In Vienna, even when unusual pets were all the rage, local birds like starlings weren\u2019t very popular. But the story goes that in the spring of 1784, Mozart heard a starling in a pet store sing out one of his own compositions. Though the bird had a plain appearance\u2014\u201cwith a faint purple sheen, \/ and maybe some green, \/ And some simple spots on his back\u201d\u2014Mozart had to buy him. Had the avian singer, who once lived on a farm, where he was considered a sch\u00e4dling (pest), learned the tune directly from the composer, who often hummed as he walked around the city? The story is told in light rhyming verse, and whether or not readers know much about Mozart, they\u2019ll enjoy seeing the ordinary bird triumph over the more vibrant and unusual specimens at the pet store. Mozart, in his bright red coat and traditional white wig (it even flies off his head in one spread), stands out in the cartoonish digital illustrations, often brown and black in tone to depict 18th-century Vienna. The pictures are enlivened by the unusual animals for sale in the shop and by peacocks and parrots out in the street. A few modern scenes are included, reminding us of Mozart\u2019s lasting appeal.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Vienna, even when unusual pets were all the rage, local birds like starlings weren\u2019t very popular. But the story goes that in the spring of 1784, Mozart heard a starling in a pet store sing out one of his own compositions. Though the bird had a plain appearance\u2014\u201cwith a faint purple sheen, \/ and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}