21st June World Music Day

World Music Day is an annual day of music celebration that takes place on 21st June on the summer solstice. The first occurrence happened in Paris in 1982, originated by Jack Lang, the former Minister of Culture of France. The celebration spread to other countries, where people are encouraged to play music in public, and free concerts are organised in most towns and cities for the benefit of all!

In Australia it will be the winter solstice, not really the weather for outdoor concerts. Even so my daughter is off to a concert on a boat this evening, so perhaps it is. 

I feel very prepared to celebrate this day as I have spent so much time looking at the library's music books in readiness for the Book Week celebrations of Symphony of Stories.

Just put Book Week, music or Symphony of Stories in my search and lots of books will come up.

Book Week Planning for Symphony of Stories Part 8: Little People Big Dreams: Musicians

Recently I have read so much on line about how uninspired teacher librarians are with this year's Book Week slogan: Symphony of Stories.  I'm not sure why, there's so many books featuring music and you should let the books do the display, not spend hours creating unnecessary landfill. You want your books to be borrowed. If you are short of music books, I'm sure you are not short of the very popular Little People Big Dreams books. They are probably the most borrowed books in my library and I keep them in bins altogether so the students can find them easily and without making a mess of the shelves. 

There are now more than twenty titles which feature famous musicians. Type in Little People Big Dreams Musicians and see how many there is. Here's some examples  to get you started. Think about making copies of their covers into music notes or putting them on old CDs or records to make a display with the books.

Book Week Planning for Symphony of Stories Part 7: What's left?

Opera

Opera is a dramatic theatrical genre within Western classical music where a story is told entirely through singing and orchestral music. The words of an opera is called the libretto (from the Latin term for “book”; a musical theatre libretto is called the book of the musical.) The music for the opera would be called the score. Operas and musical theatre first and foremost tell a story, so they are very fitting for a theme such as 'symphony of stories'.

Operas such as the stories of Hansel and Gretel and The Magic Flute are easy places to start, but there are picture books for Turandot  and La Traviata as well. The Music Storybook series is beautifully illustrated by recognised children's book artists. This unique series presents famous operas, ballets and suites in a picture book form. Each book also includes six supplementary pages with background information about the composer and the musical piece.

Ballet

A book such as this, introduces children to the music that accompanies many famous ballets -Swan Lake, Giselle, The Nutcracker, Spartacus, and The Firebird.

And this too introduces the stories of seven ballets.

Biographies of musicians not previously mentioned 

Teresa Carreno (1853 - 1917)  a Venezuelan pianist, composer, soprano, and conductor. 

Ethel Smyth (1858 - 1944) English composer and suffragette. Her compositions include songs, works for piano, chamber music, orchestral works, choral works and operas.

Amy Beach (1867 - 1944) American composer and pianist. She was the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music. Her "Gaelic" Symphony, premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1896, was the first symphony composed and published by an American woman. 

Elizabeth Cotten (1893 - 1987) an influential American folk and blues musician.

Marian Anderson (1897 - 1993) an American contralto who performed a wide range of music including opera.

George Gershwin (1898 - 1937) American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned jazz, popular and classical music. Famous for Rhapsody in Blue and folk opera Porgy and Bess.

Viola Smith (1912 - 2020) American drummer. She was one of the first professional female drummers.

Ishtak Perlman (1945 -  )  an Israeli-American violinist.

 

Pete Seeger (1919 -2014)  American folk singer, songwriter, musician and civil-rights activist. His best-known songs include “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”, “If I Had a Hammer” and “Turn, Turn, Turn.”

Elton John (1947 -   ) British singer and pianist.

 

Yo Yo Ma (1955 -   ) American celloist

Troy (Trombone Shorty) Andrews. (1986 -  ) Trombone Shorty, is an American musician, most notably a trombone player, from New Orleans.

Recycled Orchestra of Cateura is a famous Paraguayan musical group made up of children from a slum built atop a massive landfill in Asunción. They play classical and popular music on instruments crafted entirely from scavenged trash. 

Book Week Planning for Symphony of Stories Part 6: It doesn't have to be a symphony! Jazz

The Story Of Music
By James Carter & Valerio Vidali

It hums and it thrums
through day and night
the magical, mystical
rhythm of life!

This wonderful book introduces all sorts of music. (See it on Youtube)

Orchestras, choirs all kinds of bands 

journeyed around across the lands.

Jazz to country, samba to swing 

many new styles, new songs to sing. 

So here's some books that look at other kinds of music.

Jazz

 

• This Jazz Man by Karen Ehrhardt & R.G. Roth

This swinging make-over of “This Old Man” introduces the roles of nine jazz legends amid gorgeous illustrations and plenty of onomatopoeia.
(See it on Youtube)

And there are so many picture book biographies about famous jazz musicians and singers.

Duke Ellington 1899 - 1974 pianist

Louis Armstrong 1901 - 1971 trumpeter

Josephine Baker 1906 -1975 

Mary Lou Williams 1910 - 1981 pianist

Django Reinhardt 1910 - 1953 guitarist

Billie Halliday 1915 - 1954 jazz singer 

Dizzy Gillespie 1917 - 1993 trumpeter

Ella Fitzgerald 1917 - 1996 jazz singer

Charlie Parker 1920 - 1955 saxophonist

Oscar Peterson 1925 - 2007 pianist

John Coltrane 1926 - 1967 saxaphonist

Miles Davis 1926 - 1991 trumpeter

Melba Liston 1926 - 1999 trombonist

Nina Simone 1933 - 2003 pianist, singer

I am sure I have missed some, but this is a good start. Need another entry for other music and biographies.