Amadeus, Amadeus !

Happy 250th Mozart!!!

Today marks Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 250th birthday. I've been fascinated with his work for years. As a child I spent 7 years in Europe and Mozart's work or image seemed to appear everywhere! My mother lived in Salzburg & Vienna for several years when she was a child so I sense that my interest in Mozart permeated from my mother's interest and exposure to his work when she was young.

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Can you believe that Mozart was playing and writing music from the age of 4? He wrote his first symphony when he was only 8!!! Hard to imagine a child in this day and age doing that! I always wonder if the geniuses (of which I consider Mozart) from that era were developed because they had few distractions (such as television/video games/movies) in life and spent their time focused on creating such magnificent things instead of idling away their hours with little to show for it. One more reason why I am really changing my attitude about television; I'm considering removing it from our home altogether.

You can only wonder what potential lies in one's life when limited only by an imagination!

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Yes, Mozart had his quirks.

He lived an interesting life all compressed into 44 short years. His life was full of travel, adventure, music and of course hardship. He spent many of his early years traveling around Europe with his father who was also a musician. This experience exposed Mozart to the masters of music of his time and helped develop his own musical style along the way. He, did, experience much hardship. While traveling, his mother died unexpectedly in Paris in 1778 and his life seemed to be filled with hardship everafter. I wonder, though, if the hardship he endured is what truly helped inspire his magnificent pieces?

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My favorite work of Mozart is Eine Kleine Nachtmusik,

but I also hold a deep fondness for Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) .

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We've been listening to a lot of Mozart lately. From the 31 days of Mozart on 98.1 FM in Seattle, where they play a Mozart concerto at least once a day to those incredible CDs from Classical Kids--A Magnificent Voyage and a Magic Fantasy. If you have children, the Classical Kids Collections are an awesome way to introduce an appreciation of music and history into their lives.

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Celebrate this awesome musician today!

Franz Joseph Haydn said to Mozart's father, "Before God and as an honest man, your son is the greatest composer I know, either personally or by name."

What an awesome tribute to be so highly esteemed by one's peer!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Born: Salzburg, January 27, 1756
Died: Vienna, December 5, 1791

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Enjoy an adventure in classical music today!