Encouraging discovery

Clarinettist and teacher at the Conservatoire de Fribourg, Sarah Chardonnens has a particular talent for introducing children (and adults) to the world of music. Just published, the book for learning the first notions of music theory, Traces of musicfor ages 6 to 14. Accompanied by attractive drawings and exercises whose answers can be found on the author's website, the description of scales and chords, keys and modulations, rhythms and measures, and a few shapes - among other notions - can be easily assimilated thanks to the clear explanations and illustrations.

No less playful is the collection of songs and nursery rhymes My own world can be used from the age of three. This hardback book includes a CD with the songs performed by the children's choir La voix du Gibloux, the texts and drawings, full of flavor, and then the melodies themselves. Finally, there are animated games for learning the songs, and even an idea for a show including these songs. An ideal tool for primary school classes, but also for the simple pleasure of singing at home with the family.

For children and teenagers who want to know more about music, but also for school art classes, the brief history of music published under the title Musical culture doesn't forget either prehistory or antiquity, and introduces composers (with short lists of their best-known works), forms and instruments, while presenting listening suggestions. An incentive for discovery! For this last book, a small list of errata can also be downloaded from Sarah Chardonnens' website. These three books, in terms of both graphic quality and content, make excellent Christmas gifts.

Van de Velde is an older publishing house, and since its foundation in 1899 it has been exploring the countless avenues of access to musical knowledge in an original and inventive way. Witness the Repertoire dedicated to a short history of the pianowritten and composed by Charley Bournel-Bosson, whose aim is to enable pianists, young or old, after four years of practice, to tackle pieces in a variety of styles, from Baroque to contemporary music, while being able to read an overview of the history of the piano and its music. These pieces are inspired, for example, by Couperin, Scarlatti, Johann Sebastian and Johann Christian Bach, as well as Schoenberg and Bartók, jazz, ragtime, impressionism and minimalism. A CD accompanies the book.

Sarah Chardonnens, Les traces de la musique, petit traité de théorie musicale pour les jeunes mélomanes, 56 p., Fr. 19.90, Editions DOM, 2013, www.flowernotes.ch

id., Mon monde à moi, 48 p., Fr. 29.90

id., Culture musicale, Histoire de la musique, 80 p., Fr. 37.90

Charley Bournel-Bosson, Répertoire dédié à une petite histoire du piano, VV402, 44 p., with CD, € 22.00, Editions Van de Velde (Lemoine), Paris 2012