The boy was very much impressed by the music of the "Miserere," and when
he left the Chapel asked where he could get a copy of it. To his dismay
he was told that the music was considered so wonderful that the Papal
musicians were forbidden on pain of excommunication by the Pope to take
any part of the score away, or to copy it, or allow any one else to copy
it.
Mozart, however, was determined to have a copy of that music, even if he
had to pay the penalty of being excommunicated. He soon hit on a plan.
The next morning the boy arrived early at the Sistine Chapel, and
devoted all his thought to remembering the music. It was exceedingly
difficult, performed as it was by a double choir, and full of singular
effects, one of which was the absence of any particular rhythm. The task
of putting down such music in notes was tremendous. Yet, when Wolfgang
left the Chapel he went straight home to the lodgings his father had
taken, and made a sketch of the entire music. He went again on Good
Friday morning, and sat with his copy hidden in his hat. In that way he
corrected and completed it. When it was finished he told his father of
it, and the news soon spread through Rome that this wonderful boy had
actually stolen the complete score of the "Miserere" exactly as it was
composed by Allegri.
The feat was said to be unheard of, and many considered it impossible.
Certain men of importance called to see Wolfgang's father about it, with
the result that the boy was obliged to show what he had written at a
large musical party held for that special purpose. The musician
Christofori, who had sung in the choir in the Chapel, pronounced the
copy absolutely correct. Every one was amazed, and then so much
delighted at the marvelous skill of this boy of fourteen that the
penalty of excommunication was entirely forgotten. Princes, Cardinals,
all that part of Rome which loved art and music, had only wondering
admiration for the young German musician.
There had never been any doubt among those who had met the boy Mozart
that he was a genius. At fourteen years of age he had already been
playing the clavier and the violin for a number of years. His father,
himself a musician, was attached to the court of the Archbishop of
Salzburg, and had written a great deal of music. But when he discovered
the amazing genius of his two children, his son and daughter, he devoted
himself entirely to training them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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