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Pianomouse Meets the Great Composers Volume 1Reviewed by Hilary WilliamsonPublished by Pianomouse.com
Description:
A Glossary defines the different musical periods as well as terms like 'Clavier' and 'Serenade'. Each composer's biography describes their life and music - items in blue are glossary terms and the full definition is shown when the mouse is on the word. Read or listen to a composer's biography and then take the Puzzle Challenge - listen to the composer's music while answering 16 questions about his life, and uncover a period painting. Try to remember what the composer looked like when you play Composer Creations. Mix and match from choices of heads, hair and clothes to put together a particular musician. Then take the Travelling Composer Challenge. For each question, drag the correct composer to a location on the map of 18th century Europe and show that you know your music history. Composer Concentration can be played at 3 levels. Match portraits in the first level. For the second, match a composer's portrait with his name. The third level requires matching a portrait with the name of a musical piece that the composer created. A piece of period artwork is revealed underneath. The Pianomouse Maze is another place to show what has been learned. Watch a picture of movement through a 3D maze and answer questions at branch points. Features:
Technical Aspects:I tried the program on a Pentium II with Windows 98. Installation required running a Setup program from the Start menu, but was straightforward after that, aside from being insistent on getting a company name. Help was at an overview level and did not change with different contexts.The program could be used by someone with auditory difficulty as much of the information is textual. However tones indicate whether a question is answered correctly or not, and of course there is the composers' music. Report and Conclusions:This is a great title for kids and adults to learn about music history and of the lives of some of the greatest composers of the Western world. The games do a good job of reinforcing what has been absorbed from the biographies, and tieing in art, history and geography. However, I did not find that the 3D maze in Pianomouse Maze added anything to the multiple choice questions asked.When I saw this program, I expected it to include a bigger selection of the composers' music. It seems to only play one piece for each, during the Puzzle Challenge, and also after clicking on a portrait in the Maze. But overall Pianomouse Meets the Great Composers is a fascinating resource on some of my favorite classical composers. It's delightful to listen to their music while absorbing music history, and I look forward to introducing my children to them! |  |
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Learn about the lives and music of eight composers from the Baroque,
Classical and Romantic Periods: J.S Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart,
Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms and Tchaikovsky. There is a detailed
biography for each, followed by games that test what has been absorbed.
Information ranges from the (well known) tragedy of Beethoven's early
deafness to the fascinating fact that Bach had 20 children - it's
amazing that he composed anything!
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