And the Winner Is ...
When I looked at the posters after my last student left yesterday, I had my suspicions. The Beethoven poster was, by far, the most crowded -- the only one where students had started taping facts and photos to the wall beside the poster!
Sure enough, at 60 points, Beethoven seems to have proved himself the most popular composer. :) The Mozart team came in second at 49 points -- not bad, guys! (And you also have the tidiest poster. ;) Haydn has 44 points.
Facts ranged from the humorous (Haydn was expelled from the choir/school he attended in his teens for snipping off his fellow student's ponytail) to the serious (Beethoven did not get much schooling as a child) to inspirational quotes ("The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between." -- Mozart).
One thing that stood out to me as a teacher was the story of one of Haydn's music teachers, who was also his choir director at the St. Stephen's Cathedral (Vienna). "[The choir boys] received no training in musical theory, and Reutter, too busy with his own composing and other duties, ignored Haydn's first attempts at composition." (Not sure of source. Emphasis added.)
Here Reutter had a genius, one of history's greatest composers, in his choir. He certainly helped Haydn become a good singer, but he ignored the extreme potential that the boy had. I'm guessing he probably would have used a different approach if he had known who Haydn would become!
As a teacher, I've looked at this line constantly since it was put up. It's a bit of a motivator for me. It reminds me that my goal as a teacher is to bring out my students' full potential.
Because, once upon a time, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven were little boys who had to be taught music too!
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