Directions for Binding

Enclosed in this envelope is the cord and the
needle with which to bind this book. Start in from
the outside as shown on the diagram here. Pass the
needle and thread through the center of the book,
leaving an end extend outside, then through to the
outside, about 2 inches from the center; then from
the outside to inside 2 inches from the center at the
other end of the book, bringing the thread finally
again through the center, and tie the two ends in a
knot, one each side of the cord on the outside.

THEO. PRESSER CO., Pub’s., Phila., Pa.

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

THIS book is one of a series known as the CHILD’S OWN
BOOK OF GREAT MUSICIANS, written by Thomas
Tapper, author of “Pictures from the Lives of the Great Composers
for Children,” “Music Talks with Children,” “First
Studies in Music Biography,” and others.

The sheet of illustrations included herewith is to be cut
apart by the child, and each illustration is to be inserted in its
proper place throughout the book, pasted in the space containing
the same number as will be found under each picture on the
sheet. It is not necessary to cover the entire back of a picture
with paste. Put it only on the corners and place neatly within
the lines you will find printed around each space. Use photographic
paste, if possible.

After this play-work is completed there will be found at
the back of the book blank pages upon which the child is to
write his own story of the great musician, based upon the facts
and questions found on the previous pages.

The book is then to be sewed by the child through the
center with the cord found in the enclosed envelope. The book
thus becomes the child’s own book.

This series will be found not only to furnish a pleasing and
interesting task for the children, but will teach them the main
facts with regard to the life of each of the great musicians—an
educational feature worth while.

This series of the Child’s Own Book of Great Musicians
includes at present a book on each of the following:

Copyright, 1917, by Theodore Presser Co.

BORN

DIED

[Pg 3]

The Story of the Boy who Made
Beautiful Melodies

As long as we live and keep in touch with the
works of the great composers we shall love more and
more the music of Frederic François Chopin.

It will be pleasant to learn from time to time
something about him. We should like, for example,
to know:

In what country he was born.

In what places he lived.

What kinds of music he composed.

Perhaps we may begin by learning that he was
born in a little village in Poland not far from the City
of Warsaw, beside which flows the famous river
Vistula. Here is a picture of the house in which
Chopin was born.

CHOPIN’S BIRTHPLACE

[Pg 4]

Chopin’s father, a Frenchman by birth, was a
schoolmaster. (So was the father of Franz Schubert,
you remember.) The boy’s mother was a native of
Poland. From the time when he was a little boy, the
future great composer loved his mother’s country and
the people just as much as he loved the dear mother
herself.

The father knew that his little son was musical,
so he took the greatest care to have him taught by the
best teachers. He watched over him quite as Leopold
Mozart watched the progress of Wolferl; and as Mendelssohn’s
mother guided Felix and Fanny in their
first music lessons.

Mendelssohn and Chopin were indeed very nearly
the same age. Mendelssohn was born in February,
1809, and Chopin was
born the first of March in
the same year. Let us
keep their names together
in our memory for the future.

Mendelssohn died two
years before the death of
Chopin. Both of these
great composers kept
busily at their work until
the last year of their lives
although neither of them
was very strong.

F. MENDELSSOHN

[Pg 5]
Here is a picture of little Chopin playing for a
group of boyhood friends.

LITTLE CHOPIN PLAYING FOR HIS FRIENDS

Chopin was only nine years old when he first
played in public. It is said that he created quite a sensation.
But like all those who know that talent is
something to be worked for, he did not stop studying
just because his playing was pleasing to other people.
In fact, it was just on that account that he began to
work all the harder.

Then there came a great change. He left his home
and went to Paris, where he lived for the rest of his
life. Even though he was but a youth of twenty-one,
he had already composed two concertos for the piano.
These he had played in public to the great delight of
all who heard him, but especially of his countrymen.

[Pg 6]
You see, Chopin’s going to Paris was a strange
journey. The boy was leaving his mother’s country
and going to the land of his father. Like Joseph
Haydn, who went away at the age of six, Chopin
never lived at home again.

