Noah's Notes: musings of a 17-year-old musician (no.10)

There is a certain amount of truth in the saying ‘you can't teach an old dog new tricks’; for even though Dvořák's first masterpieces came as he was approaching 40, he'd been composing since the age of 14. Even earlier was Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus (more commonly known as Wolfgang Amadeus) Mozart; he started when he was five. He wasn't writing his first masterpieces at 40, as he had died by 35, but these started to come when he was about 19. Much is made of Mozart's precociousness, that it is evidence he was the greatest genius of all; but this assumes that his precocity was down to Mozart and Mozart alone. It was in fact down to the other Mozart – Leopold, his father. Because music was made the primary occupation of the young Wolfgang, his natural aptitude for the thing was able to be drawn out – propelling him to reach heights otherwise impossible for an older dog.