Mozart

Happy belated birthday, Wolfgang. Tuesday was the birthday of Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, better known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He died when he was 35 years old, but Tuesday he would have been 253. He is in his late twenties as seen here in this painting I jacked from Wikipedia.

I'm not a music historian but Mozart has always fascinated me, no more so than recently. I was having a conversation with a guy recovering from an elective surgery. He said he couldn't take the prescribed Oxycontin for the pain, so someone suggested the "Mozart Effect". He told me that instead of the pain killers he listened to the music of Mozart. It had a calming, healing and regenerative affect on him. He was helped through his pain by the Mozart effect. My smart ass remark was, "Imagine how good you could feel if you listened to Mozart and took the Oxycontin." He was not amused nor impressed with my quick wit.

However, I looked it up on line and there is research into what is called the "Mozart effect". It seems, unlike other classical composers, the music of Amadeus stimulates an abundance of alpha brain waves which are stimulating and very good for you. Alpha waves are present when your are in REM sleep or the dream state of sleeping. Alpha waves help children learn more and older people retain their memory. They have also been linked to some healing affects like the man described in our conversation. So... what the heck. It is cheaper than prescription drugs and if you get hooked on Mozart the only side effect is becoming a music snob or perhaps a nerd.

There is a great story about Mozart as a child. His father and a musician friend discovered a 6 year old Amadeus scribbling on sheets of music staff paper one afternoon. As they looked closer the two men realized that Mozart was writing music for the piano. The notes had structure, harmony and seemed to follow a theme. Mozart's father said to his friend, "It is obviously piano music but it is of no use because it is so difficult no one in the world could play it. "

"I can." said Amadeus and proceeded to play the piece on his piano.

"It's a concerto", the six year old said," It must be practiced."

I guess the moral to the story is that we should never look at a task as impossible until we have at least tried practicing it.

Happy Birthday, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
As you were,
Jay