knew how eagerly he had looked forward to this day. Josef, the kindly
neighbor, had promised to take him that very morning to a warehouse
where many fine pianos were kept, and he would spend hours among the
beautiful instruments there. No wonder he was glad! The one his father
provided for him was cheap and harsh, for Herr Schubert was just a poor
schoolmaster and had few coins to spend for anything besides food and
clothing. But that did not keep Franz from doing wonders with his music.
He learned all he could from his brothers, and worked away at the poor
piano because he could not help it. Now that he was soon to touch the
keyboard of a really splendid instrument, he felt like a prince in a
fairy tale.
They went out of the house and along the dingy street in which the
Schuberts lived. Across the Danube they passed by the old stone bridge
that led to the Ringstrasse, then northward into that part of the city
where the warehouses stood. Groups of citizens in holiday attire hurried
by, and now and then some great lord or lady in a fine carriage passed
them on the way to worship at St. Stephen’s. But Franz thought only of
reaching the warehouse, and he walked so fast that Josef, who was short
and fat, began to grow red in the face and pant, and he was quite as glad
as the boy when they reached the building.
Franz lost no time in getting to a piano. Sunday comes just once a week,
and another would not come for seven long days. He sat down at one of
the lovely instruments, playing and singing as if nothing in the world
mattered so much as music. He was only eleven years old, and boys of that
age usually want to be out with others, engaged in the sports and games
boys love. But not so with Franz Schubert. He was happiest at his music.
He played and played and was so busy that he did not see a stranger come
into the warehouse or hear his voice in earnest conversation with Josef.
“You say he has had no music masters?” the man asked wonderingly.
Josef shook his head. “None but his brothers, Ignace and Ferdinand, and
once, for a very short time, his father sent him to a singing tutor. But
he said he could teach him nothing, for when he thought to give him
something new he found he had learned it already.”
“Surely he is a wonder child,” the stranger remarked. “Be sure to tell
his father to bring him tomorrow and we will try him.”
Then he passed out, but Franz did not see him. Nor did he know a word
that had been spoken until on the way home, when Josef told him that the
emperor’s choirmaster had passed by and was so pleased with his singing
and playing that he wanted him in the royal choir.
So little Franz Schubert became a choir boy, and the master wondered more
and more that one so young could know so much of music.
Then he went to a boys’ school. His clothes were not very fine, for he
was poor. But he wore the best he had, a light gray suit that was far
from handsome. Some of the richer boys thought it funny and nicknamed
him “the miller.” But when Franz passed the severe singing examination
so well that he was given one of the gold-braided honor uniforms, they
did not tease him again. No one else did as well in the orchestra as
the little Schubert lad. No one else sang as understandingly as he,
and his master and fellow students, like the royal choirmaster, called
him a wonder child. Every boy in the school liked him, and Franz liked
them all too, but especially a young man named Spaun. And Spaun’s name
is remembered to this day just because once upon a time he was kind to
little Franz Schubert. He was almost twenty when Franz was but eleven,
but they were jolly companions and the best of friends.
One day Franz said, “If I had some paper I know I could write a song.”
But paper he had not, because his father could not afford to buy it.
Spaun always had a little money to spend, however, so Franz got the paper
and wrote the song, and after that his friend supplied him with writing
material. He enjoyed doing it because he liked the lad, but he did
not realize that it would mean much to the world. It did mean a great
deal, however, for some of the songs Franz wrote during his school days
are still sung as among the sweetest in the world, and perhaps but for
Spaun’s paper they might not have been written.
Well, Franz grew up just as other boys grow, and still he went on loving
music and working at it, playing and writing songs. Almost everything he
read or saw made him think of a melody, and every melody that formed in
his brain was beautiful.
One evening he went into a restaurant in Vienna for his dinner. He had a
small copy of Shakespeare in his pocket, and as he waited to be served he
took it out and read. His eye fell upon the lines:
Hark, hark! the lark at heaven’s gate sings,
And Phœbus ’gins arise,
His steeds to water at those springs
On chaliced flowers that lies.
They made him think of a song, and he looked about for paper upon which
to write it. He asked the waiter to get him a piece, but the waiter could
find nothing but a bill of fare. Schubert took that and wrote his melody,
and when Shakespeare’s words were sung to it, the song sounded like this:
[At this point in the story run a record of “Hark, hark the lark.”]
Another time he was passing through a poor quarter of Vienna and heard a
peasant serenading a girl. Schubert did not think the song a very pretty
one, and he went home and wrote one that he liked better. This is how it
sounds:
[Record of “The Serenade.”]
