Thomas Tapper’s Classical Composer Series for Children
Lesson 1
Thomas Tapper was a musician, lecturer, teacher, and especially an author who specialized in children's books. His "Child's Own Book of Great Musicians" series, written at the turn of the 20th century, is by far his most popular work.
The original series were purchased as a bundle of paper which children would bind into a book at home themselves. They would cut and paste the pictures into designated areas, then write their own synopsis of the composer's life at the end of the book. This process helped children make the book their own. Duplicating this process for children today will be fairly tricky, however, because most (if not all, I didn't check them) of these books already have the pictures in place and are designed to be read straightforward. If you wanted to recreate the process, you could with a little ingenuity because the text is all laid out.
If you are more of an audio learner, Kara Shallanberg has read 10 of the 12 stories aloud and shared them on archive.org. You can download them and listen to them in the car with your kids or play them at home or during music class during a quiet activity. Enjoy!
Bach
The boy who sang in the streets.
Beethoven
The story of a little boy who was forced to practice.
Schubert
The story of the boy who wrote beautiful songs.
Mozart
The story of a little boy and his sister who gave concerts.
Handel
The story of a little boy who practiced in an attic.
Chopin
The story of the boy who made beautiful melodies.
Verdi
The story of the little boy who loved the hand organ.
Wagner
The story of the boy who wrote little plays.
Grieg
The story of the boy who made music in the land of the midnight sun..
Haydn
The story of the choir boy who became a great composer.
Schumann
The story of the boy who made pictures in music.
Liszt
The story of a boy who became a great pianist and teacher.
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