Yesterday was the 200th celebration of the birth of one of the world’s greatest composers, Frederic Chopin. Frederic was born to a Polish schoolmaster, Nicholas Chopin and his wife Justine on March 1, 1810. This wonderful little book gives an account of the early years of the young composer.
From the young age of 4, Frederic was astounding his family and friends with his incredible ability to pick out the notes of songs he had recently heard his mother play on the piano. They would find him in the middle of the night practicing the piano. When asked why he would play at such an hour he told them that he wanted to be sure that he could play for the children when his mother couldn’t any longer.
This book recounts the mischief, education and joys of this young boy and young man up through his first performance in Vienna. Another wonderful feature of this book is the music that is included within its pages. There are 8 compositions for you to try to play as you read his story.
I saw this book for the first time two years ago at a home school convention and was thrilled last year to find it included in the recommended reading for my upper grammar aged child. In memory of this great composer’s birthday, I hope that you will enjoy it as well. Also, take advantage of this free download offer from Amazon of some of his great works. We enjoy listening to it while we did our school work.
