Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Alexandra and I recently studied our first composer, Mozart. We read lots of books about Mozart, listened to CDs, and listened to Classics for Kids online. And, we read about and listened to excerpts of The Magic Flute.

Our "core" book was Mozart, The Wonder Boy. Besides the story book, which is a great living book, you can also buy the companion CD (which also includes Bach) which includes audio files of all the music included in the book, coloring pages for each chapter, and printable sheet music for all of the music. We also used the study guide which includes chapter questions and LOTS of "tidbits of interest." Since I play the piano, I also enjoyed playing the pieces that were in the book, especially hearing the Minuet in G that Mozart wrote when he was only 5 years old!!!

In The Wonder Boy, the author relates a story of when little Wolfgang meets Marie Antoinette. It says, "The floors are highly polished and very slippery. Suddenly Wolfgang trips and falls. Little Marie Antoinette bends down quickly and helps him up. He smiles at her. "Thank you. You are kind. Some day I will marry you."" Following this, we really enjoyed reading about Marie Antoinette, too.
Here is a list of the resources we enjoyed:

• Mozart, The Wonder Boy (with CD and study guide) by Opal Wheeler and Sybil Deucher, originally printed in 1934
• Mozart: Scenes from the Childhood of the Great Composer by Brighton
• Young Mozart by Isadora
• Mozart Tonight by Downing
• The Magic Flute retold by Greaves
• Pet of the Met by Lydia & Don Freeman - WONDERFUL book we read many times - it is actually about a mouse family who lives at the Metropolitan Opera House and loves The Magic Flute!
• Moi & Marie Antoinette by Lynn Cullen - VERY good book we read several times - I would buy this one
• Mozart: Getting to Know the World's Great Composers by Venezia

I also posted more of our studies here where I talked more about The Magic Flute, here where I talked about the Queen of the Night's aria (and posted a youtube version), and here where I talked about the delightful Papageno (and posted a youtube version).