If Music Be the Food of Love, Play On! June 28 2018
Give me Excess of it. . .
Music is the Heart of the Waldorf Curriculum!
All human beings are made from music, and all children sing through their early childhood years. The Waldorf curriculum is laced with music — singing, recorder playing, orchestral instrument playing and Choral work. Not a grade goes by in which these skills are not made stronger, fresher, and more artistic.
Waldorf Publications has an extraordinary array of books to help teachers find good songs, play instruments themselves and bring the glory of music to lighten their classes.
*Discount cannot be combined with any other offers and is valid on books published by Waldorf Publications. Must use coupon code 18MUS15 during checkout to save 15% on titles pictured below (except science kits.) Sorry, no adjustments on previous purchases. Individual online orders only and while supplies last. Sale ends July 2, 2018 (11:59 P.M. PT).
At Home in Harmony by Meg Chittenden
Here’s a marvelous book designed to get us all singing at home. A glorious collection of folk songs from ‘round the world and harmony is added to them all. The book comes with a CD, designed to give us all ample opportunity to learn the songs and to sing them often.
Music from Around the World for Recorders — Collected and Arranged by Michael Preston
This new edition of a classic first book is designed to give recorder players in grade five through eight lovely tunes from different cultures in fantastic arrangements for three recorders (S-A-T). If your class does not yet play Alto or tenor, play in unison on the first line of the melody. It is still beautiful and a support for understanding through music the culture of others.
Recorder Ensemble — Collected and arranged by Stephen Bernstein
Here is another great collection of classical and original music arranged for four voices of recorders (S-A-T-B). Gone are the worries about notes too high or too low for a given recorder! These harmonious arrangements make the playing of pieces by classical composers and some recent composers (even by Stephen Bernstein, himself)and help a class understand how to play all four recorders in the family.
The Importance of Being Musical by Cynthia Frongillo
A supportive guide to incorporating music into the way we think about being with children and teaching children. Ignore whatever hesitation you might have about your musical abilities, children are tuned to hear the music in every one of us!
Traditions — Integrating the Days of Awe and Chanukah into the Waldorf Grades Curriculum by Erica Jayasuriya
Erica teaches us songs and singing games for the high holidays of the Jewish traditions. The book is dedicated to finding those opportunities throughout the school year to recognize the rich and varied Hebrew values and practices for celebration. If there are Jewish children in one’s class or the school, this book is a must read!
Music through the Grades — Grades One through Three by Diane Ingraham Barnes
This is a book of songs and a book of singing. The mood of the fifth and pentatonic folk songs abound as well as hints of playful ways to introduce the songs. Major and minor mood diatonic songs for the third grade are also included. There are three CDs, grade by grade, to help teachers and parents to learn the songs by heart and music notation for each song to play the songs on recorder, flute or piano or. . .
Allegro — Music for the Eurythmy Curriculum by Elisabeth Lebret
This is a comprehensive collection of music to carry a grade-level Eurythmy teacher through all his or her lessons! Some are darling, some powerful, some sweetly melodic. Class teacher can also find melodies for carrying a class with instructions woven into the lyrics for smooth transitions and happy circle exercises. Lebret understood the significance of music through the grades and the effectiveness of gearing music to each specific age. We can all learn intuitively from her music even if we think we are not musical.
Elisabeth Lebret's Pentatonic Songs For Nursery, Kindergarten and Grades 1 and 2, Shepherd’s Songbook, and Songs of Heaven and Earth are three books with all the songs you might need to carry a class through the mood of the fifth — that musical mood which Rudolf Steiner instructs is what children ages four through nine can actually hear the very best. Don’t understand the mood of the fifth? Just keep singing and you will! Elizabeth’s songs will guide you perfectly!
Something Rich and Strange, With a Voice of Joy, Songs from a Waldorf Classroom, When the Greenwoods Laugh! are collections of songs by a seasoned class and music teacher, Merwin Lewis, that pour over us with beautiful melodies with harmonies that can be used or not, depending on the wishes of a teacher and a class. Something Rich and Strange includes Shakespeare’s songs set to music — perfect for an eighth, tenth or twelfth-grade class play using one of The Bard’s best! With a Voice of Joy Is what it states: joyful songs for every day’s magic in a Waldorf class. And When the Greenwoods Laugh includes songs with poets’ words as lyrics from Blake, Wordsworth, and Merwin Lewis himself.
A Garden of Songs and Building the Chorus by Arnold Logan are two volumes designed for early grades and upper grades to teach classes to sing together well and with joy. The author’s arrangements are unusually and unusually effective in teaching children to sing while listening to the voices of others, avoiding loud singing that only keeps one voice on track. Sensitive variations of unison passages juxtaposed with rich harmonies make these collections perfect for building choral sensibilities and musical competence.
MUSIC AND DRAMA Combined for the Fun of It!
Eureka! The Life and Times of Archimedes by John Trevillion and Jeffrey Spade is a rollicking retelling of the life of Archimedes set to inspiring and sometimes funny music, depicting some of the remarkable highlights of this Greek genius. Want to take on a musical with grade five, eight, ten that brings history, philosophy, math, and catharsis together in a single play? Here’s your choice!
The Music of the Spheres by John Trevillion and Merwin Lewis tells the tale of Johannes Kepler, whose astronomical studies led to him hear the music that travels like light through and among the celestial heavens. From seventh grade upward, this is a play that will inspire and make this scientist’s life memorable but will thrill with the beautiful music woven into the play.
MUSIC and SCIENCE — Now Here’s (Hears?) a Combination!
Science Kit #3 — Chladni Plate Here is a marvel of sound if ever there was one! Use a stringed instrument bow and watch sand or salt jump into remarkable and lovely forms with each new tone engendered. This shows how formative sound is to everything on earth, ourselves included.
Science Kit #13 — Monochord Demonstrate to yourself and students the connection between math and physics by finding tones on a monochord — fractions of string length show the relationship of each tone to the length of the string.