classical music

Sure, kid-specific and pop music have their time and place, but when we learned that music historian Robert Greenberg was praising the benefits of classical music for kids, we were ready to listen up. We spoke with the professor and author of How to Listen to Great Music: A Guide to Its History, Culture, and Heart and he shared five reasons why moms should turn down Kidz Bop and turn up the Bach.

1. Great music encourages the gifts of friendship and solace. Having familiarity and being able to identify with a piece of classical music is a tremendous gift. That piece will remain a friend and a source of beauty and solace forever. As we grow older and our own lives become more enriched, our relationship with a piece of classical music only deepens.
2. Classical music teaches us appreciation for those who have gone before us. In our technocratic age, it's all too easy to assume that because we have cool electronic toys and modern conveniences, we are smarter and more advanced than people who lived centuries ago. While technology may be linear, art and music are not.
3. Classical music teaches us to listen patiently. What generally distinguishes classical music from popular music is information content. Most popular music is expository, meaning that a given piece consists wholly of a single principal thematic idea. In a classical piece, the principal theme is only the beginning. That material might then be extended and varied, developed and transformed, contrasted with other thematic ideas, or all of the above.

Keep reading for more reasons to incorporate classical music into your kids' repertoires.

The sounds of favorite video games that get stuck in your head as you battle level after level are getting a classical makeover worthy of a trip to the symphony hall. The London Philharmonic Orchestra is releasing an album of popular video game theme songs called, (what else?) The Greatest Video Game Music.

The 21 tracks include orchestral versions of songs all too familiar for gamers, including Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Halo, Call of Duty, and Angry Birds. Ari Pulkkinen, the composer of the Angry Birds theme song, said he was very emotional when he first heard the orchestra's version of his music, noting it had a "majestic touch."

The clips of the orchestra's work do have a larger-than-life feel and may be just what your music library has been missing. The full-length album is available Nov. 8, and you can watch a preview of the grand music after the break.