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Comment by hilbert42 | Hacker News Reader

There a story that when in Rome the young Mozart of 14 listened to Gregorio Allegri’s famous Miserere and afterwards wrote it down note for note from memory.

The important point about this story is that the Church so revered the wonderful Miserere that it kept its score secret so it could only be performed in Rome, so Mozart had no other choice but to memorize it.

Reputably, Mozart had perfect pitch and a phenomenal musical memory and he composed almost without corrections—a look at his handwritten scores and that's obvious, they're neat and near perfect.

Your son is clearly one of those lucky people so gifted.

FYI, if interested, here's a YouTube recording of what Mozart wrote down from memory (truly amazing if you ask me): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDOENZediM8

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> the young Mozart of 14 listened

You mean “Mozart in the middle of his career” at 14 ;) (he was already an international star for seven full years before he was 14)

"You mean “Mozart in the middle of his career” at 14"

Sorry. Yeah you're right. I recall when I got to the age of 35 he died at I asked myself what the hell have I done in my 35 years.

The comparison was embarrassing (even now years later I still use that comparison).

Seems like a potentially unhealthy comparison.

But a true one :/

I don't reckon so, we know a great deal about Mozart and that he was incredibly productive throughout his working career which spanned 30 of his 35 years.

Thanks to Köchel and others essentially Mozart's entire life's work is very well documented and that over those 30 years he produced about 626 musical works most of which are of the highest standard, and of those some rank as works of sheer genius, not only have they stood the test of time but they still remain popular and well loved by millions some 233 after his death.

Mozart's talent and his life's work can thus be held up as a standard—a level of excellence—to which many of us would like to aspire.

What makes Mozart special, perhaps more so than many other famous composers, is how much he achieved in such a short life. He's up at the pinnacle with others who have achieved great things. Even for those of us who are not composers Mozart's yardstick can remind us of our own often-limited talents and work and how we wished they were better or how we might go about improving them. At times I experience such notions when listening to his music.

This is a beautiful comment, and I couldn't agree more.

There is only one standard of accomplishment and it's set by people like Mozart.

Accepting that is humbling, but it's required to know yourself and grow. My contributions probably won't amount to much, but Mozart (et al) have shown us what good looks like and it's fun to strive.

And thank you very much for your most welcome comment. It's nice to know one's posts are read but also that some appreciate them. :-)

You lived like a normal person during that time. That should be actually ok.

Should-ing on others is very close to another, similar 4 letter invective.

Right, one's just another paid-up member of the passing parade.

At least you're not dead yet, which makes you a much better organism than him by biological standards ;).

"At least you're not dead yet,"

Right, not yet anyway. But one thing's pretty certain I won't be a household name 233 after I'm dead. ;-)

A great aspect about famous composers such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, etc. is that they still remain household names several centuries after their deaths because their compositions bring immediate pleasure to us whenever we hear them.

Now, that's a lovely way to be remembered.

You die twice as they say, once when you physically die and once when you are forgotten

Mozart is immortal in that sense

Love

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