The Boi Girls' Musical Exploration

This morning, Gracie was listening to my radio. The DJs were announcing a contest to win tickets to David Archuleta's concert coming up. She wanted me to enter, but I told her I didn't really want to go to that concert. A few seconds later, an ad for the opera came on. I said, "now THAT is something I'd like to go to." After enduring a little bit of her 9 (almost 10) year old interpretation of opera and how boring it is, we started talking about classical music. She said she hated it. I said, you haven't listened to it enough. So, I decided to play some for her. We started with Tchaikovsky because his music tells beautiful stories and, most of all, because it is familiar. (Thank you Disney and Barbie). I knew the girls would love it. Every day we will listen to a different composer until the girls gain an "appreciation" of classical music. Listen to some of our favorites:

Swan Lake: This is one from the Barbie movies. I love this melody and the girls responded quickly to hearing this one.

1812 Overture: Gracie loved the energy behind this piece. It didn't hurt that Mom was pretending to be the conductor and wildly flailing her arms in time to the music.

tkmarch: (real title? probably not) The girls recognized this immediately. Loved it. Said we had already listened to it, but I didn't remember playing it this morning.

Sleeping Beauty Waltz: What little girl woudn't love this song. Especially since Disney put lyrics to it.

Pas de deux: Another thanks to the Barbie version of Swan Lake for including this Pas de Deux.

Romeo and Juliet: Settle in for a few minutes to listen to this whole thing. Gracie wasn't sold at the beginning because she said it was "too sad." After a while, the love theme came on and it was much more appealing for her.

Piano Concerto no 1: The rich melody made this an instant favorite with both girls. (And Mom's over the top dancing probably helped)

Pas de deux (2): Pretty sure this is the pas de deux where Barbie dances with the prince in Swan Lake.

Waltz of the Snowflakes: Gabi loved this one. I think it's in Barbie's Swan Lake too, the Queen and Barbie dance a duet to this (I think).

Next time I think we'll try Vivaldi. The girls want to hear Mozart. This is going to be fun! Please leave a comment with another composer or piece that you think the girls would love. Thanks! (note that we haven't really finished with Tchaikovsky, I can't believe I didn't play any of the Nutcracker Suite)