Classical Music and the Great Composers

Classical music is the grand old music of concert halls — written by composers, played by orchestras, and still loved hundreds of years later. A COMPOSER is a person who invents music and writes it down so others can play it.

Three names every musician knows: Johann Sebastian Bach, a musical father whose patterns are like perfect puzzles; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who started composing at FIVE years old; and Ludwig van Beethoven, who wrote some of the most powerful music ever.

An orchestra is a big team of instruments in four families: STRINGS (violin, cello), WOODWINDS (flute, clarinet), BRASS (trumpet, tuba), and PERCUSSION (drums, cymbals). The piano is a funny one — its keys make hammers hit strings, so it's a bit percussion and a bit strings!