His Treasure Seekers

It may be cliche, but Mozart has always been my favorite composer, and so I was delighted to spend some time with his music this year in Cycle 1 of Classical Conversations.  In class we just focused one one movement of a piano concerto, but I wanted to take more time than that to help my children become familiar with the man whose name has become synonymous with classical music.  We’ll spend the next few weeks going through some of the resources I’ve pulled together here.  (We used many of these a few years ago when I did a composer study on Mozart with my older kids, but there are a few new ones as well.)

Audio Resources

Of course there are hundreds of recordings of Mozart’s music available (check YouTube or your local library), but here are a few audio resources created especially for children.

The Classical Kids recordings are a wonderful way to introduce children to composers and their music.  Each one tells a captivating story, using the featured composer’s music as a soundtrack.  There are two recordings about Mozart:

• Mozart’s Magic Fantasy from Classical Kids
• Mozart’s Magnificent Voyage from Classical Kids

The Beethoven’s Wig series is a fun way to help children become familiar with famous pieces of classical music, with comical lyrics being sung to the melodies.

• “La De Da Sonata” (Sonata in C) from Beethoven’s Wig: Sing-Along Piano Classics
• “Mozart Makes Kids Smart” (Rondo Alla Turca) from Beethoven’s Wig: Sing-Along Piano Classics
• “Please Don’t Play Your Violin at Night” (Eine Kleine Nachtmusik) from Beethoven’s Wig: Sing Along Symphonies

If you want to learn more about Mozart’s life and music, here are a few listening options:

• Classics for Kids podcast episodes on Mozart
• The Story of Mozart in Words and Music CD
• “Mozart: The Story of a Little Boy and his Sister who Gave Concerts” from Stories of Great Composers for Children by Thomas Tapper (free audiobook)

Video Resources

My younger kids’ favorite way learning about classical music is watching Little Einsteins.  There are several episodes that feature music by Mozart:

• “Whale Tale” and “Duck, Duck, June“(both featuring the Rondo from Horn Concert No. 2 in in E-flat Major, K. 417; “Whale Tale” also plays the Rondo from Horn Concerto No. 4 in F)
• “Birthday Balloons” and “The Mouse and the Moon” (both featuring Eine Kleine Nachtmusik)
• “Annie’s Love Song” and “Music Monsters” (both featuring Piano Concerto No. 21)
• “Annie and the Little Toy Plane” and “The Wild Goose Chase” (both featuring Symphony No. 40)

There is also a fun animated series starring Mozart and his family, Little Amadeus. The DVD set comes with a CD-ROM with lesson plans to go along with each episode, as well as printable sheet music. I haven’t found anywhere to watch the whole series streaming, though the first season is on YouTube, and reruns still play on our local public television station.  

If you want to look at a specific piece of music, The Magic Flute is really a wonderful way to introduce children to opera.  The BBC produced a 30 minute animated version that tells the basic story sung in English.  For a more authentic experience, I recommend the Opéra National de Paris video of the complete opera.

Books

For some biographical information:

• Mozart (from the Famous Children series) by Ann Rachlins (short enough for younger children)
• Mozart (from the Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers series) by Mike Venezia.
• Mozart, the Wonder Boy by Opal Wheeler (chapter book)

We have several picture books about Mozart we’ve started going through:

• Play, Mozart, Play by Peter Sis
• Mozart Finds a Melody by Stephen Costanza
• Mozart Tonight by Julie Downing
• For the Love of Music: The Remarkable Story of Maria Anna Mozart by Elizabeth Rusch (about Mozart’s sister)

While not about Mozart, The Magic Flute: An Opera by Mozart adapted by Kyra Teis, tells the story of the opera.

Additional Resources

If you want to go a little deeper in your study of Mozart, here are some great ideas to check out!

We recently spent two months focusing on the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  The core of our composer study this first “introductory” year has been the Classical Kids CDs, and since there were two on Mozart I just decided to spend a little extra time on him.  (Or at least that made a nice excuse for enjoying my favorite composer for a little longer.)  I also wanted the boys to become familiar with the music from The Magic Flute in preparation for a children’s theater presentation by the LA Opera called The Magic Dream (which featured much of the opera’s music).  Although we also listened to plenty of Mozart’s other creations, most of our time was spent with The Magic Flute.

Audio Resources

It would be easy to listen to Mozart for at least a week without repeating any music, but I kept our selection limited. Here’s what was on our composer playlist:

• Mozart’s Magic Fantasy from Classical Kids
• Mozart’s Magnificent Voyage from Classical Kids
• “La De Da Sonata” (Sonata in C) from Beethoven’s Wig: Sing-Along Piano Classics
• “Mozart Makes Kids Smart” (Rondo Alla Turca) from Beethoven’s Wig: Sing-Along Piano Classics
• “Please Don’t Play Your Violin at Night” (Eine Kleine Nachtmusik) from Beethoven’s Wig: Sing Along Symphonies
• Classics for Kids episodes on Mozart
• The Story of Mozart in Words and Music
• “Mozart: The Story of a Little Boy and his Sister who Gave Concerts” from Stories of Great Composers for Children by Thomas Tapper (free audiobook)

Video Resources

Because my children are still so young, one of their favorite ways of learning about classical music is watching Little Einsteins.  There are several episodes that feature music by Mozart:

• “Whale Tale” and “Duck, Duck, June“(both featuring the Rondo from Horn Concert No. 2 in in E-flat Major, K. 417; “Whale Tale” also plays the Rondo from Horn Concerto No. 4 in F)
• “Birthday Balloons” and “The Mouse and the Moon” (both featuring Eine Kleine Nachtmusik)
• “Annie’s Love Song” and “Music Monsters” (both featuring Piano Concerto No. 21)
• “Annie and the Little Toy Plane” and “The Wild Goose Chase” (both featuring Symphony No. 40)

The Magic Flute is really a wonderful way to introduce children to opera.  The characters and other elements of the story capture their imaginations, and the productions are often colorful and visually intriguing.  I was amazed at how fascinated Ian was by YouTube videos of various performances of The Magic Flute. He especially enjoyed one by the Opéra National de Paris that showed the complete opera. (He sat watching for an hour!)  We also checked out a DVD from the library and watched the whole opera in segments as we folded laundry together.

Books and Other Reading

For some biographical information we read Mozart by Ann Rachlin from the Famous Children series.  Both boys really enjoyed The Magic Flute: An Opera by Mozart adapted by Kyra Teis, which tells the story just like a fairy tale book. We didn’t get to Mozart (from the Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Composers series) by Mike Venezia.  A chapter book I’d like to try later is Mozart, the Wonder Boy by Opal Wheeler.

Additional Resources

I also found many wonderful ideas for composer study on Mozart that we’ll use when the kids get a bit older here. I’m sure we’ll come back to it in the future when Mozart pops up again in the Ambleside Online composer study schedule.