Learning to Appreciate the Music of Johann Sebastian Bach
Anyone using Charlotte Mason styled composer study is sure to encounter Johann Sebastian Bach at some point. Although more famous in his lifetime as an organist than as a composer, Bach is considered today to be one of the primary Baroque composers of Western music.
Let the music of Bach fill your home as you introduce your children (and possibly yourself!) to this master. You may also choose to supplement the music with some biographical information, some notebooking, and some stories on CD. Here are some resources to help you design this unit study.
Our Outline for Studying Bach
It goes without saying that to appreciate Bach, you must listen to his music! So although that is not included in the list below, it's an assumed, daily activity. During the term or weeks that you choose to focus on Bach, have his music playing as often as possible.
Read Sebastian Bach, The Boy from Thuringia by Opal Wheeler, one chapter outloud per day while Sprite colors in the illustrations printed from the companion disc.
Read the chapter on Bach from Spiritual Lives of the Composers.
Listen to the Classics for Kids audio programs about Bach.
Listen to The Story of Bach audio CD as a wrap up, stopping to take notes on the notebooking pages as needed. (Photos of notebooking pages are below.)
Go back over the notes and make a one page timeline for Bach's life. We like the printable page here at Freeology. (photo below)
Organize all the notebooking pages, colored illustrations, and the timeline into our notebook.
Opal Wheeler Biography
Sebastian Bach, The Boy from Thuringia
This is truly a delightful book! I bought my copy along with the companion CD from Rainbow Resource.
As a free online substitute for this book, read the chapter on Bach from The World's Great Men of Music by Harriette Brower. This book is in the public domain and can also be fouund at Google Books or in .txt format.
Sebastian Bach, The Boy from Thuringia (Great MusicianS Series)
Amazon Price: (as of 11/20/2009)
Companion CD
The companion CD has audio tracks for all of the music mentioned in the story. In addition, all the charming illustrations are available for printing out. We used these in Sprite's notebook. Although she generally resists coloring pages, these are very detailed and seem to keep her interest.
You can read my review of the Wheeler biography series as well as these companion discs at The Curriculum Choice.
Companion CD to Sebastian Bach, The Boy from Thuringia and Mozart, The Wonder Boy (Great Musicians Series)
Amazon Price: (as of 11/20/2009)
Free Bach Notebooking Pages
Below you can see the wonderful notebooking pages I downloaded from Notebooking Pages.
It's a PDF set with several options of layouts. I printed them on vivid green paper!
Bach Resources
Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers
Written from a Christian perspective, each composer is given one chapter of attention. You will find out how each composer's faith impacted his music and his life. This is written on a middle school or higher level, so you'll want to read it outloud to younger children.
Amazon Price: $9.39 (as of 11/20/2009)
The Story of Bach
An audio CD chronicling Bach's entire life and career. Music selections are interspersed throughout.
Amazon Price: $2.98 (as of 11/20/2009)
Mr. Bach Comes to Call Teacher's Notes/CD Bundle (Classical Kids)
A story plus music. This is fictionalized and very fun. This is a great introduction to Bach for even the youngest of children.
Amazon Price: (as of 11/20/2009)
Bach's Goldberg Variations
This picture book is a fictional account based on actual fact.
The story explains how the Goldberg variations came to be.
Amazon Price: $14.93 (as of 11/20/2009)
More Bach Teaching Freebies
- Bach Minibook Template
- This is Homeschool Share's Miscellaneous Page of lapbooking printable templates. Scroll down to C for Composers to find "Composer- Bach Shuttertied."
- Making Music Fun
- There are several nice printables here -- a short biography, a coloring page, a wordsearch, printable sheet music, and lesson plans!
- Classics for Kids -- Bach
- These audio programs are wonderfully made! They are short but meaty and include lots of music selections.
Four programs:
1.About Johann Sebastian Bach
2.The Sons of Johann Sebastian Bach
3.What's a Concerto?
4.The Story of the Brandenburg Concertos
Plus a printable activity sheet.
Bach Music in MP3
for Instant Download
No Bach music on hand? No worries. You can purchase this album of Bach's Greatest Music online and download the MP3 files to play on your computer. Actually, this is what I had to do since I found myself without any Bach music! How can we have composer study without listening to his music? Impossible.
Preview by clicking the play arrow.
Other Homeschoolers Who Love Bach
ideas for Bach composer study
- We Heart Bach
- Apples and Jammies blog shares their homeschool's study of Bach.
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Guestbook
Thanks for visiting. I hope you found some helpful resources.
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- EverythingMouse EverythingMouse May 10, 2009 @ 6:51 pm
- Bach is one of my favorite composers. I particularly enjoy his organ music.
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- Tipi Tipi Apr 15, 2009 @ 11:46 am
- I love Bach. I usually listen to Nigel Kennedy play Bach because he is one of my favorites and is so good! - Love this lens! - Thank you for the Squid Angel blessing on my main lensography. - I was looking for you on Twitter, Jimmie. Are you on twitter? - This will get tweeted! :)
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- Jimmie Jimmie Apr 7, 2009 @ 10:45 pm | in reply to Sandra
- Sandra, Thank you for the recommenationa. I've added that title above. I have this author's The Farewell Symphony about Haydn. I'm sure that this Bach one is a winner as well.
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- Sandra Sandra Apr 7, 2009 @ 8:06 pm
- I'd also so recommend Bach's Goldberg Variations by Anna Harwell Celenza and Joann E. Kitchel . This book, and others by them , do a great job of bringing particular pieces of music to life.
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- groovyoldlady groovyoldlady Apr 7, 2009 @ 7:10 am
- This is great! My nine year old LOVES piano. Perhaps a foray into into Bach iis in order!
by Jimmie
Hello! I am a homeschooling, stay at home mom who loves to teach and learn. I enjoy cooking from scratch, blogging, photography, and traveling, but I...
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