Recess! Media

Brief Sound Clip:

That’s a few measures from John Phillip Souza’s rousing “Stars and Stripes Forever” from a new CD called Good Music for Little Guys, a compilation of classical pieces that includes the “Toreador’s March” from Bizet’s Carmen, the “Hoe-Down” from Copland, three Galops from Shostakvich, a hornpipe from Handel, and “The William Tell Overture” by Rossini, which is among the more familiar classical works in the nursery repertoire — remember “The Silly Symphonies” and “The Lone Ranger.” There are also some unusual choices — like “On the Trail” from Grofe’s “Grand Canyon Suite,” and Susato’s stately “Moorish Dance.”

Brief Sound Clip:

The CD asserts that it is providing a kind of gender-specific music that little boys need, and the liner notes argue that these driving, rhythmical works can be, ” the perfect accompaniment for assertive play — like toddler baseball, kickball, or just plain bouncing off the walls.” The producers go on to say that this could be, in their words, “a godsend for parents” with “active kids” — the goal, it seems, is to encourage the “little guy,” quite literally, to bounce himself out in time with, say, Grieg’s “March of the Dwarfs.” I don’t know what your adult nerve endings will tell you to do a half hour or so into the CD, but I found that mine were eagerly looking for some non-gender-stereotyped nocturnes for my new grandson.

Brief Sound Clip: