Listen to the Music: The Instruments A World of Magical Melodies
Friends Sally and Pip travel through time in this interactive book about musical instruments and genres. Each page features a note, which plays a snippet of music. A page about trumpets features the famous fanfare from Gioachino Rossini’s ‘William Tell Overture,’ for the cello, there’s a work by Edward Elgar, while the clarinet is showcased using George Gershwins ‘Rhapsody in Blue.’ The musical selections include music from Ludwig van Beethoven, Claude Debussy, and female composers Florence Price, Teresa Carreño and Cécile Chaminade.
The cover promises colourful illustrations, and the book contains imaginative art on each page. Where the illustrations succeed most is in conveying the joy of playing music, both solo and as part of a group. A rainbow flows from a flute played by giraffe and on another page, butterflies dance with musical notes above a piano. However, some of the illustrations don’t fully correspond to the story. It’s at times odd to see characters, beside Sally and Pip, dressed in contemporary styles when the story tells the reader they are in the 19th century, however, this is a minor quibble, which doesn’t detract from the beauty of this book.
The book contains lots of interesting facts about the different instruments and the chosen musical works. While the story is the weakest element of the book for this reviewer, as it lacks flow and is difficult to read aloud at times, despite this, the book is sure to appeal to young musicians, or to help to spark an interest in performance or music-making.
