Monday, October 02, 2006

Salzburg

Mozart was born in Saltzburg, Austria. Nearly everyone knows this. The fact that this is a general assumption about Mozart may cloud the signficance the town represents.

Saltzburg was named for the deep salt mines in the foothills of the Obersaltzburg outside of the town. The resources the mine provided were endless and the main source of income for the townspeople.
So what? We ask. It's so simple, it's right under our noses.

Mozart was born in a town named for the common spice that enhances flavor to our lives. In fact, Jesus spoke of it 2,000 years ago. What good is salt, if the salt has lost its flavor? You are the salt of the earth.
Salt is the spice of the common man. Mozart was born in a town filled with common men. He could have chosen to be a part of this town, while retaining his own uniqueness. Fate and his father had other plans. Leopold didn't want his children to end up performing for free for the ungrateful townsfolk. So he decided to leap as high as possible and make a name for himself and his prodigious children at the high courts of Europe. Later, Mozart himself disdained Saltzburg as common, and chose to remain in Vienna, where tragedy circled him like a raging lion and ultimately consumed him.

Rethinking Mozart

How old were you when you first heard the name 'Mozart'? Too young even to remember? How old were you when you could pick his music out from pieces played on the radio, or perhaps by a parent? It would be oversimplifying to say that familiarity breeds contempt in the case of Mozart. Familiarity may, however, cause us to be superficial in our understanding, and complacent in our acceptance of what we are told to think about him.

In this special 250th celebration of his birth, it is my wish to contribute to a re-orienting of some of the concepts involved with Mozart and, in the process, perhaps shed new light on additional areas of his genius.