Sweetness and Light

Revelling in Ravel

Our son Matthias has been playing the piano for most of his life. He started plinking around on our little Fisher-Price purple toy piano when he was barely walking and began formal piano instruction at age 4. He immediately showed signs of aptitude or "talent" as most would say and we moved him to private lessons instead of the monotonous group lessons with which he began. This proved a good move for him and he progressed nicely and rapidly with a classical repertoire.

Since then we have had four moves, all requiring a switch in piano teachers, but thankfully the choices we have had available were more than satisfactory to continue his upward climb learning more difficult pieces and increasing his musicality. His current teacher (a guy who is an excellent accompanist & organist for a local parish we briefly attended) is more than exceptional and totally "gets" how Matthias works and thinks about piano. He has really improved his style and given him some wonderful pieces; some very challenging combined with some lighter fare to keep things interesting all the while building his skills, technicality and repertoire.

 
We just finished a joint recital put on by the younger boys' cello teacher who asked Matthias to play a piece as well (a Loure by Bach) and he also accompanied both his brothers; Sean-Paul played his first recital and Seamus (a seasoned recitalist) played a Bach Concerto together, we were naturally riveted and thrilled at this wonderous musical event!

 
Currently Matthias is working on a piece by Ravel that is very challenging, so we are meandering through some research on Ravel's life (found here) and ironically, the piece showcased is the one he is learning; "Pavane pour une infante defunte" (you can listen here.) We thought it was interesting to note that Ravel was greatly influenced by Erik Satie of which Matthias previously learned his Trois Gymnopdies, a lovely piece with three movements (listen here.)

I hope to upload a youtube clip of the recital piece soon, until then, what are you all doing for music appreciation these days? At chez Sweentess and Light it would be an odd day indeed if there were no music played.

Have a blessed day, I'm so glad your stopped by :)

Friday Snapshot :: Mini Cello

Sean-Paul has been blessed with some of the musical talent of his brothers and has lately begun taking Cello lessons with Seamus' teacher. Here he is being accompanied by Matthias playing the Allegro (affectionately called "Noodles").

 
Have a super weekend friends!! Many blessings from me to you :)

Cello Recital

Seamus played in his second cello recital this weekend. He has come so far in such a short time. His teacher is very pleased with his progress and has reallly taken him under her wing, and we are, of course thrilled about this! He played the Chorus from Judas Macchabeus, a Suzuki Perpetual Motion melody and The Happy Farmer by Schumann.

 

He played them beautifully and as all performances go, was very happy to have finished!

 

The cello is such a beautiful instrument, we are so blessed to have another child with a great love of music and passion for playing! Well done Seamus!

Thanks for visiting today, many blessings as you start out your week together.

Music Time Anyone??

I know, I know, they're still in there PJ's but it was only 8:30am when we decided to have Music Time!!  We do this pretty regularly, especially if the weather is at all inclement (as it has been this week) and we can't get outside as much as we would like.  Here Seamus shows the line up of choice Instruments!!

Seamus with the Triangle, and Sean-Paul with the Tamborines!!

Sean-Paul having so much fun!!  Dancing boy!

Marching with the beat!!

Matthias uncharacteristically playing a very small Piano ;o)  Violet working the Drum, and Seamus still has the Triangle.  Hey, wait a minute, they've gotten dressed!!  Yes, Music Time did carry us through MOST of our morning!! 

In case you'd like to try it out, we were listening to March of the Toys, by Herbert (Scroll down about two-thirds of the page to listen)!!  Check it out! 

Happy Marching and have a great weekend, blessings to you as always!!

This Week's Art Time (Don't Forget the Music)

Here's some highlights of our Art and Music Time this past week.  In case you missed this post, we love to combine our artistic pursuits with some listening pleasure!! 

Violet's rendition of "Starry Nights" by Van Gogh

Here are the boys, they decided to do flowers and a bird by Matthias in the Van Gogh style, using Impasto, it was so fun!!

So, the bird and the purple flower are Matthias's and the large circular flower and the two flowers together are Seamus's!  They really liked the thickness of the impasto and how vibrant the colors came through!  We we able to paint outside as well which is such a pleasure during these still somewhat warm fall days. What are you doing for art these days??

Art Time & Music Appreciation

One of the combinations I decided to PEG to one another this year is our Art Time and Music Appreciation.  We're starting our year off with some truly delightful Music Appreciation and our Artist studies will be enhanced by enjoying some beautiful musical pieces while we're creating our own Art or learning about an Artist. 

For Music we've chosen to visit Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals for a nice long while.  We love that Saint-Saens gave his first piano recital at age 5 and our Matthias (who is VERY musically inclined) also performed his first piano recital at the same age! 

We are truly enthralled by this particular musician and his ability to make a zooful of animals come alive with his music - it is enchanting and playful and a joy to listen to each and every time.  Violet's favorite part is the Swans and she has made up a beautiful impromptu ballet piece to accompany this part of the movement.  Seamus loves the Finale and Matthias loves it ALL!  We've already had various and sundry performances and "Shows" depicting all aspects of this delightful Carnival and hope to finish our study with a video recording of their own rendition of this very energizing musical study!

Now on to Artists and Art Appreciation, we've chosen Van Gogh as our starting Artist, not for any particular reason other than we've just never reall gotten around to him! (Poor guy!) 

I love how Helen at Castle of the Immaculate has integrated 'self portraits" into her Picture Study and how it helps to put a face with the name so to speak.  I think we'll do this as well, and unlike how Maria Montessori suggests putting art appreciation pictures down low at a child's level (even though I love this idea), we'll just try to fill a wall or a section of a wall with the Artists work for exploration and viewing at any time.  (Besides, Sean-Paul would just tear them down at this point : )  I have toyed with framed art, but so far have only been truly successful with using postcards, wall calenders, and slide shows and screen savers on my computer!  My dear children seem to really enjoy this - so until we can hang true art, we'll just go with the flow!  I should also say that I'm delighted to have Mary Ann Kohl's Discovering Great Artist's to use  as a springborad for ideas!  I know my sweeties will love creating their own fabulous art work while learning about some of the world's most interesting people in Art & Music, and I know I will enjoy their creations the most!

Hymn of the Month

In keeping with the monthly *theme* for things studied we are also including a Hymn of the Month. Not only will this add another piano piece for Mathias (7) to learn, but it will also give us all some choral practice too! And it will be like praying twice each time we work on it, gotta love that! Usually when it comes to artistic and musical pursuits I give the children carte blanche because they are much more talented than I in this area, ahem, but for this month mommy has aptly chosen: All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name. It's a beautiful hymn and we shall perform it each evening (or thereabouts) before family rosary time. Here it is:

All hail the pow'r of Je-sus' name! Let an-gels pros-tate fall;
Bring forth the roy-al di-a-dem
To crown him Lord of all;
Bring forth the roy-al di-a-dem
To crown him Lord of all.

Hail him, you heirs of Da-vid's line,
Whom Da-vid "Lord" did call;
The God in-car-nate, Man di-vine,
And crown him Lord of all;
The God in-car-nate, Man di-vine,
And crown him Lord of all.

Crown him, you ho-ly saints of God,
Who from his al-tar call;
Ex-tol him in whose path you trod,
And crown him Lord of all;
Ex-tol him in whose path you trod,
And crown him Lord of all.

-Edward Perront, 1726-1792, Oliver Holden, 1765-1844