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- <text id=91TT0476>
- <title>
- Mar. 04, 1991: Partners?
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- Mar. 04, 1991 Into Kuwait!
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- PEOPLE, Page 85
- Partners?
- </hdr><body>
- <p>By Sophfronia Scott/Reported by Wendy Cole
- </p>
- <p> 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.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-