Bach Composer Study

One of the composers we will be studying this year is Johann Sebastian Bach.  I know that my two kiddos are going to love hearing his music, especially Toccata and Fugue in D minor - think Looney Tunes and Fantasia!

My Dude is 9 years old (4th grade) and my Princess girl is 5 (1st grade).  For Dude, I will have a notebooking page for him to record his thoughts about Bach's music and life.  There is a place for him to write the name of each piece that we will listen to every week and to write about what he hears (instruments, voices, fast, slow, etc.).  I also want him to write how the piece makes him feel.  Charlotte Mason says that children should have a personal relationship with whatever it is that they are learning.  Music invokes feelings.  By writing how the piece makes him feel, he will remember more about it. There is also space to write some facts about Bach's life at the bottom.  For Princess, I have some coloring pages for her while she listens.  Each of them will have their own Composer Study notebook to keep their pages in.  I may end up doing a notebooking page for Princess, too.  I will end up doing the writing for her.  But, honestly, she is at that age where she says the most hilarious things!  I am sure that she would give me plenty of blackmail material for the future  funny quotable quotes for the grandparents.

Both of them will also have a Composer Timeline in their notebook.  Each two page spread will cover one time period of music.  At the beginning of each term, they will post a picture of the new composer we are studying on their timeline.  Here is where you can find the composer pictures for this year's studies.  This will help them place their composers in the correct time period of music (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, etc.)  This year we will study composers from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Impressionistic and Contemporary time periods.  Here is a fun Music History Timeline for you to reference.  I am going to have Dude put a copy in his Composer Study notebook so that he can see where each composer fits into the rest of world history.

We won't be taking a lot of time each week in composer study.  We follow the Charlotte Mason philosophy of education which includes short lessons.  For more information about why we do short lessons, go here.

I have made a playlist of 6 Bach pieces on YouTube.  We will listen to one each week.  You can find the playlist here.  I am also going to have a CD of Bach pieces that we will be listening to over the next six weeks when we are in the car.  By the end of the six weeks, they should be very familiar with Bach's style.

Week 1

• Listen to Toccata and Fugue in D minor from the YouTube playlist
• Bach teaching his children coloring page for Princess
• Notebooking page for Dude
• Place picture of Bach on our Composer timeline under the Baroque period

Week 2

• Listen to Air ("on the G string")
• Instruments of the Orchestra coloring page for Princess & Dude
• Notebooking page for Dude

Week 3

• Listen to Brandenburg Concerto 2 - 3rd movement
• Trumpet coloring page for Princess
• Notebooking page for Dude

Week 4

• Listen to Cello Suite No 1 prelude
• Cello coloring page for Princess
• Notebooking page for Dude

Week 5

• Listen to Double Violin Concerto in D minor
• V is for Violin coloring sheet for Princess
• Notebooking page for Dude

Week 6

• Listen to St John Passion - Ruht Wohl ihr heiligen Gebeine
• Chorale coloring sheet for Princess
• Notebooking page for Dude

Bach notebooking page

Here are the links for the coloring pages for Princess:

Bach teaching his children and short bio

V is for Violin

Cello coloring page

Trumpet online coloring page

Instruments of the Orchestra coloring page/orchestra layout

Chorale Coloring page


There is also a book that I will read aloud to the kiddos during the term about Bach's life that you can download for free called Johann Sebastian Bach: The Story of the Boy Who Sang in the Streets.

We will be studying 5 other composers this year.  They are Ludwig van Beethoven, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Claude Debussy, John Williams and Duke Ellington.  As soon as I complete the other terms, I will post them here.  The plan is to start the year with John Williams because they already love his music (Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Batman!).  We will be doing Tchaikovsky around Christmas so that I have a good excuse to listen to the Nutcracker Suite incessantly!  :-)  Have fun and enjoy your homeschooling journey!!