Can You Hear It? [Hardcover]

William Lach (Author)

Book Description

Grade Level: P and up

In association with The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Now the best-selling series Can You Find It? in a great new format!

Similar to Abrams best-selling series, Can You Find It?, in this book, young readers are introduced to great music through great works of art. From “The Flight of the Bumblee” to “The Four Seasons” to “Night on Bald Mountain,” beloved music is illustrated by great works of art, and the text and accompanying CD urge young readers to listen for certain instruments. Can you hear the car horns honking, played by clarinets? Can you hear the horses’ hooves, played by castanets? When each CD track is played, young readers will stop, look, and listen as never before.

Classical music is filled with unforgettable images. In this book, great examples of pictorial music are matched to masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, for an introduction to both music and art appreciation for young listeners. Included is a CD featuring 12 short works and an introduction to the orchestra and the instruments.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 2–6—This visual and aural feast invites parents, educators, and young listeners to "listen and look" at 13 examples of pictorial music and visual masterpieces. The introduction prepares readers with an explanation of the connections between composers' notes and art images. A woodblock print by Utagawa Hiroshige, the pointillism of Seurat, and landscapes by Jacob van Ruisdael and Thomas Cole are among those included in the presentation. The paired examples invite listeners to identify solo instruments or orchestral themes that characterize an image found in the visual art, e.g., "Can you hear the gun battles?" in a pairing of a Remington painting with Aaron Copeland's Billy the Kid: Gun Battle. Although seven of the musical pieces are by either Vivaldi or Saint-Saëns, the recordings of works by Gershwin, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Copland reflect a broad range of artists and orchestral styles from America and Europe. This treasure completes a larger unit of study or simply gives pleasure with a presentation of inspired works in dual media for children's appreciation.—Mary Elam, Forman Elementary School, Plano, TX
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

"Classical music is filled with unforgettable images," writes Lach, a senior editor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In this title, he pairs reproductions of the museum's masterpieces with selections of classical music, included on an accompanying CD, that correspond with themes and images in the artworks. A spread featuring Utagawa Hiroshige's Chrysanthemums, which pictures a bee hovering over a flower, is matched with Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee, for example. For each pairing, Lach suggests what to find in the art and what to listen to in the music, making strong connections between the sounds of instruments and the mental images that they may evoke. The easily misplaced CD may pose a problem for libraries, and a reassuring note about the subjective nature of arts interpretation would have been welcome. Still, this beautifully produced volume fills a gap in arts titles for youth. Additional sections about musical instruments, the artists, and the composers round out this creative, useful title. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams (November 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810957213
• ISBN-13: 978-0810957213
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 10.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #17,737 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > Children's Books > Arts, Crafts & Music > Music
  • #41 in Books > Children's Books > Arts, Crafts & Music > Art

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great way to tie in art, music education for kids., November 22, 2006

By 

Delirium "Star" (St. Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Can You Hear It? (Hardcover)

This book has a collection of 26 paintings and a CD. Each artwork comes with a question, an item to locate on a page. After the item is found you play the CD and try to hear particular thing displayed on a page (like fish swimming in a lake, or bubbles rising to the surface of the water, etc). There are also clues to which instrument will play a particular musical effect that you will be looking for, so you can find it. At the end of the book, there is a short description of each artwork and each music piece that comes with it.

We have enjoyed the book very much, and would recommend it to families with young children who are ready for introduction of art and music. The music pieces are all classics such as Vivaldi, Saint-Saens, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, etc. My kids are 8 and 9.

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine Art!, January 9, 2007

By 

N. Kaye (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Can You Hear It? (Hardcover)

What inspires an artist? a composer? Why does music "speak" to so many different people? This little publication is a painless introduction to fine art and symphonic music. This is I Spy with a twist. You are asked to gaze at beautiful and interesting artwork while playing different orchestral tracks on the enclosed CD. "Can you hear the marching knights?" "Can you hear the mountain stream?" "Can you hear the rattling skeletons dancing?" The book and CD open with a lovely "meet the instruments" section, which, in itself, is worth the price. I think this book is best enjoyed with a parent and a non-personal CD player but a ten year-old with head phones could zip through all thirteen pieces independently. You might challenge that child to create her own artwork to a piece of her choosing. Or you could plunk a three year-old on your lap and look at just one or two masterpieces at a time. My eight year-old uber athlete loves it and now insists on doing his drawing to music. This book can be enjoyed in many ways, on many levels. It will add spice to a gallery or symphony outing (or even a sibling's band concert!) and with such a wealth of material out there, I sincerely hope a sequel is in the works.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars High Quality art and music!, August 26, 2008

By 

Amy Gaspard (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Can You Hear It? (Hardcover)

I absolutely adore this book. As a preschool music teacher, I search for ways to make classical music interesting and fun for young children, and I think this book has done it. With colorful, beautiful artwork and fun musical selections, children love listening closely to "find" the items that are "described" in the music. For young children like mine, I pull out this book occasionally to work on critical listening skills by putting on one or two of the pieces at a time. The only thing I would have liked better is a little more variety in the musical pieces. Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Carnival of the Animals are both used 2-3 times.