American composers for kids: ten to know and a piece by each

American classical music grew from many roots: European concert music, marching bands, spirituals, the blues, ragtime, jazz, and folk songs. This list has ten composers from the United States, in order of birth, with a short story and one piece to hear for each. Eight of them have a full page on this site. Start with Sousa’s march or Copland’s “Hoe-Down” for a young child.

Ten American composers

1. John Philip Sousa (1854 to 1932)

Sousa was known as the March King. He grew up in Washington, D.C., where his father played in the United States Marine Band. Sousa later led that band for 12 years and then toured the world with a band of his own. He wrote more than 130 marches. A large tuba that wraps around the player’s body, the sousaphone, was built to his idea and is named for him.

Hear: “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” Listen for the piccolo, which plays a high, twirling tune near the end.

2. Amy Beach (1867 to 1944)

Beach was a pianist from New Hampshire who taught herself to compose from books. She was the first American woman to have a symphony played by a major orchestra. Read Amy Beach for kids.

Hear: “A Hermit Thrush at Morn.” A piano piece built on the song of a real bird.

3. Scott Joplin (about 1868 to 1917)

Joplin grew up in Texas and became the King of Ragtime. In a rag, the left hand keeps a steady beat while the right hand plays against it. Read Scott Joplin for kids.

Hear: “The Entertainer.”

4. Charles Ives (1874 to 1954)

Ives’s father was a town bandmaster in Connecticut who loved to experiment. He once had two bands march toward each other playing different tunes, to hear what would happen. Charles grew up to run an insurance business by day and to write bold, strange music at night and on weekends. Few people heard it for decades. In 1947, he won the Pulitzer Prize for a symphony he had written about 40 years earlier.

Hear: “The Unanswered Question.” Strings hold soft, slow chords. A trumpet asks the same question seven times. A group of flutes tries to answer and grows more and more upset.

5. Florence Price (1887 to 1953)

Price grew up in Arkansas and settled in Chicago. In 1933, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra played her Symphony No. 1. She was the first Black American woman to have a symphony played by a major orchestra. Read Florence Price for kids.

Hear: The third movement of her Symphony No. 1, a dance called a juba.

6. William Grant Still (1895 to 1978)

Still worked as an arranger for blues bands, Broadway shows, and radio before he became known for his symphonies and operas. Read William Grant Still for kids.

Hear: The third movement of the Afro-American Symphony. Listen for the banjo.

7. George Gershwin (1898 to 1937)

Gershwin wrote hit songs for Broadway and then carried the sound of jazz into the concert hall. Read Gershwin for kids.

Hear: The opening of Rhapsody in Blue, with its sliding clarinet.

8. Aaron Copland (1900 to 1990)

Copland grew up above his family’s store in Brooklyn. He used cowboy songs, hymns, and fiddle tunes in ballets about the American West and the frontier. Read Copland for kids.

Hear: “Hoe-Down” from Rodeo. See the Copland listening guide.

9. Leonard Bernstein (1918 to 1990)

Bernstein conducted the New York Philharmonic, wrote West Side Story, and taught children about music on television. Read Bernstein for kids.

Hear: The overture to Candide.

10. John Williams (born 1932)

Williams wrote the music for Star Wars, E.T., and the first Harry Potter films, all for full symphony orchestra. Read John Williams for kids.

Hear: The main title from Star Wars.

Five more to hear

• Leroy Anderson (1908 to 1975). He wrote short, witty pieces for orchestra. Hear “The Typewriter” and “Sleigh Ride.”
• Samuel Barber (1910 to 1981). He wrote his first piece at seven. Hear the Adagio for Strings, a slow piece that climbs to one high, bright peak.
• Ferde Grofé (1892 to 1972). Hear “On the Trail” from the Grand Canyon Suite, where the music clip-clops like a donkey.
• Jennifer Higdon (born 1962). Hear “blue cathedral.” See living composers kids can hear today.
• Jessie Montgomery (born 1981). Hear “Starburst.” See Black composers for kids.

What makes music sound American

Wide-open chords. Copland spaced his notes far apart, and many listeners link that sound with prairies and big skies.

Syncopation. Ragtime, jazz, and the blues put accents between the beats. Joplin, Gershwin, Still, and Bernstein all used them.

Borrowed tunes. Hymns, cowboy songs, spirituals, and marches turn up inside symphonies and ballets.

Band instruments. Trumpets, saxophones, banjos, and snare drums move from the bandstand to the concert stage.

Things to do together

March and conduct. Play “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” March around the room and lift your knees for the piccolo.

Question and answer. Play “The Unanswered Question.” Raise a hand each time the trumpet asks. Count the questions.

Sort by sound. Play one minute each of Sousa, Joplin, Gershwin, and Copland. Ask which one sounds like a parade, a dance hall, a city, and the countryside.

Make a timeline. Write the ten names and birth years on cards and put them in order. Add one event from history beside each.

Find the roots. After “Hoe-Down,” listen to a fiddle tune. After Rhapsody in Blue, listen to a blues song. Talk about what each composer borrowed.

Print and play

Fill in a composer study notebook page for each composer you hear. For folk songs from the United States, see folk song study for homeschool. For the wider story of music in the last hundred years, read modern classical music for kids.

For composers from the country next door, read Canadian composers for kids. For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.