When Franz Schubert was a little child, he heard his father tell an old
German story. It was called “The Erl King” and was about a witchlike
creature who was supposed to take children from their parents. Franz
always remembered it, and after he grew to manhood and read Goethe’s
poem, “The Erl King,” a friend told him how the master came to write it.
One wild winter night the poet was visiting in the home of a physician
and a man came riding through the storm, seeking help for the child
he had with him. The little fellow was delirious with fever and kept
clinging to his father, crying and begging him not to let the Erl King
take him away. The incident affected Goethe so deeply that he wrote the
poem, and Schubert, hearing the story, was so touched by it that he
composed wonderful music to go with the master’s words.
[Record of “The Erl King.”]
Another poem of Goethe’s that he read told of a wild rose growing on a
heath. A boy saw the rose and said, “I will pluck you.” The rose said,
“No, no. If you do I will prick you.” The foolish boy laughed and picked
the rose, and it kept its word. This is the song Schubert made of the
poem:
[Record of “Hedge Roses.”]
So you see that almost everything made Franz Schubert think of music. He
wrote many, many songs and much other music, and although it is almost a
hundred years since he died, his name and his works will live as long as
men love melody. The greatest singers in the world use his songs over and
over because rich and poor alike love them, and whenever singers want to
be very sure of pleasing they sing some of the songs of him who was once
a boy in old Vienna, Franz Schubert.
SOURCES OF MATERIAL TO AWAKEN AN APPRECIATION OF MUSIC
BARBER: _Wagner Opera Stories_.
BENDER: _Some Great Opera Stories_ (General Operas).
CATHER, KATHERINE DUNLAP: _Pan and His Pipes and Other
Stories_; _Boyhood Stories of Famous Men_.
CHAPIN, ANNA ALICE: _The Heart of Music_; _Makers of Song_;
_Stories of the Wagner Operas_; _The Story of the Rhinegold_.
CROWEST, FREDERICK JAMES: _The Life of Verdi_.
DOLE, NATHAN HASKELL: _A Score of Famous Composers_.
DUTTON COMPANY: _The Master Musician Series_.
FRYBERGER, AGNES: _Listening Lessons in Music_.
GUERBER, HELÈNE A.: _Stories of the Wagner Operas_.
HENSEL, SEBASTIAN: _The History of the Mendelssohn Family_.
LISZT, FRANZ: _Life of Chopin_.
PICTURES TO USE IN TELLING MUSICAL STORIES
BEYSCHLAG: Orpheus and Eurydice.
BORCKMAN: Mozart and His Sisters before Maria Theresa;
Beethoven and the Rusmnowsky Quartette.
CARLO DOLCI: St. Cecilia at the Organ.
DUNCAN: Story of Minstrelsy.
GIULIO ROMANO: Apollo and the Muses.
HAMMAN: Mozart at Vienna; Preludes of Bach; Haydn Crossing the
English Channel; Handel and George I of England.
HARPFER: Mozart at the Organ.
LEYDENDECKER: Beethoven at Bonn.
MERLE: Beethoven at the House of Mozart.
ROSENTHAL: Morning Prayers in the Family of Bach.
SCHLOESSER: Beethoven in His Study.
SCHNEIDER: Mozart and His Sister.
SHIELDS: Mozart Singing His Requiem.
Portraits of all the great musicians.[1]
[1] Brown, Perry, or Cosmos Pictures, or they may be obtained from Victor
Talking Machine Company, especially the living artists.
CHAPTER TEN
STORY-TELLING TO AWAKEN AN APPRECIATION OF ART
The child who is surrounded by good pictures from his earliest years
grows to love good pictures, and gaudily colored, cheap ones have no
charm for him. His taste has been formed for the fine and true, and
nothing else will satisfy him. To behold a beautiful painting gives
him pleasure, while to see a glaring chromo produces an unpleasant
sensation. This is not because he is different by nature from one to whom
masterpieces have no meaning, but because he has learned to know them.
Here again we have one of the striking differences between the average
American and the average European. The Italian, French, Austrian, or
German laborer sees masterpieces from infancy. His earliest recollection
of religious worship is associated with them. Every continental town
has its art gallery or picture exhibit, and on certain days there is no
admission fee. The laborer avails himself of this opportunity. On Sunday,
when he is free from toil, he makes a festival of the occasion and takes
his family to some park or place of amusement, and very frequently the
jaunt includes a trip to the picture gallery. Consequently, even the
children of those lands have a knowledge of the masterpieces of art far
surpassing that of the average adult American.
