# Guess who



## Musicforawhile (Oct 10, 2014)

"On the streets of Vienna in the late 1700's, a beggar approached a small man in a velvet waistcoat and appealed to him for money. The man was overcome with pity for the beggar but when he searched his pockets, he found they were empty. Instead, he led the beggar to a nearby coffee house where he borrowed some paper and a pen. First he sketched a few lines on the paper. Then he began to write - so rapidly that his pen seemed gifted with flight. After just a few moments he handed the paper to the beggar, with the instructions he should take it to a publisher. There on the page was one perfect minuet and one perfect trio. The beggar did what he was told and received the handsome sum of five guineas for the work. At the bottom of it, his benefactor had signed the name..."

Can you guess who it was?

I found this here: http://miolad20.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/biographies-of-100-great-people-070.html


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Well, that's the coolest story I've heard in a while. Is that true?


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## Musicforawhile (Oct 10, 2014)

Vesuvius said:


> Well, that's the coolest story I've heard in a while. Is that true?


Apparently yes. I heard it first on Classic fm.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I would have guessed Beethoven, but I'm at peace with it being M_____t.

Don't wish to give it away.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Musicforawhile said:


> Apparently yes. I heard it first on Classic fm.


My adoration for Wolfie continues to grow.


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## trazom (Apr 13, 2009)

Generally well-written and enjoyable article despite some hyperbole and some trivial errors, but...



> a naturalist whose music was directed not at the intellect, but the heart.


I thought Mozart expressly composed his music to appeal to both? Especially since it has to appeal to the mind first, anyways. Artemis mentioned this once years ago(as a long-time Schubert fanatic), as the age-old snobbish view still held by some listeners who believe that counterpoint is for intelligent listeners, melody for stupid listeners... I'm now starting to see what she meant


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Quite a different portrait from the unflattering one in Amadeus, where he was portrayed as a socially inept, obnoxious self-centered buffoon.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

hpowders said:


> Quite a different portrait from the unflattering one in Amadeus, where he was portrayed as a socially inept, obnoxious self-centered buffoon.


Yea, they really made him look like an idiot who could write great music. I doubt he was so buffoonish.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

hpowders said:


> I would have guessed Beethoven, but I'm at peace with it being Mozart.


LOL. The quill as if in flight is the giveaway. Luigi was known to work an idea more like a sculptor laboriously chipping away at a block of marble... the idea intact, then in memory and 'just written down' is Mozart... and Schubert. Perhaps the two 'fastest' big boy composers on record.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Vesuvius said:


> Yea, they really made him look like an idiot who could write great music. I doubt he was so buffoonish.


So who would you rather have over for dinner? The buffoonish Mozart or the sourpuss Salieri? "Say, Wolfie, would you mind dashing off a cello sonata before you go?"


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

PetrB said:


> LOL. The quill as if in flight is the giveaway. Luigi was known to work an idea more like a sculptor laboriously chipping away at a block of marble... the idea intact, then in memory and 'just written down' is Mozart... and Schubert. Perhaps the two 'fastest' big boy composers on record.


Plus, Beethoven would've probably yelled at the beggar for being lazy.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Musicforawhile said:


> Apparently yes. I heard it first on Classic fm.


oooh, that must make it true, then 

Sounds urban myth-ish / apocryphal to me


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Hey there, all stories are true until proven false... or something like that.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Vesuvius said:


> Plus, Beethoven would've probably yelled at the beggar for being lazy.


Give the beggar a fishing rod and not a fish? ~ Teach the guy how to compose so he can sell his own music


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

I had been going to guess it to be the two-year old Schubert.


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## Musicforawhile (Oct 10, 2014)

PetrB said:


> oooh, that must make it true, then
> 
> Sounds urban myth-ish / apocryphal to me


I knew someone was going to say that! The two statements weren't linked. It is supposed to be true (first statement). It so happens I heard it first on classic fm (second statement not linked to first). I don't trust everything I hear on classic fm, but I would love to believe this story and I don't see why it couldn't be true. Why be so cynical?


