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- PEOPLE, Page 85Partners?
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- By SOPHFRONIA SCOTT/Reported by Wendy Cole
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- Musicologists have long considered MOZART's rarely performed
- The Musical Joke an oddity. It is filled with clumsy rhythms,
- off-key passages and an ending so abrupt and bizarre that it
- seems out of place in the master's repertory. Here's a strange
- theory: Mozart may have been inspired by his pet starling. The
- starling family's ability to mimic notes and voices is
- legendary, and the influence of Mozart's bird, says Indiana
- University psychologist Meredith West, may explain the piece's
- fractured structure. The composer was so fond of his pet that
- when it died, he staged a big funeral in its honor.
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