What We Can Learn from Wolfgang Mozart

There is a 2008 documentary about the electric guitar entitled It Might Get Loud. It often does inside my car.

Today, I was driving up US Highway 31 to get supper at Habaneros and playing "Why" by Joe Satriani, loud. The thought came to me that "Mozart would love this." To those unfamiliar with the composer, put it this way: he was all music all the time. Sure, many thought he was silly and immature; some were probably jealous of him (the movie, Amadeus, certainly declares that Antonio Salieri was; and he had absolutely no money sense (today he would be a multi-billionaire anyway with Oscars for his numerous big-budget film scores).

Mozart is universally recognized as one of the top five composers in history. He was everywhere, composing in every musical style and for every instrument known to his culture (so there were no Mozart compositions for the sitar, the samisen, the huaca, or the didgeridoo). Think what he could have done with a Moog Synthesizer, a theremin, a set of electric drums, or a tricked out Fender electric guitar! I think he would have loved Swing, Jazz, Country, Heavy Metal, and even, shudder, Rap.

We can't all be geniuses like Old Wolfgang (actually he died young) but I think that Christians could learn something from him, at least in his attitude about what was most important to him. He was obsessive about music from the time he was a small child, playing the piano, violin, clavier, and organ and writing symphonies, chamber music, church music, masses, sonatas, concertos, operas; in total, over 600 works. If we studied our Bibles as hard or worked at our callings or ministries, the things we say we love, with as much vigor and determination as Mozart gave to his, just imagine what we could do.