The Back-To-Bach™ objective is for children to learn classical music themes so they will listen intelligently and with pleasure to complete, fully orchestrated works by the most famous composers.

All of the principle music themes for the following three symphonies are included in this website as well as in the printed books with CDs. However, only the CD that comes with Dvorak's New World book includes a fully orchestrated version of the symphony.

Beethoven's Fifth Symphony

 
Beethoven's Fifth is easy for children to listen to. It is only 35 minutes long and the themes are easy to distinguish. (An orchestrated recording of the full symphony can be purchased from any classical music store.)

Listen with your children and see how many different instruments you can identify.

Describe what is happening to the themes you hear.

Check the Teacher's Guides for other ideas.

Haydn's Clock Symphony

 
You will find themes for all four movements of The Clock Symphony on this website and in the Classical Karaoke for Kids book with CD.

The musical story in The Clock is about a mean cat named Adagio who is trying to catch Allegro, a little mouse. Of course, Adagio will never catch Allegro, because Allegro is faster than Adagio!

The illustrations are humorous and children love to sing the lyrics.

The orchestrated symphony is less than half an hour long. It is not on this website nor on the Classical Magic® CD with the book but can be found in music stores. It is very easy for children to hear the themes they know. This is a good one to illustrate while listening.

Antonin Dvorák, From The New World With Lyrics 

 
Antonin Dvorák's From The New World is a celebration of Dvorák's Centennial. He died in 1904. His visit to our country is preserved in the beautiful music he wrote for us while here. The CD includes a recording of the complete symphony.

This Classical Magic® version of the work includes an illustrated, kid-friendly biography of Dvorák, first in prose, then in the lyrics. There are three lyrics in each movement for a total of twelve.

Children recognize themes they know throughout the Symphony and they often erupt into singing! They really enjoy this one.

One teacher taught a movement per week. After the children knew the lyrics, she had them listen to the orchestrated recording of the movement while they drew pictures illustrating the lyrics. When they finished all four movements, they bound the booklets.