Mozart at 10 (1766)
(Image: Courtesy of Wim Vingerhoed)

Your Say ...

*  I discovered Mozart at the age of twelve when my father bought me a ticket to FIGARO and I could sing through it by the following year...badly of course. And he knew it back and forth too from the number of times I played the recording. I don't know how the Weber sisters got born for me...they just developed characters and flew off the page with their loves and their quarrels and passions.  
--Stephanie Cowell, New York.  Ms. Cowell is the author of Marrying Mozart, her fourth published book.

Perhaps some thoughts for your web site from a Mozart lover, but, something different deep down?

This site is about music, writing and the internet. As I browsed through the site I have been wondering if I could excel at one of the three, which would I want to.

I disregarded the internet immediately. For one, I am a computer challenged fellow. As hard as I try, I can't figure most things out on the internet. More important, I think I would like to excel in something that my grandkids and their grandkids would remember me for. Let's be honest, the way technology advances, by that time the internet will be like the telegraph, something read about in history books.

So we have music or writing. Both certainly require imagination and both cross all types of barriers. To use my full imagination I would like to be a writer. Sure, everyone loves Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms etc. And yes they can make you feel many types of emotions. But nothing like the great writers can do. Mozart could use his imagination for three hours or so in an opera. Victor Hugo could use his for 1200 pages or so. Mozart could only put so many people in his opera, after all someone had to pay these performers. However Hugo and Dickens could bring in as many characters as they felt like, and use them for one page or 500 pages.

Yes, Mozart can bring tears to your eyes, but Hugo can make you cry like a baby. Read about Cosette, Jean Valjean and the large doll in Les Miserables and you will not be wet in the eyes, you will cry. I like Figaro and would like to be Don Giovanni (when I was younger!!), but I KNOW D'Artagnan and David Copperfield. Yes, I can imagine how Donna Elvira felt being in love with Don Giovanni; but I KNOW how Pip felt about his love for Estella. Sure, some music of Mozart's can be demonic, but even in my mid-50's I don't read Dracula by myself at night.

I love Mozart, listen to his music daily, and study almost all aspects of his works. I know a lot about him and enjoy him immensely. However I must admit the great authors had it all over him. They allow me to know the people they write about, and make me really love or really hate their characters. I can hum Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, but I can see Merlin in mind's eye giving young King Arthur his lessons.

I would love my grandkid's grandkids to remember me for something like that, and say "My great-great grandpa wrote that".  
--Dennis Pajot, Wisconsin, USA.  Dennis is co-founder of the MozartForum.

*  It is through my admiration of Mozart that I met many interesting people online. I have become good friends with some Mozart lovers. It has been a wonderful experience sharing our common interest, even more, my friends and I have since been learning from each other about many other things - our different cultures, languages, and other interests. Mozart has enriched my life immensely. Language is no longer a barrier. Mozart is universal. My friends and I speak a common language through Mozart's music. Recently, I found my conductor, while I was listening to a radio broadcast. I met up with him. Now an old man, he hardly recognized me. I told him I'm forever grateful he 'introduced' me to Mozart as a young boy.  
--Wim Vingerhoed, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

* I have enjoyed music since childhood, and have listened to a lot of different musical styles. I appreciate greatly Bach, Brahms, Chopin, Schubert and Shostakovic, although I have to be in the right mood to listen to their music. But there is a composer that never tires me: Mozart. There is something in Mozart which rewards me in every moment of my life. Nobody can be scared by his music, because if other composers speak to titans, Mozart speaks to mankind. He does not condemn sins nor weaknesses. Mozart can turn everything he comes across into a precious jewel.
--Maurizio Tomasi, Bergamo, Italy

(Image: Courtesy of Wim Vingerhoed)

Non-Musicians Contemporaries of Mozart

* DAVID  ALLAN, (1749-1832), Scottish history painter, known for portraits and for genre paintings such as Scotch Wedding, which earned him the title 'the Scottish Hoarth.'

* JANE AUSTEN, (1775-1817), English novelist who observed speech and manners with wit and precision as revealed in her characters. Most famous works: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion.

* JOEL BARLOW, (1754-1812), American poet and diplomat, a member of the literary circle the 'Connecticut Wits.' He published an epic entitled The Vision of Columbus in 1787 but is particularly remembered for Hasty Pudding (1796), a celebration of an American dessert.

(Source: Dictionary of the Arts, Gramercy)

  

Mozart am Klavier
(Image: Courtesy of Wim Vingerhoed)

Wolfgang and the Snow

by Liz Ringrose
 Leicester, UK

Carriage wheels turning,
rolling, lulling him into half sleep.
Revolutions, repeating, turning and then
hooves, rhythmic clatters and drum punctuations,
the jolt of the carriage, straining on straps,
a whip crack, and allegro along the straight.

The hour strikes, a fugue of bells and carillon
muted on the wind. He draws back from slumber
gathering rhythms and beats, shaping and forming.
His sister's whisper: Wolferl, it's snowing, look at the snow.
He raises reluctant eyelids, sees the cascade,
holds out his palm to the night.

Mama, he's catching the snow. Wolferl's gathering flakes.

He sighs. Not flakes, dear Sister. Notes.

That's my Mozart

by Jan-Willem Besuijen
 Tilburg, Netherlands

I started taking piano lessons when I was eight years old, but it wasn’t until ten years later that I ‘discovered’ Mozart. I remember the exact moment. There was this CD I bought for my mother's birthday. It was one of ‘Greatest Mozart Hits.’ Invariably, it featured the overture to Le Nozze di Figaro, and when I listened to the piece, the downward running strings at the end of the overture struck me, to be more precise: the imitating flutes. The flutes, they provided the actual spark that immediately made me addicted to Mozart and his music. Many times I wondered why that part of Figaro’s overture still strikes me heavily… I don’t know. Perhaps I'll never know…

That was eight years ago, and since then I listen to Mozart, read him, ‘watch’ him, dream him, study him, even try to figure out why his art deeply moves and enchants. My studies in the Arts have provided me with a sound knowledge-base of eighteenth century society, arts, science and enlightenment. Along with it, where I occasionally write Dutch essays, I have also worked towards learning more about Mozart and his art. A couple of hundred CDs, some videos and DVDs, my Mozart collection is still growing.

As Mozart plays his indispensable role in my life, two things are salient:

First: Mozart sings, even in his instrumental music. He sings about mankind, about our emotions and relationships, and about the shortcomings of mankind (mine included). The Clarinet Concerto’s second movement, for instance, is not 'played' by the solo instrument, but ‘sung’ by Mozart himself! Not to a god or some other metaphysical entity, but to us.

Second: Mozart comforts me and shows me beauty at the same time. For instance, in his piano concertos (KV482 is my favourite), Mozart takes me through a vast realm of human emotions. When I am sad, his music comforts me thoroughly. Even if it doesn’t make me any happier, it makes me feel I'm not alone in my sadness, appeasing me not to be ashamed that I am sad. And when I'm happy, his wonderful music confirms my delight, enriches it, and makes my heart even more joyful.