Today I took my daughter, Journey, to her second music class at Mason’s Gymboree in Snider Commons. The class, designed for 18-24 month olds, was celebrating European music month. This is going to be great, I thought.
I was impressed up until the point that the teacher informed us that Mozart was from Venice. When I piped up with "actually he's from Salzburg" she paused and looked confused for a moment. “Really?” she asked. “Yes,” I said definitively. Still not appearing totally convinced, she looked around the room for a second to see if anyone was agreeing with me. The Mom from Germany was nodding her head. “I just visited his house in Salzburg,” I added, hoping that this would put the issue to rest. Then she turned to the class and said, "oh that's right - Mozart is from Salzburg, but a lot of people think he's from Venice because he spent so much time there." Umm, actually no… most people do not think that… I’m pretty sure that’s just you. The Mom from Germany and I just looked at each other and smiled. I wanted to say "are you sure you're not thinking of Vivaldi?" but I let it go.
Then (it gets better) after the class she made a point to proudly inform me that she was a Music Studies major in college and couldn’t believe she made that mistake. However, she wasn’t done making mistakes yet. She then told me that Mozart had moved to Venice when he was four years old and had composed “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” when he was three. Wrong and wrong. I really think she is confusing Mozart with Vivaldi who actually was born in Venice, but the names sound nothing alike so I’m not really sure how....
In any case, just for the record – the tune from “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” is from an old French melody titled "Ah! Vous Dirai-Je, Maman" that first appeared without words in Les Amusements d'une Heure et Demy by M. Bouin in Paris in 1761 (no, I did not remember that particular fact off the top of my head - I had to look it up). The words came from an English poem called “The Star” written by sisters Ann and Jane Taylor. Twenty years later, when Mozart was 25 or 26-ish, he composed a set of 12 improvisations on "Ah! Vous Dirai-Je, Maman" (yes, I looked that fact up too - just to be sure. If I'm in error I hope someone will let me know).
Now it is probably true that more people inaccurately attribute “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to Mozart,” but to think that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart came from Italy…what can I say? Ma va la! Mamma mia! Oh puh-leeze!
I’m not sure we are welcome back to that particular music class, but I think went easy on her considering.
So here's the deal: to all the kids just out of college teaching Mommy & Me classes this summer - don't think that just because we're stay-at-home Moms that you can feed us (and our toddlers) some line about Mozart being from Venice. We may be fluent in baby talk and totally sleep deprived, but we have not entirely lost our minds. We're not having it... and we will fact check you.
Mom Power!
So here's the deal: to all the kids just out of college teaching Mommy & Me classes this summer - don't think that just because we're stay-at-home Moms that you can feed us (and our toddlers) some line about Mozart being from Venice. We may be fluent in baby talk and totally sleep deprived, but we have not entirely lost our minds. We're not having it... and we will fact check you.
Mom Power!
