Thomas Tapper

“ You know, of course, that when we think of music we think of hearing it. We think how it sounds to us. A lover of music loves to hear its tones and to feel its rhythm.
Like every other human being, Beethoven loved music in just this way. ”

“ Then with the organ lessons there were other lessons in Harmony. So rapidly did the boy improve that his teacher said one day:
"If he goes on as he has begun, he will some day be a second Mozart."
Our young hero of thirteen was surely busy every hour of the day. He played in an orchestra, as accompanist. He gave lessons, played the organ in church, studied the violin, and kept up his work in composition. He always kept a note-book for musical ideas.
Most every child in these days has more and better opportunities than had the great Beethoven when he was a child. ”

“ THE BEETHOVEN HOUSE
Beethoven's father was a singer at the Chapel of the Elector. He was not a good father, for he did not care to work even enough to make his family comfortable. But the mother loved her boy with all her heart, as we shall see.
BEETHOVEN'S FATHER
Ludwig was only four years old when he began to study music. Like children of to-day he shed [Pg 4] many a tear over the first lessons. In the beginning his father taught him piano and violin, and forced him to practice. At school he learned, just as we do to-day, reading, writing, arithmetic, and later on, Latin. ”