This book brings the culture and beauty of orchestra music to children by sharing the history of the art, describing the instruments involved, giving fun facts about different composers and music, and providing samples of the music on the accompanying CD. Orchestra Bob, a cartoon gentleman, is the guide through the book. The first half of the book tells about the different composers of orchestra music, and the second half describes the physical layout of an orchestra and the different instruments involved. The first half is broken into the Baroque, Classical Music, Romantic, and Modern Eras, highlighting famous composers from each time period. The book describes how this music became part of and affected each era and shows how each composer affected orchestra music. Orchestra Bob points out when to play certain tracks on the accompanying CD, which give famous samples of many of the composers' works. The book does a good job of highlighting the importance of each composer, but it does not give a thorough biography of each life, more of a general description of the way they affected the art and a list of their greatest works. Colorful text boxes, fun cartoon illustrations, and famous quotes make the book interesting and fun to read, and the music from the CD lets children connect the composers with their creations. The second half of the book covers the instruments themselves and is broken down into string, woodwind, brass, and percussion sections, as well as keyboard instruments. Readers see an illustration of an orchestra and then go on to learn about the specific instruments involved. The book explains how each instrument is played, points out special features, and gives some details of each instrument's history and development. In this section, Orchestra Bob instructs readers to listen to special tracks on the CD which provide examples of the music made from featured instruments in actual works from different composers. He also points out how to listen for the different instruments that have been discussed. This section is as colorful and fun as the first, with actual photographs of each instrument covered. An index of composers and musical terms is included, as well as a list of the musical selections on the CD. The CD includes 41 selections, over an hour of music. It provides a great way to listen to the music of the orchestra while simultaneously learning about the history, instruments, and composers. ~ Rachel S.

Customer Review

 
Jimmie a. from china wrote the following on 05/09/2009:
The Story of the Orchestra is a well rounded introduction to musical instruments and to composers. The composers are in part one and are arranged chronologically by musical era -- Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern. Part two, about instruments, is divided by sections -- string, woodwind, brass, percussion, and keyboard. An oversized book with lots of illustrations and photographs, it's the kind of book that makes a great living book spine for a classical music unit study and will continue to serve as a handy reference through all your years of composer study. We reference it often as we listen to our composer of the term (in a Charlotte Mason styled composer study). The companion CD is a nice plus. There will be a note on a page telling you which track is relevant. For example, when we studied Tchaikovsky, I pulled out this book and looked for his name in the index. I found not only a whole page about him with some quite interesting facts but also a reference to him on the Celesta page. On the CD is a track of his "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy," featuring that instrument. In my opinion, this book is appropriate for children aged K-6.