But he did not reach Paris a stranger. The world
of music had heard of him and some of its great ones
welcomed his coming.

Let us always think of these men who knew each
other well as a family.

LISZT

BERLIOZ

MEYERBEER

HEINE

CHOPIN

Liszt was a great pianist.

Berlioz was a famous composer for the orchestra.

Meyerbeer was best known as an operatic composer.

Heine was a great poet whose verses were set to
music by many song composers.

Berlioz was the only
one of the group who was born in France.

During his boyhood Chopin played much in public,
journeying to some of the great cities of Europe,
among them Vienna, Berlin, and Munich.

Therefore, when he played in Paris it was as an
[Pg 7]
artist. Here, as at home, he charmed everyone by the
beauty of his music and the loveliness of his touch.

He possessed the true piano hand. It was somewhat
narrow. The fingers were long and tapering.
It seemed at once strong and vigorous, yet delicate
and sensitive.

CHOPIN’S HAND

Indeed, Chopin’s music is of just these qualities.
It is strong in its nobility, delicate in its sentiment.

One would think that to arrive in Paris and to be
welcomed by the great ones would make everything
easy.

But it was not so for Chopin. Only a few people
were present at his first concert and for quite a while
he had no pupils.

Indeed, it was all so discouraging that he made
up his mind to return to his beloved Poland.

His friend, Franz Liszt, begged him not to go.
Others, too, urged him to stay in Paris. One friend,
who met him in the street as he was about to leave,
advised him as did the others to stay in Paris.

But no, he was going home.

“But,” said this friend, “first come with me to visit
a true lover of music.”

[Pg 8]
So Chopin went with him to the house of Baron
Rothschild. Here he played, so charming the company
with his music that ever so many of them begged
him for the privilege of lessons.

And so, all in a moment, his troubles blew away,
as troubles often do. Here is a picture of Chopin
playing in the home of a prince.

CHOPIN PLAYING FOR THE PRINCE

Do you wonder what kind of a man the little
Polish boy became after he found success in Paris?

One person said about him:

“Chopin talks little, and rarely about music. But
when he does speak of music one must listen to him.”

Another said:

“He is reserved and quiet, especially among
strangers, but among his friends he is witty and full
of sly humor.”

[Pg 9]
But his thoughts were not for words, they did not
weave the pretty phrases of idle talk. They were busy
making nocturnes, waltzes, mazurkas, impromptus
and many other kinds of music that we shall learn to
love as we hear them.

Music was Chopin’s true speech. The world soon
learned to love what he said in it. And it always will
love it.

See how beautifully he wrote his music.

CHOPIN’S AUTOGRAPH Listen

There was neither telephone nor telegraph in
those days. Yet it did not take long for another composer,
Robert Schumann, who lived far away, in Germany,
to learn that a genius by the name of Chopin
lived in Paris.

The post carried to Schumann a copy of Chopin’s
first printed music. This was a theme taken from
Mozart’s Opera Don Juan, which Chopin arranged
with variations for the piano.

When Schumann played it to his friends everyone
exclaimed: “How beautiful it is!”

Then someone said:

“Chopin—I never heard the name. Who can
he be?”
[Pg 10]

R. SCHUMANN

So we see that his
thoughts printed as music
flew like winged messengers
to carry news of him
to others in distant places.
And people not merely
asked: “Who can he be?”
but they found out who he
was, and kept passing the
news on and on until
finally it has reached
us!

Chopin was never a robust person, though he was
well and busy most of his life. But in the last years
he suffered much from illness. This led him to travel
to many places from
Paris for the good of
his health.

Chopin was devoted
to Poland, the beloved
land of his birth. Here
is a picture of the great
composer who has fallen
asleep at the keyboard
and is dreaming
of a glorious future for
Poland.

CHOPIN DREAMING OF POLAND

Once he went to
England and to Scotland.
He played in
[Pg 11]
London and was highly praised for the beautiful way
he performed his own music.