In most respects the Italian street gamin does not differ from the
guttersnipe of our own land, but in one he is vastly his superior. He
knows the free days at the galleries as well as he knows the alleys
of his native town, and is a liberal patron of such places on those
occasions. I once made the acquaintance of a little chap in Rome who was
an excellent guide. He piloted me among the treasures of the Vatican with
the ease and security that bespeaks thorough knowledge, for he had been
there so often that he knew in just which rooms or alcoves to find his
favorites. He knew much of the artists, too, of their lives and times,
their discouragements and successes. Yet this Roman street boy was no
exception to his class. Along the Piazza di Spagna, in fact, on any of
the highways, are dozens like him, rich in knowledge of the statues and
fountains that glorify the streets and parks of the Holy City. The names
of Brunelleschi, Michelangelo, Fra Angelico, Giotto, and those other men
who built or carved or painted with marvelous power, are fraught with
meaning to them, and it is not strange that it should be so. Children in
Italy have grown up among beautiful things. For centuries beauty has been
almost a religion to this joy-loving, sun-loving race, and the country of
the Apennines, as Francis Hopkinson Smith says, is the one place in the
world where a song or a sunset is worth more than a soldo. Consequently,
the Italians are a nation of art lovers. Each individual regards the
masterpieces as his property, and the reason the Italian people hate the
memory of Napoleon is not only that he conquered parts of their land,
but that he robbed Italy of some of her art treasures. These were things
they and their fathers had seen and loved, and they could not forgive the
vandal who carried them away, even after the wound left by the victor
had ceased to rankle.
Here in America we have not had the opportunity of the average European,
but already we have made a beginning, and we now possess a number of art
galleries that deserve the name. At the present time these are found only
in the large cities, but they are helping to form national standards.
Meanwhile every worker with children ought to try to lead those intrusted
to his care to a knowledge and appreciation of great pictures.
It is not enough to place reproductions of masterpieces in schools and
homes and say nothing about them. If children are to have an appreciation
of them, they must be led to see their beauty, to understand what they
mean, to have some idea of the infinite patience and labor that made
their creation possible. The child of an artistic bent will observe and
study them without aid or guidance and unconsciously grow into loving
them, because beauty in any form attracts him as a magnet draws a bar of
steel. But teachers and parents do not work solely with budding genius,
and in the great scheme of human advancement it may mean as much for many
_average_ children to appreciate and love art, as for one who is gifted
to reach immortal heights of achievement. The average child must be led
and directed. His interest must be aroused before we can hope to mold
his taste as we would have it molded. He must be taught to see that a
Gainsborough is more beautiful than an advertising chromo, that a face
by Raphael is the expression of an inspiration that is almost divine.
Only through an association that gives pleasure will he come to see
and appreciate, and here again story-telling can work wonders, because
through it we can intensify a child’s delight in a picture.
In the field of art the biographical tale is of immeasurable value, for
the story of an artist’s life, illustrated by reproductions of his works,
can be made the pathway to appreciation.
In establishing standards of art appreciation, as well as those of music,
we must not lose sight of the story interests of childhood, because many
a picture that is a great artistic achievement is not suitable to present
to little children. The “Venus and Cupid” of Velasquez is a glorious
masterpiece, but we cannot expect little folk to admire it any more than
we can expect those in the rhythmic period to listen to a King Arthur
story and ask to hear it again. As the little child does not know Venus
and Cupid, a portrayal of them means nothing to him. But he does know
horses and dogs and cats. He knows other children and babies and mothers,
and therefore he enjoys pictures of animal and child life and will be
interested in hearing about their portrayers.
Sir Joshua Reynolds is an excellent artist to begin with, because his
best work is built around themes dear to the heart of childhood. His
“Age of Innocence,” “Infant Samuel,” “Robinetta,” “Heads of Angels,”
“Simplicity,” and “The Strawberry Girl” are ideal works to present to the
small child, and this painter’s early years make a charming story.
Sir Edwin Landseer is another artist with whom we can acquaint little
children, through the following works: “Uncle Tom and His Wife
for Sale,” “Low Life and High Life,” “Dignity and Impudence,” “A
Distinguished Member of the Humane Society,” “The Sick Monkey,” “King
Charles Spaniels,” and many other paintings, all of which will be loved
by children because they love the subjects.
Rosa Bonheur and her paintings should be used in this period. Children
are especially fond of “The Horse Fair,” “Coming from the Fair,”
“Brittany Sheep,” “Highland Cattle,” and “A Norman Sire.” In fact,
everything this painter created, like all the work of Landseer, is
fraught with interest to the child, because she was solely a portrayer of
animal life.
