This Saturday and Sunday the Toronto Symphony will be performing Gershwin's "An American in Paris". This is a neat, jazzy work which evokes the sights and sounds of Paris. In the music you can hear very clearly the honking of cars and imagine being a tourist walking down Les Champs Élysées. In the middle is the very famous trumpet blues solo which represents the tourist feeling homesick. I had planned on introducing the class to this work, but I think preparations for our open-house will have to trump this musical story for now. Nevertheless, if you have the time and would like to hear it live, check out the TSO Website for details! You can, of course, hear it on YouTube as well.
Earlier this week we listened to Saint-Saëns' Le Carnaval des Animaux. This work is very accessible for children. It is made up of 14 short movements which represent animals (including humans and fossils)! The music always moves or sounds the way the animal does, making them very guessable! My personal favourite are the Fossils in movement 12, represented by the xylophone, but the most famous movement is certainly #13, The Swan, for solo cello with piano accompaniment, which has become famous on its own. You will certainly recognize it if you hear it. I encourage you to listen to this wonderful work again with your child and see if they can tell you which animals are coming and going!
If dance is more your thing, I'd like to draw your attention to the National Ballet Website for information about their new ballet, Le Petit Prince, based on the book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. You'll probably recall about two months ago I mentioned that the movie was airing at The Royal on College and that we would be reading the book later this year. Well, it's later, and we are reading it! We are on chapter 6 already and have been introduced to the aviator (the narrator) and le Petit Prince. We know that the Petit Prince lives on a very small planet and that he needs help keeping the baobob trees from taking over his small space! About the narrator, we know that he likes to draw, but doesn't think he's very good at it because of some unfortunate comments from adults when he was a kid, and that because of this past experience, he doesn't have the highest regard for grown-ups (even though presumably he is one now).
Anyway, from what I've read, the ballet doesn't retell the story, but is based on the same themes. I'm sure it will be great - I've got my tickets!