While it is true that Chopin was ill in the last
years of his life, we must notice that he kept right on
with his work. He played and composed just as he
always had done. Chopin died in Paris, October 17,
1849, just two years after Mendelssohn, who died in
1847.

Many men, who would have given up everything
had they not been brave, have worked right on
through illness.

Milton was blind, but he dictated Paradise Lost to
his daughter.

Beethoven was deaf, but he did not give up composing.

Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote the lovely
Child’s Garden of Verses, was ill all his life, but he
kept on writing. Grieg was probably never well all
his life, but he never gave up.

MILTON

BEETHOVEN

STEVENSON

GRIEG

Have you ever thought that the beautiful ideas of
great men sometimes outlive famous cities?

[Pg 12]
What a lot of cities and countries we must visit
in our thoughts, to see the great composers at their
work. For example—

1. Grieg belongs to Norway.

2. Chopin to Warsaw and Paris.

3. Schubert to Vienna in Austria.

4. Bach to Thuringia in Saxony, Germany.

5. Handel to Germany and England.

6. Haydn to Hungary.

7. Beethoven to Germany and Vienna. (He was
born at Bonn on the Rhine).

8. Schumann to Germany.

9. Mendelssohn to Hamburg and Berlin, Germany.

10. Mozart to Salzburg and Vienna in Austria.

It will be a pleasant thing for us to see if we can
arrange these names in order, beginning with the
oldest, Bach and Handel, and coming down to the
latest. By doing such things, time and time again,
they begin to stick in the memory.

SOME FACTS ABOUT CHOPIN

When you have read this page and the next make
a story about Chopin’s life. Write it in your own
words. When you are quite sure you cannot improve
it, copy it on pages 15 and 16.

1. Frederic François Chopin was born in Poland.

2. His birthday was March 1, 1809.

[Pg 13]
3. He spent most of his life in the two cities of
Warsaw and Paris.

4. His father was French; his mother Polish.

5. At the age of nine he made his first public appearance
as a pianist.

6. Many distinguished people welcomed him to
Paris.

7. Among them were Liszt, Berlioz, Meyerbeer,
Heine.

8. His first weeks in Paris were discouraging;
his first concert poorly attended.

9. This tempted him to return to Poland.

10. But his friends urged him to remain in Paris.

11. Finally success came.

12. Chopin was described as one who spoke little,
especially among strangers.

13. Some of the music forms which he wrote are
the nocturne, waltz, mazurka, impromptu, concerto,
polonaise, etude.

14. Schumann was one of the first to declare
Chopin a genius.

15. Chopin worked hard all his life.

16. But in his last years he suffered from ill-health.

17. Like Milton, Beethoven, Stevenson and
Grieg, he kept on with his work, in spite of his illness.

18. Chopin once went to England and Scotland.

19. Chopin was very fond of Bach and urged
his pupils to practice Bach pieces every day for the
mental drill as well as the drill for the fingers.
[Pg 14]

SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT CHOPIN

1. In what country was Chopin born?

2. In what two great cities did he live?

3. In what year was Chopin born?

4. What other composer was born about the
same time?

5. When did Chopin first appear in public?

6. What two works had he already composed
when he set out for Paris?

7. Who were some of the people who welcomed
Chopin to Paris?

8. Name some of the great cities in which he
played.

9. What led Chopin to want to leave Paris?

10. Why did he change his mind and remain
there?

11. What great German composer discovered
Chopin to be a genius?

12. Name some great writers and composers who
kept at work even though they were not in the best
of health.

13. In what country was Grieg born?

14. In what city was Mozart born?

15. In what two countries did Handel live?

16. What famous river flows by the City of Warsaw?

17. Name some of the kinds of music that Chopin
composed?

18. What music by Chopin have you heard?

[Pg 15]

THE STORY OF FREDERIC CHOPIN

Written by…………………………………

On date……………………………………