His Treasure Seekers

Back when my big kids were little, we spent some time learning about several great composers. As our family grew, somehow that got put aside, which is one of the reasons I’m glad we’re doing Classical Conversations. We’re getting ready to head into the last six weeks of CC for this year, and I thought I’d take some time to revisit some of the resources we found the first time we talked about George Frederick Handel. (His name has different spelling variations. This time we’re going with the Anglicized version.)

Since our time in class on CC community day is spent primarily listening to one specific piece of music, I thought I’d share the resources again for others who want to learn more about Handel’s music during their days at home.

Audio Resources

One of my main resources this time around will be My Name is Handel: The Story of Handel’s Water Music from Maestro Classics. The first track on the CD is a 38 minute story about the story behind Water Music. This is followed by a short biography of Handel, a silly song called “My Name is Handel” with words set to the Hornpipe theme from Water Music, and a closer look at Handel’s music with Maestro Stephen Simon.

If your kids like silly songs, check out “When the Angels Play” from Beethoven’s Wig 3: Many More Sing Along Symphonies, which puts words to Handel’s (Harp Concerto in B♭)

Another great resource that’s available free online is from Classics for Kids. They have four short episodes related to Handel, including one on Water Music.

The main thing we listened to last time we studied Handel was Hallelujah Handel by Classical Kids, which tells the story of Handel and an orphan boy.  My kids love Classical Kids CDs because they tell entertaining stories while introducing the music of the featured composer, who is always a character in the audio drama. Hallelujah Handel is one of our favorites in the collection, and since I think everyone should be familiar with Handel’s Messiah, I can’t recommend this one highly enough.

If you just want to learn more about Handel’s life, check out The Story of Handel . My kids aren’t wild about this series because they’re pretty much just composer biographies with their music playing in the background, but I still think they’re worthwhile. We’ll get out some building toys or coloring pages and listen while we play,

Books and Other Reading

The book Hallelujah Handel tells the same story as the Classical Kids CD, but from a totally different perspective.  I enjoyed it just as much, especially the illustrations.  Last time Ian and I both enjoyed Handel (from the Famous Children series), as well as Handel and the Famous Sword Swallower of Halle, which weaves biographical information around a fascinating incident from Handel’s hometown.  This time around I’d like to try reading Handel at the Court of Kings by Opal Wheeler and Handel (from the Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers series) by Mike Venezia.

Video Resources

For younger children there are two Little Einsteins episodes have music by Handel: “Annie, Get Your Microphone”  and “Rocket the Bug” (both feature Water Music).

For older children and adults, Musical Contexts: All About Handel is short by informative.  Also, if your library has videos available from Films On Demand like ours, there are three documentaries on Handel. For an extended study on Handel’s oratorio Messiah, check out Handel’s Messiah: The Biblical Message Behind the Musical Masterpiece.

I’ll be adding a post about Bach and updating my resource list soon since we’ll be talking about them over the next few weeks as well!