PLN Classics for Kids NPR Hary Janos broadcast

http://www.google.com/reader/view/#stream/feed%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2Frss%2Fpodcast.php%3Fid%3D510237

I listened to two podcasts: one about Zoltan Kodaly and one about Kodaly's opera Hary Janos. I really enjoyed them both. They are six minutes each. The podcasts are long enough to be interesting but not exhausting. This is important, since children are the intended audience. The podcast highlights the most important biographical details of Kodaly's life and the opera Hary Janos. The writer of the broadcast (Naomi Lewin) does a good job framing the context of Kodaly's life with different tidbits that might be interesting to kids. For example, she mentions that Kodaly wrote a lot of songs for children to sing and developed an entire method around his songs. She also asks active questions like "can you imagine what a musical sneeze would sound like?", then plays the first two bars of Hary Janos, which depicts a sneeze. In the interjections between sections of the music, she explains what the next passage is supposed to represent. I imagine an interested kid would really enjoy these podcasts. The Hary Janos suite is often played in a youth orchestra setting, and it would probably be helpful and add to the enjoyment of the music if this podcast was played to the kids before and during rehearsals of the piece.