last day of my first TAship in the land of Mozart. well, i know so many more Mozart fun facts than I did before (a list follows) but I feel like I have not much more understanding of the time period, the demarcation of genius or how the legacy was built. Alas, the questions of cultural historians.

Mozart fun facts

1. he was a freemason and tried to create a sub-group (like the illuminati) within the Vienna freemasons
2. he had his first sexual encounter with his cousin
3. he did not die a pauper, unknown or unloved, as mr. foreman suggested in the film
4. Salzburg did not acknowledge his importance to their city for something like 51 years after his death; check it out now to see how ridiculous this seems
5. Salieri did actually go mad and confess to poisoning Mozart but Mozart's doctors confirmed that this was untrue. Salieri only really made Mozart's life hell.
6. Mozart's favorite city was Prague. to je prekvapeni!
7. Mozart's most recent biographer, Solomon, suggests that men who are raised by fathers who worship money, worship shit.
8. Cosi fan tutti is more fun when you think of Don Alfonso as an urban dilettante who didn't have the option of toiletpapering houses
9. the most lovely effect mozart produced both in reeds and voices was the long sonorous lead over increasing dissonance, aka sustains of unravelling, unmatched beauty (in my humble opinion)
10. the glass harmonica, like the banjo, the accordion, the harmonium, and the chimes, deserves a second chance in the indie rock instrumental ghetto. someone get dave friedmann a glass harmonica!