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

We could call it a 'ben trovato' - so much classier sounding in Italian.

I'd assumed it was a trick question!


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## Musicforawhile (Oct 10, 2014)

Figleaf said:


> We could call it a 'ben trovato' - so much classier sounding in Italian.
> 
> I'd assumed it was a trick question!


No trick, just thought it would be more fun for people to guess who it was. 'Ben trovato' means? Good find?


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

"On the streets of Moscow in the late 1800's, a beggar approached a tall man in a velvet waistcoat and appealed to him for money. The man was overcome with pity..."

There, much more credible.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

hpowders said:


> Quite a different portrait from the unflattering one in Amadeus, where he was portrayed as a socially inept, obnoxious self-centered buffoon.


Ah, yes, but it weren't "them" who portrayed him like that - Amadeus isn't supposed to be a biopic. We see Mozart through the eyes of the fictionalized Salieri, and it is he who gives us the unflattering portrait.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Vesuvius said:


> Plus, Beethoven would've probably yelled at the beggar for being lazy.


And even if he did take pity, as someone else pointed out, B. took ages to complete his pieces. The beggar may well have had to wait ten years for his piece, which would turn out to be a fully fledged symphony that, by that time, B. would have sold to three different publishers.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

PetrB said:


> LOL. The quill as if in flight is the giveaway. Luigi was known to work an idea more like a sculptor laboriously chipping away at a block of marble... the idea intact, then in memory and 'just written down' is Mozart... and Schubert. Perhaps the two 'fastest' big boy composers on record.


Yes. I recalled that after I guessed Beethoven. Louis would have kept the poor man there for months, writing, rewriting, throwing tantrums, complaining about his brother and nephew, etc;

My second guess would have been M____t. (Don't want to give it away).


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

brianvds said:


> Ah, yes, but it weren't "them" who portrayed him like that - Amadeus isn't supposed to be a biopic. We see Mozart through the eyes of the fictionalized Salieri, and it is he who gives us the unflattering portrait.


That's true. However it played right into Hollywood's PC dim view of classical music people.
I'm sure M____t was better than that as a person.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Imagine if it was Beethoven and he happened to have a copy of the Grosse Fuge on him and he gave it to the unfortunate. On producing it at a publishing house, they would have locked him up in Bedlam and thrown away the key.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

hpowders said:


> That's true. However it played right into Hollywood's PC dim view of classical music people.
> I'm sure M____t was better than that as a person.


I like this convention of not writing out the name of a deity... 



hpowders said:


> Imagine if it was Beethoven and he happened to have a copy of the Grosse Fuge on him and he gave it to the unfortunate. On producing it at a publishing house, they would have locked him up in Bedlam and thrown away the key.


Perhaps that did in fact happen, and thus, the only copy of B.'s greatest fugue was lost. We are stuck with the trifling Grosse one...


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

And of course the publisher didn't suspect for one moment that the beggar might have stolen the paper in the first place... 



Still, a nice story.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Yes. A member of the lowest class with a spanking new freshly written minuet.

Would cause as much attention as someone with a freshly smallpox-scarred face. Not much, eh?


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## Figleaf (Jun 10, 2014)

Musicforawhile said:


> No trick, just thought it would be more fun for people to guess who it was. 'Ben trovato' means? Good find?


Yes- 'Se non è vero, è ben trovato'- if it's not true, it's a good find- or words to that effect! Told you it sounded better in Italian 

Wouldn't it be weird if the guy in the story was actually called Ben Trovato?


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## Guest (Nov 8, 2014)

Vesuvius said:


> Hey there, all stories are true until proven false... or something like that.


Did I mention that I am a direct descendent of Mozart?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Figleaf said:


> Yes- 'Se non è vero, è ben trovato'- if it's not true, it's a good find- or words to that effect! Told you it sounded better in Italian
> 
> Wouldn't it be weird if the guy in the story was actually called Ben Trovato?


I loooove when you speak Italian to me. :tiphat:


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