Opal Wheeler

Here is the story of Ludwig van Beethoven, greatest master of all, told with feeling and delicate skill for boys and girls. "Perhaps he, too, will become a musician, like all the Beethovens " said Father Johann...From then on, the four-year-old Ludwig was kept at the piano hour after hour until the long exercises were mastered. The chiming bells in the chapel tower comforted him and wonderful melodies crept into his mind as the twilight crept over the city... "So...then you are a composer, as well as an organist," said Herr Zenser, the chapel organist. "But Ludwig - this is very difficult music - much too difficult for your small hands to play " "Oh, that does not matter, Herr Zenser," answered the young Ludwig, "I will play it when I am bigger." "Surely he will be another Mozart some day," some said...Later he was to study with Mozart - go to Vienna - lead one of the finest orchestras in all the city - create great symphonies - until the name of Beethoven was spoken everywhere and eager visitors made their way to his door... This is his story...an inspiring story of his achievements against all odds...of his growing deafness..."Long live Beethoven " shouted the audience ..."But the master could not hear them, and as a singer turned him gently to face the audience, the noble head bowed low as he saw from the flutter of handkerchiefs, the applause that rained upon him."... Thus Opal Wheeler captures the superb quality of musical greatness of Beethoven and communicates it to boys and girls...a deeply stirring tribute to the greatest composer of all.

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This is a simple, inspiring children's biography of the great musician Haydn. This story, like all the stories of the great composers by Wheeler and Deucher, will win its way into the hearts of all music-loving children; for it, too, is told with all the understanding, sympathy and appreciation that its two inspired authors have to give. "Little Sepperl as the child Franz Joseph Haydn was called] always sat on a wooden stool near his father and with two smooth pieces of wood held firmly in his hands, played his own make-believe violin. His parents watched the boy drawing one stick slowly across the other as he played so seriously, keeping perfect time." Then one day he went to live with his cousin in a town near Vienna, close by the river Danube. There he learned to read music and sing. Once when the drummer was too sick to march in a procession, little Franz Joseph was asked to take his place. So he practiced all day on the meal barrel with a cloth tied over the top...until he could play the part without a single mistake. Such was the musical beginning of the boy who later played before kings in palaces, and who has left us some of the most beautiful music ever written. For boys and girls, from 8 to 12 years of age, this book is particularly recommended. It has the great value of being instructive, cultural and inspiring, as well as recreational.

"Here, at last, is the new edition of Mozart, The Wonder Boy, that you have wanted for such a long time. The first book of Mozart, The Wonder Boy, had some delightful music, but you wanted still more, and here it is - thirty-five full pages of Mozart music that you will find at the end of the story. And now what a joyous time you will have as you give yourself a beautiful concert, playing the lovely waltzes, minuets, and sonatas, all of them written by Mozart, the Wonder Boy." Opal Wheeler & Sybil Deucher (from the original 1941 edition)This title is part of the Great Musicians Series - The Great Musician Series represents a milestone in music history/appreciation education. This growing line of biographies focuses on the foundational musicians and composers that have had the greatest influence on musical composition and performance. These great masters have composed some of the most memorable and timeless musical pieces that we enjoy today. Our Great Musician Series pulls back the curtain to reveal the lives and times behind these great classical compositions. Explore the persons, places, and events that influenced the masters and the beautiful music they created. This series engages students of all ages, using all learning modalities, thereby providing the richest and most memorable learning experience for your children. We include a variety of materials that will help you deliver this wonderful musical education quickly and easily.

This is the first complete life of Bach ever written for children. Every important incident is mentioned and every detail of the story is true. It is filled with vivid descriptions of Bach's childhood: how he sat up many nights and copied music by the light of the moon, and how he walked two hundred miles to a choir school at L neburg. Then his adult life: how he helped his wife Magdalena put the twenty children to bed every night; how he spread brown bread with honey for them to eat every afternoon; and how he taught them all to sing and play different musical instruments. The music reproduced here represents all of the different kinds of music that Bach ever wrote. A child can never really know music unless he knows Bach, for his contribution is the foundation and structural basis of all music. But it is more the human side of this book that will make it live, for in it the great master breathes. All who read it will know him...not only as a musical genius, but also as an eager child, an affectionate father, and a lovable human being.

Chopin remembered Vienna as the city where he had made an instant success with his music, so when, after years at home in Warsaw, he returned to Vienna he was heartsick to find only a cool welcome awaiting him. Vienna wanted to dance and sing and forget war...and Poland was on the brink of war. In Paris, however, Chopin found himself warmly welcomed; his concerts became the vogue; his days were crowded with both gayety and the work he loved. Years passed and the world hailed his greatest compositions. Then ill health began making inroads on his time, and he went to Majorca, England, Scotland, seeking relief. However, time was running out, and, at the peak of his career, the great composer and pianist died in Paris, the city he loved. Thus, simply, yet with drama is completed this excellent two-volume biography of one of the world's greatest artists.

Frederic Chopin, celebrated pianist and probably the greatest composer for the piano the world has ever known, was born in a little cottage in Poland on the estate of Count Skarbek, whose children were tutored by his father, Nicolas Chopin. The child loved music from babyhood and when the family moved to Warsaw a few years after his birth, he was placed under the tutelage of the best masters of music in Poland. His astounding performance in playing the solo part of a difficult concerto with the full Warsaw orchestra when only nine years of age marked little Frederic as the genius he was. Through the early years to that momentous day in Vienna when his playing at the theater of Count Gallenberg actually launched his career as a major figure in the world of music, Frederic Chopin's childhood and boyhood are dramatically presented. Frederic Chopin, Son of Poland, Later Years completes the great man's life story.

With clarity and with admirable simplicity, keyed to the understanding of children, Opal Wheeler has traced the many-sided career of George Frederic Handel, whose restless nature vied always with his tremendous ability as a composer and director. Handel's strange boyhood, clouded by the fact that his father did not want him to become a musician, and the later years when, thanks to the patronage of the Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, his music was played before the greatest music lovers of Europe - all of this makes absorbing reading. The selections of Handel's music included here are those best understood and most apt to be mastered by young musicians. One evening, back in 1691, conservative Doctor Handel was shocked and dismayed to find his small son carrying the torch at the head of a band of singers wandering through the little town of Halle. The good doctor never quite unde rstood the all-consuming love of music which drove his son from childhood on and on to the great heights he eventually attained as the beloved Father of the Oratorio, the composer of the magnificent MESSIAH. Opal Wheeler has given us here the most finished, most completely satisfying book on her list of fine music biographies. Handel at the Court of Kings should be a favorite of all children who love music, whether they are young musicians themselves or not.

Robert Schumann lived happily and pleasantly from the time he was a little boy, playing with his beloved cat, Ziff, in his home village in Saxony, until he became the famous composer, friend of Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Liszt. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he had few major problems to overcome. His work, his family life, all brought him the reward of renown and joy. Even the stiff finger which virtually ended his career as a musician was the means of emphasizing his genius as a composer. Opal Wheeler has written a most engaging story for children of this great man s life, and the carefully chosen selections from his compositions which have been added make this a distinguished acquisition to any young reader s library."