Music Through Literature

As with most of my classes, I like to take a historical approach to any subject, and I did the same with music. I also stuck with biographies, though there are several "encompassing" titles, that give a good overview of the subject. Here's what I've done so far:

If you can get your hands on this book, The Story of the Orchestra by Robert Levine, I highly recommend it.  You can use this as a base for an entire music curriculum, from the Baroque Period to the Modern Era.  It comes with a CD for listening, too, which is great, and it also covers all of the instruments in the orchestra.  Then, round the sections out with these additional titles below, broken down by periods and composers, and take as much time as you need.  Of course, I strongly recommend listening to all of the music you can get your hands on:)

Before we get into the biographies, here are some other titles that are also a general overview of orchestral music:

The Story of Classical Music by Darren Henley
The Philharmonic Gets Dressed by Karla Kuskin
Zin! Zin! Zin!  A Violin by Lloyd Moss
Can You Hear It?  by William Lach
Lady Treble and the Seven Notes by Eliyana Biklou
The Composer is Dead by Lemony Snicket
Listen to the Birds:  An Introduction to Classical Music by Ana Gerhard

Also, here is an excellent website:  The All-Star Orchestra

Baroque 1600-1750
Vivaldi's Four Seasons by Anna Harwell Celenza
Vivaldi and the Invisible Orchestra by Stephen Costanza
Bach's Godberg Variations by Anna Harwell Celenza
Bach's Big Adventure by Sallie Ketcham
Sebastian:  A Book About Bach by Jeanette Winter
Handel:  Who Knew What He Liked by M. T. Anderson
Hallelujah, Handel by Douglas Cowing

Classical  1770-1830
The Farewell Symphony by Anna Harwell Celenza
Before There Was Mozart:  The Story of Joseph Boulogne, Chevalier de Saint George by Lesa Cline-Ransome
The Other Mozart:  The Life of the Chevalier Saint-George by Hugh Brewster
Mozart, The Wonder Child by Diane Stanley
Mozart Finds a Melody by Stephen Costanza
Play, Mozart, Play by Peter Sis
For the Love of Music: The Remarkable Story of Maria Anna Mozart by Elizabeth Rusch
Musical Genius:  A Story About Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by Barbara Allman
The Magic Flute:  An Opera by Mozart by Kyra Teis
The 39 Apartments of Ludwig von Beethoven by Jonah Winter
The Heroic Symphony by Anna Harwell Celenza
Beethoven Lives Upstairs by Barbara Nichol


Romantic (1805-1910)
Tchaikovsky Discovers America by Esther Kalman
Peter Tchaikovsky by Mike Venezia
Two Scarlet Songbirds:  A Story of Anton Dvorak by Carole Lexa Shaefer
In the Hall of the Mountain King by Allison Miller Flannery

The Modern Era 
Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue by Anna Harwell Clenza
Introducing Gershwin by Roland Vernon
Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf by Janet Schulman
When Stravinsky Met Nijinsky:  Two Artists, Their Ballet, an one Extraordinary Riot by Lauren Stringer
What Charlie Heard by Mordicai Gerstein