Page:Anecdotes of Great Musicians.djvu/30

18 a great enjoyment in music, and could pick out on the organ keys such tunes as "God Save the King." He would also play little melodies of his own, supplying them with a simple but correct harmony.

He played before the King, royal family, and other titled personages of England, and was greeted with admiring wonder wherever his talents were displayed by his proud parents. At the age of four years he had frequently appeared in public. He could name any tone heard by him, and took great delight in pleasant harmonies, though he could not hear a discord without expressing disgust. Mozart was, in his youth, a great prodigy, but his genius was not of so early development as that of little William Crotch. Mozart became one of the greatest composers; but Crotch, though he was granted the degree of Doctor of Music in 1799 by Oxford University, and though regarded as a great musician in his day, is now almost unknown to the musical world.  

The youthful Mozart was not the greatest prodigy known to history, but he was one of the few whose early precocity did not lead to expectations which were disappointed in later life. His musical life was a continual growth. Great stories were told of his marvelous abilities, and some of them were doubtless exaggerated. But every claim that was put forth by himself or by the parents of this wonder-child he could fulfill.

The Archbishop of Salzburg had it in his power to benefit the art of all succeeding time by granting proper patronage to Mozart, but this the churlish old fellow declined to do. He even declared that the boy Mozart was a fraud, and in the interests of art and religion he would unmask him. His plan was to confine the young genius in a closed room, give him pens, ink, paper and the necessary words, and to hold him prisoner there