On Wed, 15 Feb 1995, Jobless in Seattle wrote:

> A friend who serves as a classical DJ at the University of
> Virginia once told me that A. Mozart kept a pet starling. I wonder
> how many of his compositions are merely covers of melodies invented by
> his pet starling.

Neil,

Meridith West and Andrew King seem to think the answer is "one." In an
article they wrote, they noted that one of Mozart's compositions, written
at the time of his pet starling's death, had some anomalies of rythm and
phrasing. The curious musical patterns in the piece match some of the
attributes of starling song, so West and King proposed that perhaps the
piece was a tribute to the departed bird. I tried
to locate my copy of the article, but failed - the citation I put at the
end of this note may be the one I am thinking of, but no author was
listed where I found it. The date is about right, but I thought the
original was called "Mozart's starling," and published in American Scientist.

It's good reading for sturnophiles...

TITLE(s): Birdsong Inspired Music Master.
Summary: Did Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart borrow some musical ideas from
his pet starling?

In: Current science.
MAY 10 1991 v 76 n 18
Page: 3

Chris Hill
Seattle, WA
cehill at u.washington.edu