Italian composers for kids: ten to know

Italy gave music the opera, the violin, the piano, and the words that musicians use for fast and slow. This list has ten Italian composers in order of birth, with a short story and one piece to hear for each. Seven of them have a full page on this site. Start with “Spring” from The Four Seasons or the William Tell Overture for a young child.

Ten Italian composers

1. Claudio Monteverdi (1567 to 1643)

Monteverdi was born in Cremona, the town of the great violin makers. He wrote one of the first operas, Orfeo, in 1607. It is among the oldest operas that theaters still stage. Later he led the music at the great church of St. Mark’s in Venice.

Hear: The opening fanfare of Orfeo, about two minutes of bright brass.

2. Barbara Strozzi (1619 to 1677)

Strozzi was a singer and composer who spent her life in Venice. She published eight books of songs under her own name. Few composers of her time printed that much music, and almost no women did. Read Barbara Strozzi for kids.

Hear: “Che si può fare,” a slow song over a bass line that repeats.

3. Arcangelo Corelli (1653 to 1713)

Corelli was the most admired violinist of his day. He published only six books of music, and Vivaldi, Handel, and Bach all learned from them. Read Corelli for kids.

Hear: The Pastorale from his “Christmas Concerto.”

4. Antonio Vivaldi (1678 to 1741)

Vivaldi was a priest with red hair who taught music at a home for orphaned girls in Venice. He wrote more than 500 concertos. Read Vivaldi for kids and Vivaldi facts for kids.

Hear: “Spring” from The Four Seasons. See The Four Seasons guide.

5. Domenico Scarlatti (1685 to 1757)

Scarlatti was born in Naples in the same year as Bach and Handel. His father was a famous composer of operas. Domenico spent much of his life in Portugal and Spain as the music teacher of a princess who became a queen. He wrote 555 short sonatas for the keyboard, full of leaps, crossed hands, and sounds borrowed from the Spanish guitar.

Hear: The Sonata in E major, K. 380. Some listeners hear a parade passing by.

6. Niccolò Paganini (1782 to 1840)

Paganini was the most famous violinist of his time. He did things on the instrument that no one had seen before. Read Paganini for kids.

Hear: Caprice No. 24, about five minutes for one violin alone.

7. Gioachino Rossini (1792 to 1868)

Rossini wrote 39 operas, all before he turned 38. His overtures build from a whisper to a roar. Read Rossini for kids.

Hear: The finale of the William Tell Overture. See the William Tell guide and The Barber of Seville for kids.

8. Giuseppe Verdi (1813 to 1901)

Verdi wrote more than 25 operas. Italians sang his tunes in the streets, and his name became a symbol of their country. Read Verdi for kids.

Hear: The Triumphal March from Aida, with its long, straight trumpets.

9. Giacomo Puccini (1858 to 1924)

Puccini wrote operas, and almost nothing else. Three of them are among the most often performed in the world. Read Puccini for kids.

Hear: “O mio babbino caro,” a two-minute song.

10. Ottorino Respighi (1879 to 1936)

Respighi wrote three sets of pieces about the city of Rome: its fountains, its pine trees, and its festivals. In Pines of Rome, the score calls for a recording of a real nightingale.

Hear: The first part of Pines of Rome, where children play and shout under the trees.

Five more to hear

• Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (about 1525 to 1594). Smooth, woven music for church choirs.
• Luigi Boccherini (1743 to 1805). Hear his Minuet for strings.
• Muzio Clementi (1752 to 1832). Piano students play his sonatinas. Read Clementi for kids.
• Gian Carlo Menotti (1911 to 2007). He was born in Italy and worked in the United States. Read Menotti for kids and Amahl and the Night Visitors.
• Ennio Morricone (1928 to 2020). He wrote the music for hundreds of films. Hear “Gabriel’s Oboe.”

Five things Italy gave music

Opera. A story told in song. Opera began in Italy around 1600. Read opera for kids.

The violin. The violin took its shape in northern Italy in the 1500s. Its most famous maker, Antonio Stradivari, worked in Cremona.

The piano. Bartolomeo Cristofori invented it in Italy around 1700.

The words. Allegro, piano, forte, and crescendo are all Italian. Read tempo words in music.

The staff and do-re-mi. About a thousand years ago, an Italian monk named Guido of Arezzo worked out a way to write notes on lines, and gave the notes their singing names. Read solfège explained.

What to listen for in Italian music

Singing tunes. Many Italian composers wrote for the voice, and their tunes can sound sung even when a violin plays them.

The violin out front. From Corelli to Paganini, the violin is the star.

Drama. Much of this music was written for the stage, and it changes mood fast.

Slow build-ups. Rossini made a habit of the long crescendo.

Things to do together

Say it in Italian. Walk around the room. One person calls out “allegro,” “adagio,” “forte,” or “piano,” and the others move to match.

Name the season. Play a minute from each of The Four Seasons in a mixed order. Ask which season it is.

Solo and team. Play Paganini’s Caprice No. 24, and then a Corelli concerto. Ask how one violin differs from a whole group.

Make a timeline. Write the ten names and birth years on cards and put them in order.

Find the cities. On a map of Italy, find Venice, Rome, Naples, and Cremona.

Print and play

Fill in a composer study notebook page for each composer you hear. Print the Vivaldi fact sheet and the tempo and dynamics word cards.

For more lists by country, read German composers for kids and English composers for kids. For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.