Bizet for kids: his life, his music, and what to play first

Georges Bizet was a French composer who lived from 1838 to 1875. He wrote the opera Carmen, which is full of tunes that many people know. He also wrote a set of piano duets about children’s games. The best first piece for a child is the prelude to Carmen, a blaze of cymbals and a marching tune that lasts about two minutes.

Quick facts

• Born: 1838, in Paris, France
• Died: 1875, near Paris, France
• Era: Romantic
• Played: piano
• Known for: Carmen, the L’Arlésienne suites, Children’s Games, and the Symphony in C

The life in short

Bizet’s father taught singing, and his mother played the piano. His parents taught him music from an early age.

He entered the Paris Conservatoire, the top music school in France, a few weeks before he turned ten. He won prize after prize.

At 17, he wrote a symphony as a school exercise. He put it away and never heard it played. It sat in a library until 1933, and it was first performed in 1935, 60 years after he died. Orchestras now play it often.

At 18, he won the Prix de Rome, a prize that paid for young French artists to live and work in Italy.

Bizet was a superb pianist. He could play a full orchestra score at the piano at sight. He earned his living by arranging other people’s music and giving lessons, and he wrote operas whenever he could.

In 1875, his opera Carmen opened in Paris. Its story of a soldier and a factory worker, with a sad ending, startled the audience. The reviews were mixed.

Bizet died three months later, at 36. He never knew that Carmen would become one of the most performed operas in the world.

What the music sounds like

Bizet wrote tunes that stay in the ear after one hearing. He liked strong dance rhythms and bright colors in the orchestra. Carmen is set in Spain, and its music borrows the sound of Spanish dances.

Four pieces to play first

Prelude to Carmen. A festive march with crashing cymbals. In the middle comes the swaggering tune of the “Toreador Song.”

“Habanera,” from Carmen. A song over a slow, swaying dance rhythm that repeats in the bass from start to finish.

“Farandole,” from L’Arlésienne. It starts with a stern march based on an old French carol. Then a fast dance with a small drum takes over. At the end, the two tunes play at once.

“The Top,” from Children’s Games. The music whirls like a spinning top and wobbles as it slows. Bizet wrote twelve of these pieces for two players at one piano, each about a game or a toy.

Children’s Games

The twelve pieces in Children’s Games are named for things children did in Bizet’s day. Among them are “The Swing,” “The Doll,” “The Merry-Go-Round,” “Soap Bubbles,” “Blind Man’s Buff,” and “Leapfrog.” He later arranged five of them for orchestra.

Things to do together

Guess the game. Play three of the Children’s Games with no titles. Ask your child which game or toy each one shows.

March and dance. Play the “Farandole.” March to the first tune and dance to the second. At the end, choose one.

Feel the sway. Play the “Habanera.” Tap the repeating bass rhythm on your knees: long, short, long, long.

Write a game piece. Ask your child to name a game they play and describe how its music would sound. Fast or slow? High or low?

Carmen for children

The full opera tells a story for adults. The tunes work for any age. In Act 1, a chorus of street children marches behind the soldiers and copies them. See opera for kids.

Print and play

Fill in a composer study notebook page for Bizet. For the story and the tunes of his opera, read Carmen for kids. Draw one of the Children’s Games on a listening journal page. For the composers of his time, see Romantic era music for kids.

For more composers from the same country, read French composers for kids. For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.