibert - The little white donkey
Ivanovici - Danube Waves
*Jenkins - Palladio*
Kabalevsky - Comedians' Galop
*Khachaturian - Gayane - Sabre Dance*
*Ligeti - Six Bagatelles - Allegro con spirito*
Liszt - Hungarian Rhapsody Nº 2 excerpt
Lumbye - Champagne Galop
Mendelssohn - Symphony Nº 4 (Italia) - 1st movement
Milhaud - Scaramouche - Brasileira
Mouret - Sinfonie de Fanfares - Rondeau
Mozart - *Rondo alla turca*, Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Ein musikalischer Spaß K 522 - IV Presto, excerpts from Piano concerto No. 21 and Symphonies 25, 40, 41
*Offenbach - Infernal Galop*
Pachelbel - Canon
Paganini - Sonata Nº 1
*Peter - Erinnerungen an Zirkus Renz*
Petzold - Minuet in G major
*Pieczonka - Tarantella*
Ponchielli - Dance of the Hours excerpt
Prokofiev - Peter And The Wolf (The Story Begins), Dance of the Knights
Rameau - Tambourine
Ricketts - Colonel Bogey March
Rimsky-Korsakov - Flight Of The Bumblebee
Rosas - Over The Waves
Rossini - The Barber Of Seville (Overture), The Thieving Magpie (Overture), Wilhelm Tell (Overture)
Saint-Saëns - The Carnival of the Animals various
Scarlatti - Sonata in G major K455
Schubert - Nº 3 - Allegro moderato
Shostakovich - Waltz Nº 2
Smetana - The Bartered Bride - Dance of the Comedians
Sousa - The Washington Post - March
Strauss - Persian and Spanish March, Pizzicato and Tritsch-tratsch Polka, Voices of Spring
*Strauss Sr. - Radetzky March*
Stravinsky - Firebird - Infernal dance
Tchaikovsky - Piano Concerto Nº 1 excerpt, *Dance of the Little Swans*, The Nutcracker Suite various
Verdi - Aida Triumphal March
Vivaldi - Spring and Summer excerpt
von Suppé - Light Cavalry - Overture
Wagner - Walkürenritt
Waldteufel - Die Schlittschuhläufer
Williams - The Devil's Galop
_

So, what other pieces would you recommend for the list?
What pieces would you recommend from known composers not in the list yet (Schumann, Bartok, Mahler,...)?
What pieces would you recommend from lesser known composers I probably haven't heard of?
What would be your top 3 picks for Mozart, Bach, StraussII, Beethoven?

Thanks.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

Satie's children's pieces should be in there. At least they are actually playable for a child.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

I wouldn't know. When I was a kid, I didn't much like classical music for children. I wanted the real thing. 

But it may be I was an exception. Most kids resent having this or that music genre rammed down their throats. On the other hand, if you can find a way to get it onto their cell phones, they'll listen to anything at all.


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## Phil loves classical (Feb 8, 2017)

Bartok wrote wrote a bunch of short pieces for children called "For Children", Mikrokosmos, and others. It was used to introduce beginners to modern music and accustom them to disonnance. My conservatory used to include a lot in its cirriculum.

Check this out


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Need to add Humperdinck's Hansen & Gretel. The Evening Prayer has got to be one of the most beautiful duets ever composed:


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

I think you made a very impressive list, just start there and see how it goes, plenty of time for more.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Phil loves classical said:


> Bartok wrote wrote a bunch of short pieces for children called "For Children", Mikrokosmos, and others. It was used to introduce beginners to modern music and accustom them to disonnance. My conservatory used to include a lot in its cirriculum.
> 
> Check this out


Trust ole Bela not to "write down" to children. His solo piano pieces are all pretty great stuff. 

Not too sure how many children would be able to play it though...


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## Kornrade (Nov 9, 2017)

Thanks for the replies and suggestions. I would like to clarify that I am not looking specifically for pieces written for children (after all, the list contains Dvorak New World Symph, Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto 1, Stavinsky and Wagner). Rather I look for pieces that do not need special training for being enjoyed. There are several allegros that keep an enjoyable pattern rhythm or theme, marches, gallops and polkas, pieces emphasizing various instruments (Rameau - harpsichord , bach-cello, Enescu - violin, Hummel - trumpet, Peter - xylophone).

Also, I only included instrumental pieces, not even Rossini's Cat duet 

And I do not want to force any of them, if my daughter does not like any piece, it flies out of the collection (as has happened with Bach-Air, Strauss - Blue Danube, Debussy - Clair de lune, Porumbescu - Balad, Smetana - Moldau, Shubert - Unfinished, Paganini - Caprice 24, Khachaturian - Masquarade waltz etc.)


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## LezLee (Feb 21, 2014)

Nielsen - Oriental Festival March from 'Aladdin'. My niece & nephew always enjoyed this.


