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 KMFA's morning host Sara Schneider shares a playlist of music by famous pupils and their teachers, plus school-themed music by Telemann, Haydn, and Brahms.

1. They may be born with raw talent, but before composers can perfect their craft, they have to learn it---just like everyone else. How do they go about it? Ludwig Senfl (c. 1486-c.1543), was lucky enough to be employed as a choirboy in the same imperial musical establishment as one of the giants of the Renaissance, composer Heinrich Isaac.  In Senfl's autobiographical song Lust hab' ich ghabt zuer Musica (I have had pleasure in music), he relates how he learned  to compose by copying Isaac's music:

In such a way it came about

that he gave me enough to write.

What he had made

I observed well,

so that I might guide myself too thereby.   

Senfl learned well, taking over as court composer to Emperor Maximilian I upon Isaac's death. Later, he earned the admiration of music-loving reformer Martin Luther.   

2. As a teenager, Johann Sebastian Bach also learned a great deal by copying music; in his case, the music of north German master Dieterich Buxtehude. According to one account, he was forced to do it surreptitiously by moonlight, copying scores kept locked up by his brother, with whom young Johann lived at the time. The earliest Bach autograph to come down to us is a copy of Buxtehude's Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g'mein, a chorale setting for organ. The fact that Bach copied this technically demanding work as a twelve- or thirteen year old speaks to his determination and ambition, not to mention his excellent taste.

Several years later Bach got to meet the master in person when he walked nearly three hundred miles to study with Buxtehude in Lübeck. What he learned there made a lasting impression, and Buxtehude's influence can be heard in many works by Bach, such as his cantata Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, BWV 150.  

3. Schubert was just seven years old when he first met Salieri, when Schubert's father arranged for an audition with the 'grand old man'. Schubert took lessons in composition and music theory from Salieri off and on for years. Some early fugues and other compositional exercises still survive, with corrections in Salieri's hand.  Schubert composed his Symphony No. 1 as a sixteen year old, while still a student at the Imperial and Royal City College in Vienna. He conducted the first performance himself from the violin section of the college's student orchestra.

4. Like his colleague Bach, Telemann was required to give lessons in Latin and music as part of his gig as cantor in Hamburg. His secular cantata Der Schulmeister (The Schoolmaster) may have been an attempt to parody his experiences as a teacher, or a way to enliven lessons with humor. In this work, a pompous teacher attempts to impress his students with the quality of his singing (and bungles it), and tries to teach them something about fugues--which they botch by creating parallel fifths, a major contrapuntal no-no. He also gives the composer a pat on the back by stating that the piece is a masterwork, the likes of which couldn't have been written by Telemann himself.

5. Another piece bearing the subtitle  Der Schulmeister is Haydn's Symphony No. 55. Like many of the subtitles of his works, the origins of this one aren't entirely clear. Was the dotted rhythm heard in the second movement meant to imitate the wagging finger of a schoolmaster? Or was it a reference to thematic similiarities to another Haydn work, called The Schoolmaster in Love? (The latter option would probably elicit a chorus of 'Ewwwwww!' from any third-grade class.)

6. Johannes Brahms never attended a university, so how did he come to write his Academic Festival Overture? In 1879 he was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Breslau. Brahms sent a postcard thanking the officials for the honor, which sounds a bit like the nineteeth-century equivalent of a text message. A letter came back with the gentle hint that the university would prefer a more formal thank-you, perhaps in the form of a piece of music. Brahms was happy to oblige, but instead of giving the academics the dignified piece full of pomp and gravitas they were undoubtedly hoping for, he presented them with a fun-filled romp based on no fewer than four popular student beer-hall songs!