PAGES FROM THE PAST - MOZART

Today marks the 218th death anniversary
of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

But did you know that the man who gave the world wonderful music to last forever died penniless, and only one person walked with his coffin from the church to the cemetery for its burial in an unmarked pauper's grave? His interment was a disgrace to all of Vienna. Thrown in a ditch with several other people, not even a bad inscription marked its location

Mozart come closest of all musicians to being the universal composer. During his short life time (he died at 35), he wrote operas and symphonies, chamber music and church music, solo and concert works for virtually every instrument--plus mechanical clocks and musical glasses.

Rossini once said, "Mozart is not the greatest, he is the only musician in the world." And to quote Schubert, "O Mozart, immortal Mozart! How many and what countless images of a brighter, better world hast though stamped on our souls."