This book is about the brilliant young Schubert, his merry friends, and their pranks and escapades, in most of which Franz is the hero. One of the most interesting stories in the book is the new light that is shed on the history of the Unfinished Symphony. It remained unfinished, not because of poverty, illness and discouragement, or because of the composer's early death. The real reason, according to the authors, was that Schubert's merry friends were starting for a picnic just when he was in the middle of it, and he went along. Before he left he stuffed the partly written score in his desk and it was never taken out again There are many selections from the composer's magnificent music in this volume. We have the March Militaire, the Moment Musicale, the theme of The Erlking, a dance from the opera, Rosamunde, Rondos, Dances, the lovely, lovely waltzes, impromptu pieces, the Cradle Song (a favorite of almost every child) and several of the beautiful songs.

Johannes Brahms, the frail little son of poor parents, spent the first years of his life in a wretched tenement in the old harbor city of Hamburg. It is here that the present story opens. His father, an irresponsible musician, kept the child up, playing the piano at low taverns, until all hours of the night for whatever small payment he could get. However, little Johannes's love for fine music and for composing finally led to lessons and then to a speedy success. Composing, teaching, playing on whatever piano was found available, these filled the boy's day. The present book closes when, at fifteen, he dedicates a beautiful piece to Lieschen, the lovely daughter of Adolf Giesemann in whose home he has spent the summer. Several of Brahms's best-known compositions are included.

This is a simple, inspiring children's biography of the great musician Haydn. This story, like all the stories of the great composers by Wheeler and Deucher, will win its way into the hearts of all music-loving children; for it, too, is told with all the understanding, sympathy and appreciation that its two inspired authors have to give. "Little Sepperl as the child Franz Joseph Haydn was called] always sat on a wooden stool near his father and with two smooth pieces of wood held firmly in his hands, played his own make-believe violin. His parents watched the boy drawing one stick slowly across the other as he played so seriously, keeping perfect time." Then one day he went to live with his cousin in a town near Vienna, close by the river Danube. There he learned to read music and sing. Once when the drummer was too sick to march in a procession, little Franz Joseph was asked to take his place. So he practiced all day on the meal barrel with a cloth tied over the top...until he could play the part without a single mistake. Such was the musical beginning of the boy who later played before kings in palaces, and who has left us some of the most beautiful music ever written. For boys and girls, from 8 to 12 years of age, this book is particularly recommended. It has the great value of being instructive, cultural and inspiring, as well as recreational.

"Here, at last, is the new edition of Mozart, The Wonder Boy, that you have wanted for such a long time. The first book of Mozart, The Wonder Boy, had some delightful music, but you wanted still more, and here it is - thirty-five full pages of Mozart music that you will find at the end of the story. And now what a joyous time you will have as you give yourself a beautiful concert, playing the lovely waltzes, minuets, and sonatas, all of them written by Mozart, the Wonder Boy." Opal Wheeler & Sybil Deucher (from the original 1941 edition)

This is the first complete life of Bach ever written for children. Every important incident is mentioned and every detail of the story is true. It is filled with vivid descriptions of Bach's childhood: how he sat up many nights and copied music by the light of the moon, and how he walked two hundred miles to a choir school at Luneburg. Then his adult life: how he helped his wife Magdalena put the twenty children to bed every night; how he spread brown bread with honey for them to eat every afternoon; and how he taught them all to sing and play different musical instruments. The music reproduced here represents all of the different kinds of music that Bach ever wrote. A child can never really know music unless he knows Bach, for his contribution is the foundation and structural basis of all music. But it is more the human side of this book that will make it live, for in it the great master breathes. All who read it will know him...not only as a musical genius, but also as an eager child, an affectionate father, and a lovable human being.