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Quite fascinating.
(If like me you find yourself looking to turn off the hideous MIDI file of K. 522 that plays, the controls are down at the bottom of the page....)
www.starlingtalk.com/mozart1.htm
On 27 May 1784, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart purchased a starling. Three years later, he buried it with much ceremony. Heavily veiled mourners marched in a procession, sang hymns, and listened to a graveside recitation of a poem Mozart had composed for the occasion (1). Mozart's performance has received mixed reviews. Although some see his gestures as those of a sincere animal lover, others have found it hard to believe that the object of Mozart's grief was a dead bird. Another event in the same week has been put forth as a more likely cause for Mozart's funereal gestures: the death of his father Leopold (2).
The scholars who have reported and interpreted this historical incident knew much about Mozart but little, if anything, about starlings. To put the incident into better perspective, we will provide here a profile of the vocal capacities of captive starlings. Mozart's skills as a musician and composer would have rendered him especially susceptible to the starling's vocal charms, and thus we will also propose that the funeral and the poem are not the end of the story. Mozart may have left another memorial to his starling, an offbeat requiem for rebels.
(If like me you find yourself looking to turn off the hideous MIDI file of K. 522 that plays, the controls are down at the bottom of the page....)
www.starlingtalk.com/mozart1.htm
On 27 May 1784, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart purchased a starling. Three years later, he buried it with much ceremony. Heavily veiled mourners marched in a procession, sang hymns, and listened to a graveside recitation of a poem Mozart had composed for the occasion (1). Mozart's performance has received mixed reviews. Although some see his gestures as those of a sincere animal lover, others have found it hard to believe that the object of Mozart's grief was a dead bird. Another event in the same week has been put forth as a more likely cause for Mozart's funereal gestures: the death of his father Leopold (2).
The scholars who have reported and interpreted this historical incident knew much about Mozart but little, if anything, about starlings. To put the incident into better perspective, we will provide here a profile of the vocal capacities of captive starlings. Mozart's skills as a musician and composer would have rendered him especially susceptible to the starling's vocal charms, and thus we will also propose that the funeral and the poem are not the end of the story. Mozart may have left another memorial to his starling, an offbeat requiem for rebels.
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