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Guide

Child's Own Book of Great Musicians

1 Lesson None

About this course

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

Bach

The boy who sang in the streets.

Beethoven

Beethoven

The story of a little boy who was forced to practice.

Schubert

Schubert

The story of the boy who wrote beautiful songs.

Mozart

Mozart

The story of a little boy and his sister who gave concerts.

Handel

Handel

The story of a little boy who practiced in an attic.

Chopin

Chopin

The story of the boy who made beautiful melodies.

Verdi

Verdi

The story of the little boy who loved the hand organ.

Wagner

Wagner

The story of the boy who wrote little plays.

Grieg

Grieg

The story of the boy who made music in the land of the midnight sun..

Haydn

Haydn

The story of the choir boy who became a great composer.

Schumann

Schumann

The story of the boy who made pictures in music.

Liszt

Liszt

The story of a boy who became a great pianist and teacher.

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