Charlotte Mason Composer Study: Mozart
A term with Mozart, the composer who was taught at home by his father.
By Maestro
Few composers suit a homeschool composer study better than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His music is clear, cheerful, and endlessly melodic, and children often recognize it before they know his name. He was also, in his own way, a homeschooled child.
Who was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?
Mozart (1756–1791) was an Austrian composer born in Salzburg. He never attended school. His father, Leopold, a professional musician and violin teacher, educated Wolfgang and his older sister, Nannerl, at home, in music and in everything else. Wolfgang wrote his first small keyboard pieces at about the age of five, and as children he and Nannerl performed across Europe.
As an adult he settled in Vienna, where he wrote operas, symphonies, concertos, and chamber music in nearly every form of his day, all before his death at thirty-five. He also took students of his own, and some of their lesson books survive, with his corrections in the margins.
Six pieces for one term
Play one piece every week or two, several times, before explaining anything.
- Twelve Variations on "Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman." The tune children know as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," followed by a dozen playful transformations. A perfect first piece.
- Eine kleine Nachtmusik, first movement. One of the most famous openings in music: bright, bold, and full of short, memorable ideas.
- Piano Sonata No. 11, third movement ("Rondo alla Turca"). A lively march imitating the Turkish military bands that fascinated Vienna.
- Horn Concerto No. 4, third movement. A cheerful rondo that sounds like a hunting call.
- Symphony No. 40, first movement. A restless, urgent melody in a minor key. A good contrast to the sunny pieces.
- The Magic Flute, Papageno and Papagena's duet. Two characters stammering each other's names in delight. Children love it.
A gentle weekly rhythm
- Listen first, without comment.
- Narrate. Ask your child to tell you what they heard and how it made them feel.
- Add one fact: an instrument, a story from Mozart's childhood, or what the piece was for.
- Listen again.
A listening journal with a sentence or a drawing each week makes a lovely record of the term.
Narration prompts for Mozart
- Can you hum the main tune? Where did it come back?
- Did the music sound like a question and an answer?
- Was it happy, sad, or both at different times?
- Which instrument would you like to play in this piece?
- In the "Twinkle" variations, what did Mozart change, and what stayed the same?
Let your child compose like Mozart
Mozart's variations are an open invitation to compose. Take a tune your child knows well, such as "Twinkle, Twinkle," and ask them to change one thing at a time: play it faster, add notes in between, move it lower, or make it sound sad. Each change is a variation, exactly the technique Mozart uses. Children discover very quickly that composing is less about inventing from nothing and more about doing something new with an idea.
Where Gradus fits
Mozart was taught at home by a parent who believed a child should write music from the start. Gradus is built on the same conviction: your child writes their own music from the very first lesson, and Maestro, your child's personal composition tutor, does the teaching, so you don't need to read music. The curriculum follows the history of music era by era, so the composers your family meets in a Charlotte Mason term become composers your child learns from directly.
Read more about Mozart as a composer, look up the theme of a piece in the Gradus dictionary, or see a sample lesson.