ABSTRACT
The title of this chapter comes from the extensive collection of music by the Russian composer and educator Dmitri Kabalevsky entitled Piano Music for Children and Young People. The best children's music is distinguished by a concrete subject, lively poetic content, picturesque imagery, and simple and clear form'. Music for children as performers and listeners has been richly served by Russian composers throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The music Kabalevsky composed to be performed by children is divided into two sections: the instrumental music and the piano music. In approaching music for children Kabalevsky adopted the model of what he called the 'three whales'. Kabalevsky's education philosophy was centred on the understanding by children of the characteristics and components of the song, the dance, and the march. Kabalevsky reinforced that when he referred to music he was talking about 'the great art of music and not music simplified specially for children'.
