Kids Classical Music Playlist
We’ve put together a playlist of our favourite classical music that we recommend as an introduction to the genre for your children. Below we summarise each track and why we’ve included it.
We recommend listening to the music in an environment where the child will be aware of the music, but also has some visual stimulation. For example, in a car ride where they can easily look out the window or ask you questions, or while they’re drawing at home. If your child loves to boogey, see whether they want to dance along! This way the music can be a nice accompaniment to whatever they’re doing. You could also gently point out the different sounds you can hear and ask them questions like “What does this music make you think of?” but be careful not to make the experience pressurising, they shouldn’t feel like they’re listening ‘wrong’.
Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf, No. 1 The Story Begins
Peter and the Wolf is best described as a symphonic fairy tale for children. Prokofiev wrote the music to introduce various elements of an orchestra to children, whilst telling a story. Sometimes the music is presented without the accompanying narration, but in this version Alexander Armstrong narrates the tale which is intercepted with the story which plays out what the words have just described.
We love this album as it introduces children to classical music in a format familiar to them: fairy tales. Whilst many cartoons or films have classical music in them, this focuses on putting the music at the forefront. Your child will be able to listen for the action in the music, introducing the idea that instruments can be ‘voices’ too.
2. Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf, No. 2 The Bird
This track is a continuation from Peter and the Wolf. We’ve only included the first two pieces from the album in this playlist – if your child seems to be enjoying the story feel free to switch over to the album and let them hear the rest! If not, proceed on to the next piece.
3. Blow the Wind Southerly (Arr. Kanneh-Mason)
Sheku Kanneh-Mason has a knack for selecting pieces on his albums that bring together his classical training and his personal taste. Blow the Wind Southerly is a traditional English folk song, you’ll most likely recognise the tune even if you don’t recognise the name. The beautiful melody is great for introducing a child to the sound of a cello, you could even look up the lyrics with your child and sing along.
4. Saint-Saëns: Le Carnaval des Animaux, The Swan
Next up is a second Kanneh-Mason performance, this time of this beautiful and well known piece from Saint-Saëns’ Le Carnaval Des Animaux, a humorous musical suite of fourteen movements. We’ve chosen The Swan movement, which evokes swans elegantly gliding over water. This piece feels highly emotional with an easy to follow melody for the listener that we think children will engage with.
5. Zoe Keating: Forte
Switching gears slightly, we’re throwing in a modern composition from cellist Zoe Keating. The strong cello melody is backed up by engaging beats that always evokes a strong emotion in us. When we get into the workshop on a cold morning we put this on and get geared up for the day!
6. Anna Meredith: Being Yourself
You may have noticed the increased tempo in the last track, well prepare yourself for this bombastic modern composition from Anna Meredith. We’ve included this piece to show the playful side of classical music. This piece is perfect for getting up and dancing to. The first half is big and beat heavy, but about half way through it completely drops off and the remaining minute or so is almost silent – we love this juxtaposition of mood and think it’s a great talking point for kids.
7. Ravel: Boléro
We almost feel we should apologise in advance for including this piece – adults either love it or hate it, but kids mostly love it. This piece is the same motif over and over again in different dynamics, tempos and moods. This variety of instrumentation is another great talking point, and as it repeats the same melody, it’s easy for kids to immediately engage with the differences between playing loudly and quietly, and which instrument currently holds the melody.
8. Einaudi: I Giorni
Now we’re starting to lower the energy level after the crescendo of the last few pieces. Einaudi is another modern composer who is best known for his melody heavy compositions and focus on repetitions. Many ‘serious’ classical music lovers view him with a certain level of snobbery, as they don’t see it as ‘real’ classical music, but his work is easily accessible for people new to classical music and easy to listen to. I Giorni is a piano composition that provides another opportunity to talk about how a piece of music might make you feel.
9. Arvo Pärt: Spiegel im Spiegel
You might feel that I’ve gone a bit modern-composer heavy on this playlist, but I really do think the modern compositions are easier to listen to for children as they often have repeating melodies which, as we know from nursery rhymes and Baby Shark, is usually a winner with kids. Arvo Pärt composed this piece in 1978, it’s haunting and beautiful. There isn’t a single unnecessary note in the whole piece. However the version in this playlist is a shortened version taking the piece from 10 minutes down to a more child-friendly four minutes. This is a sparse but impactful piece that I’ve seen many young musicians get excited about learning to play with their friends.
10. Eric Whitacre: Seal Lullabye
So far we’ve had just instrumental music, so the next two introduce vocals and are all lullabies. The first of these is the work of choral composer Eric Whitacre, and is based on the book The White Seal by Rudyard Kipling. The story starts with a poem by Kipling, which forms the lyrics for this piece. It’s a beautiful piece that feels very much like you can hear the seal hiding in the rushes soothing its child to sleep within the music.
11. Andreas Scholl and Tamar Halperin: Lullebye - Goodnight, My Angel
This piece comes from husband and wife duo Scholl and Halperin in their album The Family Songbook, which I also recommend you try out. This is actually a cover of a Billy Joel song, so we’re really stretching the definition of classical music here, but I think the tone and musicality of the piece means we can sneak it in.
12. Hè Luting: Lullabye
This playlist has been very Western-centric but we shouldn’t neglect the many classical works that come from other parts of the world. Hè is not a household name in the UK, but was a popular Chinese composer of the early 20th century. Hè composed songs for Chinese films beginning in the 1930s and was musical director of the Shanghai Conservatory during the revolution of the 1960s. This revolution persecuted many classical musicians, including Hè who was subjected to a physically abusive interrogation on national television. In contrast to his experiences, This lullabye piece is sweet and light with developing melodies in a major pentatonic scale which creates a vastly different sound from what we hear in most western classical music.