An artist of whom little folk have been taught almost nothing is
Gainsborough. Usually we think of him only as a portrait painter, because
in America his likenesses of women are better known than his other
pictures. But it is a mistake to associate him only with “the dashing,
smashing hats worn by the Duchess of Devonshire.” Until recently only
Americans who had traveled in England had an opportunity of seeing or
knowing the greater part of this artist’s other work, because the British
copyright law protected much of it in such a way that cheap prints could
not be made. Now, however, it is possible to get good reproductions of
these long-protected Gainsboroughs at a very reasonable price. Most
valuable of the works of this artist to use with little children are the
following: “The Market Cart,” “The Watering Place,” “Two Dogs,” “Rustic
Children,” and “Study of an Old Horse.”
Murillo is an ideal painter to introduce to the little child, because
his childhood story is as fascinating as his creations are glorious.
Children never tire of hearing about this joyous little Spanish boy, and
of the time when he transformed the family picture, turning the halo of
the Christ-child into a gorgeous sombrero, and making a dog of the sheep.
As they laugh or sympathize with the wonder child of Seville and feel
something of the charm of life in that old city, its street children,
immortalized on canvas by its most illustrious son, become comrades
because little Bartolome sometimes played with them and big Bartolome
painted them. There is a long list of this master’s works from which to
choose, but the following are particularly enjoyed: “Mother and Child,”
“The Adoration of the Shepherds,” “St. John and the Lamb,” “The Melon
Eaters,” “The Dice Players,” “Beggar Boys,” “The Good Shepherd,” “The
Marriage of St. Catherine,” and “The Immaculate Conception.” No attempt
should be made to interpret the two last-named pictures. Familiarize
little people with them and lead them to see their beauty, but waive all
idea of religious symbolism until years bring maturity of thought and the
child makes his own interpretation.
All Madonna pictures are interesting to little children, so by all means
acquaint them with Raphael, the king. Let them drink in the beauty of
“The Sistine Madonna,” “The Madonna of the Chair,” “The Madonna of the
Goldfinch,” and as many others as can be obtained. The story of Raphael
belongs more properly in the intermediate period than in the very early
one, because so little is known of this painter’s life before he began
his career. Just tell the children of the little boy who lived in
far-away Urbino long, long ago. His mother died when he was a wee little
fellow, and he lived alone with his father, who was very kind to him.
Instead of playing much, as the other children did, he loved to sit and
listen to stories about saints and good people who lived before his time.
He loved to draw pictures, too, and when he grew to be a man he became a
wonderful painter.
Closely following Raphael may come Correggio, through his “Holy Night,”
“Repose in Egypt,” and “Cherubs.”
Van Dyck, too, may be made familiar to little children. From his
works choose “Children of Charles I” and several details from this
picture—“Baby Stuart,” “Charles II,” and “Henrietta.” But present first
the complete picture, so that when “Baby Stuart” is seen the children
will know that it is only part of a painting. Many a grown person does
not realize that it is a detail from another work, and this fact should
be understood by every child who sees the royal baby. Other works by this
artist suitable to introduce to tiny people are “The Repose in Egypt,”
“Madonna and Child,” and “The Donators.”
There are many painters whose pictures will be enjoyed by children of
from five to eight, and the teacher or parent who knows art and art
literature can choose for himself, keeping always in mind the story
interests. To those who have little or no knowledge of art, yet who want
to lead children along this path, the following list will be helpful:
ARTISTS AND PAINTINGS THAT CAN BE PRESENTED TO YOUNG CHILDREN THROUGH THE
STORY-TELLING METHOD
ADAM: Kittens; Wide Awake; The Hungry Quartette; In the Boudoir.
BOTTICELLI: Adoration of the Magi; The Holy Family.
BOUGUEREAU: Virgin and Angels; Virgin, Infant Jesus, and St.
John; Going Home from School; The Flight into Egypt.
DELAROCHE: The Finding of Moses; Children of Edward IV.
GREUZE: The Broken Pitcher; Innocence; Head of Girl with Apple.
HERRING: Pharaoh’s Horses; Three Members of the Temperance
Society; The Village Blacksmith; Farmyard.
VIGÉE LEBRUN: Marie Antoinette and Children; Girl with Muff;
Mother and Daughter.
MILLET: Feeding the Hens; Feeding Her Birds; The First Step;
Feeding the Nestlings.
