When three year old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart watched his seven year old sister, Maria Anna, play a keyboard, he imitated her. His father, Leopold Mozart, an Austrian musician in Salzburg, soon recognized his son’s musical ability. Wolfgang it seemed understood music.
Leopold now tutored both Maria Anna and Wolfgang. He demanded musical perfection, but he also made his lessons fun for his children. In his book, Play, Mozart, Play, Peter Sis writes that Leopold Mozart had the children incorporate music into their play. When the children brought their toys to another room, “one of them carried the toys and the other played a march on the violin.” At age five, Wolfgang could play both the harpsichord and violin. And he composed his first piece of music. Wolfgang soon became proficient on the viola, piano, and organ.
Wolfgang and Maria Anna
When Wolfgang was only six years old, Leopold took him and Maria Anna on their first musical tour, playing for royalty in Munich. They were instantly recognized as child prodigies. Traveling to cities in England, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and Austria, Wolfgang and Maria Anna showed off their musical skills in the European courts.
From Play, Mozart, Play
At age eight, Wolfgang composed his first symphony, and at age eleven, his first opera. Leopold took Wolfgang on an extended tour of Italy when he was thirteen. Maria Anna was no longer allowed to perform in public. It was not thought proper for a young woman of seventeen. In Italy, Wolfgang attended a performance in the Sistine Chapel of Miserere, by composer Gregorio Allegri. Remembering the piece later, Wolfgang wrote it down with few mistakes. Young Wolfgang soon composed operas, symphonies, sonatas, and string quartets. He especially loved composing concertos for the violin.
Over his short lifetime, only thirty-five years, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composed over six hundred pieces of music. He is considered to be one of the world’s most accomplished musicians.
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and/or leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
Books For Kids:
Play, Mozart, Play
by Peter Sis
For the Love of Music: The Remarkable Story of Maria Anna Mozart
The Little Prince tells the story of a pilot who crash lands his plane in the Sahara Desert. He is awakened his first night there by a little prince fallen to earth from an asteroid. The novella is one of the most popular and endearing books since its publication in 1943. The author, Antoine De Saint-Exupery, a pilot, helped pioneer airmail delivery. And like the pilot in The Little Prince, he crash landed his plane in the Sahara desert, an experience that inspired his writing of The Little Prince.
Antoine, born in Lyon, France in 1900, grew up during the beginning of manned flight. Although the airplane originated in America with the Wright Brothers, it’s popularity took off in France. Antoine was there to see it. When he was twelve, he spent his summer days at an airfield watching pilots fly the early planes. One day, a pilot offered him a ride. And from then on, he dreamed of flying.
Antoine De Saint-Exupery
Entering military service with the French Army in 1921, Antoine took private flying lessons, and asked to be reassigned as a pilot with the French Air Force. After service, his flying career took off. He heard about an airline that flew mail delivery. Antoine signed up.
Antoine De Saint-Exupery
He flew and delivered the mail in Spain and West Africa. He later lived at Cape Juby, Morocco, in the Sahara Desert, working as a manager at the airfield. Antoine was a talented and courageous pilot who helped search and rescue downed pilots. At Cape Juby, he negotiated pilots’ release from captors.
Antoine De Saint-Exupery’s Crashed Plane, Sahara Desert, 1935
Antoine De Saint-Exupery wrote about his flying adventures in his books including, Night Flight and Wind, Sand and Stars. He will always be remembered for his masterpiece, The Little Prince.
In The Pilot and the Little Prince: The Life of Antoine De Saint-Exupery, master storyteller and illustrator, Peter Sis tells Antoine’s story from his childhood of “sunny days” to the day he went missing while flying for the Free French Air Force in World War II. The Pilot and the Little Prince is an engaging picture book biography for children.
The Pilot and the Little Prince: The Life of Antoine De Saint-Exupery
by Peter Sis
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
