Posted on 02/17/2016 6:26:10 AM PST by C19fan
Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart murdered by Italian composer and contemporary Antonio Salieri? Rumors have persisted since Mozart’s death in 1791. But the idea truly went global nearly 200 years later with the appearance of Peter Shaffer’s fictionalized account of the life and death of Mozart as seen through the eyes of his contemporary and competitor Salieri in Amadeus, first the Tony award-winning play in 1979, and the then the film of the same name by Milos Foreman which won an Oscar for Best Picture in 1985. Scholars have largely and uniformly debunked the theory, including Shaffer’s portrayal of Salieri as an envious and murder-obsessed mediocrity, but the notion endured. Now the recent discovery in a Czech museum of a new song written collaboratively by Mozart and Salieri may silence the rumor-mill for good after 225 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Was this rumor about Salieri contemporary with the era of Mozart? I am pretty sure this conspiracy theory never existed until the play/movie (I forget which came first) was written.
Let’s Czech it out.
The song is called “If I Did It” by Herr OJ Salieri.
The rascally gadabout portrayed in "Amadeus" is complete and utter fiction. The movie is less a biography about Mozart than it is an object lesson in the conflict between excellence and average. Milos Forman and Peter Shaffer did the music world a disservice when they chose to play that lesson out against a backdrop of classical music.
They had no toxicology test back then, and competing accounts exist. The lede article refers to a modern physician who thinks Mozart suffered from trichinosis contracted from undercooked pork. Have any relics of Mozart been chemically tested? Anyhow, many diseases could feel like “poisoning.”
One would think if there was a real rivalry, the two would have traded barbs in public. Kind of like Cruz and Trump do now. The alleged Salieri confession is not directly attested and was reported around a time he had gone insane and so who knows if he was kidding or imagined it.
The song is called "Per la Ricuperata Salute di Ofelia," which translates to "For the recovered health of Ophelia".
Rumors of Salieri's involvement in Mozart's death began almost immediately after Mozart's passing on December 5, 1791 just shy of his 36th birthday.
In 2001, Dr. Jan V. Hirschmann, an infectious disease specialist, reviewed childhood accounts and letters from Mozart to his wife and others placed the blame for his death on trichinosis from eating undercooked pork.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/17/does-a-song-prove-that-salieri-didn-t-kill-mozart.html
The movie set off a long running obsession with prodigy kids who graduate college in their teens or younger. We had that TV series about a kid doctor for example in the 80s or 90s - I can’t remember. Moms were buying headphones designed to be played over pregnant bellies and other nonsense like that. I think the fad died when the first batch of kids turned out to be just as smart (or dumb) as the the rest of the pack.
The discovered piece was entitled: “Why I Didn’t Kill That Bastard Mozart” in A minor.
You can’t get any better evidence than that.
There have been experiments, I believe, where they have found that newborns will recognize their mother’s voice out of a selection of that and other women’s. So they probably hear something in there. Maybe it’s just insufficient research.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-babies-ex/
Fact or Fiction?: Babies Exposed to Classical Music End Up Smarter
Is the so-called “Mozart effect” a scientifically supported, developmental leg up or a media-fueled “scientific legend”?
“I would simply say that there is no compelling evidence that children who listen to classical music are going to have any improvement in cognitive abilities,” adds Rauscher, now an associate professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh. “It’s really a myth, in my humble opinion.”
“I’m well again but it took five months! I can sing!
These eighteenth century quacks, can hardly do a thing!
Where’s Louis Pasteur when you need him?
Oh well, let’s get undercooked pork for Mozart and feed him!”
— being silly
Part of the problem could be that they’re listening through water anyhow. High frequencies would be lost.
I know my daughter got really quiet, really quick when I started talking to her quietly right after she was C-Sectioned out of my wife. Not scientific, I know, but I am certain to this day as I was at the time that she recognized my voice while not recognizing the voices of the nurses or others in the room.
Like I said... it sounds weird. The two would almost surely have been trading barbs in public. That’s what jealousy does.
I loved the movie and discovered Mozart’s music through it. But, the movie doesn’t purport to be anything but broad fiction. Still a very, very fun movie.
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