Reading A Rare Stories About Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven

Besides having a very cool name, Mozart was one of the most influential and enduring classical composers who lived a short life and died at the age of 35. He composed over 600 compositions in this time.

Mozart's long nose

A good story is told of Mozart, the great composer, who, at the time was a pupil with Haydn. “A long nose is sometimes useful.”

Haydn one day challenged his pupil to compose a piece of music which he could not play at sight. Mozart accepted the banter, and a supper and champagne were to be the forfeit. Everything being arranged between the two composers, Mozart took his pen and in five minutes dashed off a piece of music, and, much to the surprise of Haydn, handed it to him, saying, “there is a piece of music which you cannot play, and I can. You are to give it the first trial.”

Haydn smiled contemptuously at the visionary presumption of his pupil, and placing the notes before him, struck the keys of the instrument. Surprised at its simplicity, he dashed away until he reached the middle of the piece, when, stopping all at once, he exclaimed, “How is this, Mozart? How is this? Here my hands are stretched to both ends of the piano, and yet there's a middle key to be touched. Nobody can play such music—not even the composer himself. ”

Mozart smiled at the half-excited indignation of the great master, and taking the seat he had quitted, struck the instrument with such an air of self-assurance that Haydn began to think himself duped. Running along through the simple notes, he came to the part which his teacher had pronounced impossible to play. Mozart, as many are aware, was endowed with an extremely long nose—prodigious nose, which in modern dialect, “stuck out about a foot long”. Reaching the difficult note, he stretched both hands to the extreme ends of the piano, and leaning forward, bobbed his nose against the middle key, which “nobody could play! ” Haydn bursted into immoderate laughter and, after acknowledging the “corn”, declared that nature had endowed Mozart with a capacity for music which he had never before discovered.

Anecdote of young Mozart

Once I went with your father after the thursday service to your house, where we found Wolfgang, then four years old, busy with his pen.

Father: What are you doing?

Wolfgang: Writing a concerto for the clavier; it will soon be done.

Father: Let me see it.

Wolfgang: It's not finished yet.

Father: Never mind; let me see it. It must be something very fine.

Your father took it from him and showed me a daub of notes, for the most part written over ink-blots. (the little fellow dipped his pen every time down to the very bottom of the ink-bottle, so that as soon as it reached the paper, down fell a blot; but that did not disturb him in the least, he rubbed the palm of his hand over it, wiped it off, and went on with his writing.) We laughed at first at this apparent nonsense, but then your father began to note the theme, the notes, the composition; his contemplation of the page became more earnest, and at last tears of wonder and delight fell from his eyes.

“Look, Schachtner, ” he said, “how correct and how orderly it is;only it could never be of any use, for it is so extraordinarily difficult that no one in the world could play it.”

Then Wolfgang struck in, “that is why it is a concerto; it must be practiced till it is perfect; look, this is how it goes.”

He began to play, but could only bring out enough to show us what he meant by it. He had at that time a firm conviction that playing concertos and working miracles were the same thing.

Mozart and Beethoven

Beethoven was a German composer and virtuoso pianist who remains one of the most respected and influential composers of all time.

Beethoven arrived in Vienna in the spring of 1787 as a youth of great promise and was taken to play before Mozart. Assuming that his music was a showpiece specially prepared for the occasion, Mozart responded coolly. Beethoven begged him to state a theme on which he could improvise and began playing as if inspired by the Master's presence, and Mozart became engrossed. Finally he rejoined his friends in the next room and pronounced emphatically,“Keep your eyes on that young man. Some day he will give the world something to talk about. ”

Anecdote of Moonlight Sonata

One evening as young Beethoven was out walking he passed a cobbler's house where he heard someone inside practicing one of his compositions. As he stopped to listen he overheard a girl say that she wished she could hear a real musician play it properly.

Beethoven went into the house and, noticing the young lady at the piano was blind, offered to play the piece for her. He did so for more than an hour and while he did, darkness fell and the lone candle in the room went out.

Outside in the night sky the moon shone brightly and sent its radiant beams glistening into the room where Beethoven sat playing beautiful music. He was so inspired by the appreciation of his music by the young lady and the beauty of the atmosphere in the room that he composed his famous Moonlight Sonata.

Beethoven and the beef stew

Beethoven flew off the handle when a waiter at the Viennese restaurant “The Swan” brought him the wrong meat dish. Some artists are particular about their piano benches while others are particular about their beef. An outraged Beethoven hurled the dish, gravy and all, over the waiter's head.

Just as the wrong meat could turn him into a raging bull, the right one could turn him into a loving lamb. When his friend Ferdinand Ries sent him a particular type of roast veal, Beethoven kissed and embraced him, telling him never had anything given him such pleasure as the roast veal, coming at the very moment when he so greatly longed for it.

Beethoven also adored bread soup, which he ate religiously on Thursdays. Woe to the chef who did not prepare it properly. They would have to duck from Beethoven-Hurled Egg Bombs.

● Vocabulary Challenge

Match the words taken from the text in Column A with the words that have similar meaning in Column B.

● Comprehension Check

There are five short stories in this passage. Write a one-sentence summary for each story.the summary of the first one is given.

Story 1 — Mozart's Long Nose

Mozart won the challenge by composing a piece of music which Haydn could not play but he could play with the help of his nose.

Story 2 — Anecdote of Young Mozart

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Story 3 — Mozart and Beethoven

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Story 4 — Anecdote of Moonlight Sonata

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Story 5 — Beethoven and the Beef Stew

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