Posted on 01/03/2006 12:12:24 PM PST by Borges
VIENNA, Austria - Have scientists found Mozart's skull? Researchers said Tuesday they'll reveal the results of DNA tests in a documentary film airing this weekend on Austrian television as part of a year of celebratory events marking the composer's 250th birthday.
The tests were conducted last year by experts at the Institute for Forensic Medicine in the alpine city of Innsbruck, and the long-awaited results will be publicized in "Mozart: The Search for Evidence," to be screened Sunday by state broadcaster ORF.
Past tests were inconclusive, but this time, "we succeeded in getting a clear result," lead researcher Dr. Walther Parson, a renowned forensic pathologist, told ORF. He said the results were "100 percent verified" by a U.S. Army laboratory, but refused to elaborate.
The skull in question is one that for more than a century has been in the possession of the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, the elegant Austrian city where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on Jan. 27, 1756.
Parson said genetic material from scrapings from the skull was analyzed and compared to DNA samples gathered in 2004 from the thigh bones of Mozart's maternal grandmother and a niece. The bones were recovered when a Mozart family grave was opened in 2004 at Salzburg's Sebastian Cemetery.
Mozart died in 1791 and was buried in a pauper's grave at Vienna's St. Mark's Cemetery. The location of the grave was initially unknown, but its likely location was determined in 1855.
The grave on that spot is adorned by a column and a sad-looking angel.
Legend has it that a gravedigger who knew which body was Mozart's at some point sneaked the skull out of the grave. Through different channels, the skull — which is missing its lower jaw — came to the Mozarteum in Salzburg in 1902, according to Dr. Stephan Pauly, the foundation's director.
The foundation, a private nonprofit organization that works to preserve Mozart's legacy, was founded in 1880 by Salzburg residents and made the skull available for the DNA tests.
The skull long has fascinated experts: In 1991, a French scholar who examined it made the startling — though unconfirmed — conclusion that Mozart may have died of complications of a head injury rather than rheumatic fever as most historians believe.
Anthropologist Pierre-Francois Puech of the University of Provence based his belief on a fracture he found on the skull's left temple. Mozart, he theorized, may have sustained it in a fall, and that would help explain the severe headaches the composer was said to have suffered more than a year before his death.
Austria has designated 2006 a Mozart jubilee year, with dozens of events in Salzburg, Vienna and elsewhere to commemorate his 250 birthday.
PING
skull ping.
Did they find it in Al Capone's vault?
I didn't realize it was lost.
I didn't know it was lost?
Can DNA be extracted from the bone of his skull to clone a new Mozart ? I want to hear the Requiem as Mozart would have finished it himself, and also a sequel to the Magic Flute.
and why do I care about this?
Thanks for letting everyone know about your disinterest.
Scientists May Have Found Mozart's Skull
Unfortunately it was empty.
Even if you could clone the body, the emotional and intellectual develop would have to be copied fully to get a copy like the original. And the copy may just end up writing songs for Britney Spears instead of doing anything musical.
If Mozart's letters are any indication his emotional make up was quite weak. He was immature and rather supercilious.
Your welcome. Who cares? The guy has been dead for 200 plus years. If they do determine it is part of his skull, what does it matter? What is going to be gained or lost, except the time and expense of doing all this? Time and energy should be spent on something worth while. This in my humble opinion, is not worth while. Nothing comes of it. He is still dead and they have a good idea where the rest of him is.
And, I could give a rat's hip pockets what you care that I care if you care if I care pal.
eBay cares
If you hold it up to your ear, can you hear anything?
Relics of the Master. Fascinating artifacts to be sure, but in no way a measure of the man or his work. The soaring strains of his symphonies are more his legacy than some grim calvarium.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.