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Pupils and staff at Oaks Primary Academy adore music.
Each week this term, during our Wednesday assemblies, Mrs Bennoson has been introducing us to new composers. This term, we have been focusing on Western Classical music.
Children have loved listening to new music and have especially loved watching conductors and orchestras play these pieces of music.
Click the links below to listen to these at home with your children!
Maurice Ravel
(1875 -1937)
Ravel was a French composer. Ravel liked children and animals and his music is often about them. He liked to write about fairy tales and stories from far away lands. Boléro is a 17 minute piece for orchestra. A short version was used by ice-skaters Torvill and Dean for the dance that made them Olympic champions in 1984.
George Frideric Handel
(1685–1759)
Handel was a German-British composer. He was born in Germany but moved to England and stayed there. He impressed King George early on with the Water Music of 1716, written as entertainment for a royal boat outing.
Handel's father did not approve of his son's love of music. His mother had to smuggle a small keyboard into the attic of their house. The young boy would play the instrument up there, in secret, when his father was not around.
Ralph Vaughan Williams
(1872–1958)
Vaughan Williams is one of the most important composers of the 20th century. He was influenced by English folk songs and Tudor music. He revived British music during a career that spanned over six decades.
His interest in music began at an early age, when in addition to playing the violin, viola, piano and organ he became increasingly interested in composition.
Vaughan Williams recognized military bands as being crucially important to the UK’s cultural and community life. So in 1923 he composed English Folk Songs Suite for them.
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