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## Bill Cooke (May 20, 2017)

Many of the individual movements in Mussorgsky's Pictures at an exhibition... the Rimsky-Korsakov arrangement of Night on Bald Mountain... Any movement from Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade... Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre and Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah... Dukas' Sorcerer's Apprentice.


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## mathisdermaler (Mar 29, 2017)

A collection of very short and usually fun programmatic pieces by Satie (the first couple are the most serious). You can talk to your child about the music and how it relates to the program.


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## mathisdermaler (Mar 29, 2017)

Kornrade said:


> Hello all,
> 
> I have been trying to create a collection of instrumental classical pieces or excerpts, with the purpose of introducing my daughter to classical music, as well as brushing up on my own knowledge. As you'll probably notice from the rest of the post, I only have general knowledge of classical music, and I "rate" pieces based on subjective criteria rather than technical merits of the compositions.
> 
> ...


Aren't you afraid your child might grow up to be stupid if they're not listening to the Musical Offering by age 6? (joking)


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## Bill Cooke (May 20, 2017)

I would also suggest showing your child Walt Disney's FANTASIA. The combination of music and animation may trigger additional interest in classical music.


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## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

The BBC has been doing a thing called "Ten Pieces" for the last few years, where 10 pieces are chosen and various resources are provided to schools for engaging children with the music. Some unsurprising choices, but they make an effort to be inclusive, and new music gets a decent shake too. 

Ten Pieces I:
John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine
Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 (1st movement)
Britten: Storm Interlude from Peter Grimes
Grieg: In the Hall of the Mountain King
Handel: Zadok the Priest
Holst: Mars
Anna Meredith: Connect It
Mozart: Horn Concerto No. 4 (3rd movement)
Mussorgsky: A Night on the Bare Mountain
Stravinsky: The Firebird suite (Finale)

Ten Pieces II:
Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565
Bernstein: Mambo from Symphonic Dances from 'West Side Story'
Bizet: Habanera and Toreador Song from Carmen Suite No. 2
Anna Clyne: Night Ferry (extract)
Haydn: Trumpet Concerto (3rd movement)
Gabriel Prokofiev: Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra (5th movement)
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 (2nd movement)
Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending
Verdi: Dies Irae and Tuba Mirum from Requiem
Wagner: Ride of the Valkyries

Ten Pieces III:
Kerry Andrew: No Place Like 
Mason Bates: Anthology of Fantastic Zoology – Sprite; A Bao A Qu
Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Symphony No. 1 in G major (1st mvt)
Copland: Rodeo – Hoedown
Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 (2nd mvt)
Elgar: Enigma Variations – Theme (‘Enigma’), variations 11, 6 & 7
Orff: Carmina burana – O fortuna
Purcell: Abdelazer – Rondeau
Sibelius: Finlandia
Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker – Waltz of the Flowers; Russian Dance


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## Botschaft (Aug 4, 2017)

Consider these for Brahms:


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Bill Cooke said:


> I would also suggest showing your child Walt Disney's FANTASIA. The combination of music and animation may trigger additional interest in classical music.


This was the most popular introduction of children to classical music for more than one generation. (Along with Warner Bros. cartoons.)


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## Bill Cooke (May 20, 2017)

DaveM said:


> This was the most popular introduction of children to classical music for more than one generation. (Along with Warner Bros. cartoons.)


It certainly had a big influence on me. I was 12 years old when I first saw it in a theater. I was so bowled over by it that I stayed and sat through the next showing. Thankfully, my parents had a large collection of classical LPs, which I quickly consumed after FANTASIA ignited the spark.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

When I was a child the music fed to us at school was British light music from the '50s (so about 20 years out of step), but I always liked it. Even now I remember Edward White's _Puffin' Billy_ and _The Devil's Gallop_ by Charles Williams, well-known as the theme from _Dick Barton Special Agent_. Both great pieces.

Here's the latter played the great John Wilson Orchestra:


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## Sloe (May 9, 2014)

When I was a child I liked Mozart´s 40th symphony, Beethovens fifth and ninth symphonies, Schuberts ninth symphony and the Per Gynt suite by Grieg.


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## Taplow (Aug 13, 2017)

How about Rossini's Cat Duet?


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## Kornrade (Nov 9, 2017)

Some of the suggestions made it to the collection, the others (that were not already in) are in a list, maybe for a second collection 


What made it in:
Nielsen's Oriental March
Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition - VI Tuileries
Satie - Le Tango prepétual
Bartok - Allegro barbaro, which lead to...
... Alkan - Etude sans opus
Gottschalk - Tournament Galop
Rzewski - The People United Will Never Be Defeated - Theme
Clarke - The Prince of Denmark's March (Trumpet Voluntary)
Gluck - Dance of the Furies

Thanks again for sharing the insights :cheers:


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