Pumpkin Spice & Vivaldi

September 21, 2020 Jennifer Boster

Off

Share This

I don’t know about you but I am SO excited for fall! There is something about this crisp, beautiful season that is giving me hope of getting through this crazy year…looking forward to the holiday season, enjoying the beautiful changing leaves and spending time with loved ones.

Along with the traditional sights and smells of the autumn season, I LOVE listening to gorgeous music that was inspired by autumn. I would love it if you check out my Shades of Sound: Autumn book! I loved choosing the music, researching the wonderful composers and drawing the beautiful coloring pages that are paired with each piece. It was a labor of love, and my hope is that these books can help some of your students come to love and appreciate classical music. Let me show you some sneak peeks of this book!

Of the seventeen composers featured in this book, five of them are women. I LOVED learning about Imogen Holst. She was the daughter of composer Gustav Holst and was such a fascinating and talented person. Students will get to color the above picture of autumn leaves while listening to her gorgeous “Fall of the Leaf” – a suite for solo cello.

Students of all ages will love coloring the pictures while listening to the music. The reason why this curriculum works so well is that it uses all four learning modes. Students read to learn about the composers and the history of the pieces, and they write down their observations and what they like about the piece. They use aural learning as they listen to the music, visual learning as they see the coloring pages, and kinesthetic learning as they color the pictures.

I have included some gorgeous music for solo piano in the book, including this movement from Fanny Mendelssohn’s “Das Jahr” (The Year), called “September: At the River.” This work has been described as “one of the greatest of the unheralded piano suites of the nineteenth century.” ⁠