More Light in the World

Happy 250th birthday to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who is holding up remarkably well for someone who died at the age of 35.

The very amusing and skillful classical-music critic Jim Svejda tells the story of how he once filled out a job application and wrote "Mozart" in the space marked Religion. The interviewer was not amused, but then, says Svejda, "I hadn't intended it as a joke."

That more or less sums it up. I'm no expert on orchestral music, and there are times when I prefer the work of other composers, but if nothing else Mozart is the most dependable of artists. Other musicians step wrong from time to time; not Wolfgang. Even his most ridiculous pieces (see "Abduction from the Seraglio" and "The Magic Flute") will suddenly reach in and touch your heart.

(Yeah, I know, there are a lot of people who will threaten me with death or worse for that opinion of "Zauberflote." To me, the thing is and always will be a third-rate fairy tale with a lot of embarrassing philosopho-sexual trash dropped in like overcooked matzo balls. Nevertheless, as I say, the damn thing can still move me. No one cuts Amadeus.)

I note with interest that today is also the 125th anniversary of the day Thomas Edison filed a patent for the electric light bulb.

And thus, as we should be told much more often, do art and science pursue the same goals.

Benshlomo says, Light is light.