Stories of Great Composers for Children by Thomas Tapper Verdi as a Boy The Organ Payer
section 8 of stories of great composers for children this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org

verdi the story of the little boy who loved the hand organ by thomas tapper

giuseppe verdi the picture on this page is of the house wherein a great composer was born of course one is not born a great composer he has to become that so at the moment this story begins there is within this house a little boy quite like any other boy he loved to play and to make a noise and to have a good time but most of all what do you think he loved a hand organ

whenever the organ man came into the village of roncole in italy where verdi was born october 10th 1813 he could not be kept indoors but he followed the wonderful organ and the wonderful man who played it all day long as happy as he could be when giuseppe was seven years old his father though only a poor innkeeper bought him a spin-it a sort of small piano so faithfully did the little boy practice that the spin-it was soon quite worn out and new jacks or hammers had to be made for it this was done by steven cavaletti who wrote a message on one of the jacks telling that he made the menu and covered them with leather and fixed the pedal doing all for nothing because the little boy giuseppe verdi showed such willingness to practice and to learn thus the good stephen thought this was pay enough here is a picture of the little piano in verdi's language italian it is called a spinetta

it was on this spin-it that the little boy discovered one day a wonderful chord for so it seemed to him it was this a c major triad

the tones delighted him and he pressed the keys over and over again to drink them in but the next day when he sought again the keys which made the lovely sound he could not find them this made him so impatient and finally so curious that he began to break the spin-it to pieces with a hammer fortunately the noise he made brought his father into the room and the spin-it was saved

when giuseppe was making his first attempt to find beautiful cords on the spinet he was as we have said seven years old that was in 1820. when he was 10 years old what year was that giuseppe became organist at the old church of roncole truly a little boy for so great a position one day he scratched his name on the woodwork here is a picture of the organ

here is the scratching of his name and here is the way he wrote his name as a man and here is a picture of verdi's signature and a little piece of his music

then there came the question of education of reading writing spelling and arithmetic for this music-loving boy the verdi's wanted giuseppe to grow up as he should so it was arranged for him to go to school in the neighboring town of buseto a cobbler lived there who was a friend of the family and with him giuseppe went to live having board lodging and tuition at the school and all for six cents a day

giuseppe still played the organ at roncole going thither afoot every sunday morning and back after nightfall he must have been a weary little boy after the day's music making at the church one sunday night when it was dark and he was too weary to notice where he was going he fell into a ditch from which he was rescued by an old woman who hearing his call for help pulled the half-frozen boy out of the water

our little hero had another talent besides music he knew how to win the friendship of people so at buseto a man named barretzi offered to take him into his business he sold spices drugs and perfumes but besides this he played the flute in the church at his house giuseppe heard lots of good music for the town orchestra rehearsed there here is a picture of giuseppe's friend

then giuseppe made another friend who gave him a wonderful bit of advice he urged him to become a composer better still he helped the boy in every way he could until he was 16 years old by that time our little giuseppe was grown to be quite a man his friend whose name was ferdinando proveci was proud of him for already he was becoming a master he played the cathedral organ at times he conducted the philharmonic orchestra he led its rehearsals and he composed music for its concerts

so you see all the wonderful operas that were to come were already on the way it has been written that provecy was the first person to see and understand verdi's real genius the boy worked hard and advanced so rapidly that it was soon necessary for him to go to a larger city for lessons

now a good friend is always a good friend so it is pleasing to tell that berezi sent giuseppe to milan the lovely city of lombardy to study and here a curious thing happened he was refused a scholarship at the conservatory of milan the reason given was that the authorities considered him to show no special talent for music but this made no difference to the boy he believed in his talent and kept at work to perfect it

so as the years went by he kept on learning more and more doing his work well and always preparing himself for better things then one day he was ready to begin to compose the operas that made him famous sometime when you read the full list of verdi's operas you will learn that he wrote 30. the first was performed in 1839 when he was 26 years old and the last in 1893 when he was 80. you will not need to remember the titles of them all but you must know the names of the great ones for one day you will see and hear them performed

here are the principal ones ernani la traviata aida rigoletto sicilian vespers masked ball iltrovatore othello and falstaff do you know that of one of verdi's operas the scene is laid in our country the masked ball was first entitled gustavo iii but the authorities would not allow reference to certain political matters in it therefore the libretto or story of the opera was changed and the scene laid in boston massachusetts one of the characters was the governor of boston a humorous matter to us for there never was any such official

another famous opera by verdi the scene of which is laid in a foreign country is aida it was written for the kedive of egypt and first performed in cairo in 1871 when the composer was 58 years old

after verdi had composed aida he wrote no more operas for 16 years then to the great surprise of all the world he wrote two others the finest of them all othello and falstaff meanwhile he was a farmer he planted harvested helped his tenants urged them to cultivate the land carefully he bought all kinds of american farming machinery to show the italians how to cultivate the ground to best advantage the great man who was once a simple little boy died in 1901 on january 27th which day is the anniversary of mozart's birth

all his lifelong verdi had succeeded doing a little more and a little better each year so that at the end of his life he was able to do a truly wonderful thing namely to build a home where musicians who had not succeeded in life could find a comfortable abiding place in their old age

in this house are many souvenirs of the great italian here too is the tomb of giuseppe verdi verdi was loved by his fellow countrymen his music is their joy and ours and will so remain for years to come perhaps forever the great sculptor vincenzo gemito has molded wonderful bronze busts of verdi which shows us how the little boy of roncole grew to be a man of world renown

some facts about giuseppe verdi read these facts about giuseppe verdi and try to write his story out of them using your own words when your story is finished ask your mother or your teacher to read it when you have made it as perfect as you can copy it on pages 14 15 and 16. one giuseppe verdi was born in roncole italy october 10th 1813. two he began to learn the spin-it when he was seven years old three the spin-it is an early form of the piano four among the great composers who were alive when verdi was a little boy were beethoven schubert berlioz and schumann 5. he became organist at ron cole when he was 10 years old 1823

6. he went to school in busetto and lived with a cobbler seven after a time he studied in milan eight but not at the famous milan conservatory for he was told there that he had no special talent for music 9. verdi wrote 30 operas 10. the first was performed in 1839 when he was 26 years old 11. one of his operas has it seen laid in boston massachusetts 12. another is about egypt and the scene is laid in memphis and thebes in the time of the pharaohs 13. verdi founded for aged musicians the casa de reposo house of rest 14. besides the 30 operas verdi wrote a string quartet the manzoni requiem and a national hymn 15. for a period of 16 years verdi wrote no operas then he produced his two great works othello and falstaff 16. he died at saint agatha january 27 1901

some questions one when and where was verdi born two how old was he when he died three can you mention three works of verdi that are not operas four how many operas can you name from memory five what instruments did verdi play as a boy six what was the title of verdi's first opera seven the title of his last two operas eight what did verdi love to do besides compose music nine what is a spin-it ten in what famous city did he study as a boy eleven how many operas in all did verdi compose 12. where is the scene of aida laid 13. to what did verdi devote his fortune

end of verdi the story of the little boy who loved the hand organ read by kara schallenberg in february 2011 in san diego california