Music and Literature for Children
This course offers critical and creative approaches to children's literature and the music that accompanies it, through literary analysis and student music compositions. This course posits that quality music for children can and should be both aesthetically interesting and intellectually engaging. We will look at music for children and explore connections bewteen children's music and children's literature. The course will focus on different genres, from classical and folk, to film scores and pop covers. We will also be reading and discussing the source material that inspired the music, including folktales, nursery rhymes, and works by Shel Silverstein, Lewis Carroll, Edward Gorey, and Roald Dahl, among others. Particular attention will be paid to the nature of the kind of diverse child audience that educators and performers will encounter in front of a classroom and an audience. While music composition is an integral part of this course, students from any major are welcome.