LUCA DELLA ROBBIA: Singing Boys; Trumpeters and Dancing Boys;
Dancing Boys with Cymbals; Children Dancing to Fife and Tambor;
Madonna, Child, and Saints.
RUBENS: Portrait of his Wife and Children; The Holy Family;
Infant Christ, St. John, and Angels; The Virgin under an Apple
Tree; The Adoration of the Magi.
Children of the intermediate period enjoy the works of the great
landscape painters, Claude Lorrain, Corot, Breton, and others who
portrayed the woods and fields, especially when they know something of
the childhood of these men. In this period, too, they should become
better acquainted with some of the artists they have already met. Add
to the interest previously created in Raphael by taking up such works
as “Madonna of the Fish,” “Madonna of the Well,” and “Madonna of the
Diadem.” In telling the story of his life use Ouida’s beautiful tale,
“The Child of Urbino,” which is so exquisitely told that there is nothing
lovelier in literature. Show the children his portrait of himself, his
“St. Catherine,” “St. Cecilia,” “St. John in the Desert,” “Peter and
John at the Beautiful Gate,” and “The Miraculous Draught of Fishes.”
Add to the interest already created in Rubens by taking up his “Portrait
of Himself,” “The Flight of Lot,” and the paintings illustrating the life
of Maria de’ Medici.
Pictures representing the Crucifixion, the Descent from the Cross, and
the Entombment, no matter how glorious they may be as works of art,
should not be presented to children. They are too highly religious for
children’s understanding, and the tragedy portrayed in them should not
enter into childhood. The Madonnas and Holy Families may be used freely,
because they portray dear and familiar characters and are saturated with
an atmosphere of happiness that gladdens the child.
The following list will aid those who are not connoisseurs:
ARTISTS AND PAINTINGS FOR CHILDREN OF THE INTERMEDIATE PERIOD
JULES BRETON: Song of the Lark; The Gleaners; The Reapers; The
Weeders; The Recall of the Gleaners; Blessing the Wheat; The
Vintagers; The End of Labor.
JACQUES: The Sheepfold; Pasturage in the Forest; Shepherd and
Sheep.
MILLET: The Sower; The Gleaners; The Angelus; The Grafter;
Sheep Shearing; Potato Planting; Bundling Wheat; Returning to
the Farm; Shepherdess Knitting; Woman Churning; Labor.
There is a twofold reason for introducing children to such painters as
Millet, Breton, and Jacques. Besides giving them a knowledge of the
works of the artists in question and adding to their appreciation of the
beautiful, it will dignify labor in their eyes to learn that it inspired
these great creators. If leaders of the “back to the land” movement would
make free use of the art of the world among children, if during the
years when impressions made are deep and lasting they would tell stories
and show pictures that have been inspired by toilers in the fields, a
sentiment would be created that would tell in results, because of boys
and girls having learned to respect those who till the soil and work with
their hands.
ARTISTS AND PAINTINGS THAT LEAD TO APPRECIATION OF THE BEAUTIFUL AND TO
RESPECT FOR LABOR
COROT: Dance of the Children; Dance of Nymphs; Landscape with
Willows; Paysage; Pond of Ville d’Avray; The Lake.
REMBRANDT: Portrait of Himself; Portrait of His Mother; The
Mill; The Burgomasters.
TROYON: Return to the Farm; Going to Work; Landscape with Sheep.
VAN DYCK (Add to interest already aroused): Henrietta Maria,
Wife of Charles I; William of Orange and Mary Stuart;
Equestrian Portrait of Charles I; Portrait of Charles I with
Groom and Horse.
VELAZQUEZ: Portrait of Himself; The Tapestry Weavers; Prince
Balthazar; The Lancers; Equestrian Portrait of Philip IV;
Infanta Maria Theresa.
When children reach the period during which they crave the heroic, when
they are eager for the great epic stories, give them the great paintings
that portray epic and mythological subjects. The following list contains
names of artists and works that children in this stage will enjoy:
ARTISTS AND PAINTINGS FOR THE HEROIC AND EPIC PERIODS
ALMA-TADEMA: Sappho; Reading from Homer.
BURNE-JONES: The Golden Stair; The First Day of Creation;
Second Day of Creation; Third Day of Creation; Fourth Day of
Creation; Fifth Day of Creation; Sixth Day of Creation; Hope;
Circe; Enchantment of Merlin; King Cophetua and the Beggar
Maid; The Furies.
LEIGHTON: Helen of Troy; Captive Andromache; Greek Girls
Playing Ball.