# If Mozart Were Alive Today... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 23, 2003, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984 "2003-05-23T06:37:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984/1 "2003-05-23T06:37:37Z")
Could he get a recording contract? I got to thinking about this tonight. Given the crappy state that the recording industry and commercial radio is in these days, if someone as talented as Mozart (or any other of the really great composers) were to come along, how would the music industry handle them? Especially if the person’s work would cause a total re-examination of _every_ musical genre. I can’t see the industry embracing someone with such talent, simply because it would mean them throwing out so many of their current ideals. If Mozart were to show up, then I have to think that it’d be the end of all the pre-packaged “bands” which seem to be the main product of the industry, and since it’s the producers and record executives who profit the most from such “bands” I can’t see them being happy about such a person showing up. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984/2 "2003-05-23T11:52:25Z")
If Mozart showed up today, with his musical style, he probably would have a hard time getting a big contract. However, that is more because there isn’t a huge (albeit, very consistant) market for Classical music CD’s. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984/3 "2003-05-23T12:17:15Z")
I think that he would most probably be playing in a rock band. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984/4 "2003-05-23T12:24:59Z")
If Mozart were alive today, he would be famous for being the oldest man in the world… ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984/5 "2003-05-23T12:50:53Z")
Wouldn’t Movie soundtracks be his forte? I heard his score for Amadeus and it was pretty good, I even boght the CD. 😃 He’d probably be in more demand for his virtuosity and raw talent than John Williams or Horner. He’d also probably make quite a good living. ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984/6 "2003-05-23T13:09:39Z")
If Mozart were alive today, he’d most likely be scratching on the lid of his coffin trying to get out. Sorry, that’s my standard answer for the “If they were alive” questions. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984/7 "2003-05-23T13:25:07Z")
Sorry but I don’t Mo had a coffin. Mozart would undoubtably get a recording contract. He playing ability at the age of 5 would mean a big contract and he would do Christmans specials with Charlotte Church. ---
**Author:** ![merge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9f8e36/32.png) [@merge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/merge)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984/8 "2003-05-23T13:42:04Z")
Mozart was a genius… If he were alive today, he would not be writting the same style of music… but he would be the best at whatever he is writting… He would be famous… ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2003, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984/9 "2003-05-23T13:52:48Z")
There are tons of composers out there cranking out classical-style music. If somebody with his talent came along, symphonies would be beating a path to his door to commission work. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984/10 "2003-05-24T04:49:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ethilrist \* > \*\*There are tons of composers out there cranking out classical-style music. If somebody with his talent came along, symphonies would be beating a path to his door to commission work. \*\* Actually, they might not. NPR, IIRC, did a piece about the profitablity of orchestras, and they stated that in tough economic times like these that symphonies tend to load their programs with artists folks are familiar with, in order to put butts in seats, as folks aren’t likely to shell out the money for symphony tickets for works by people they’ve never heard of. Of course, that’s assuming a modern Mozart would chose the medium of classical music in which to compose, and not rock and roll or rap, or country, or any of the hundreds of other musical genres out there. ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984/11 "2003-05-24T11:19:19Z")
I’m inclined to think Mozart would enter the more mainstream music (as he did in his day). AFAIK, Mozart was a brilliant composer and musician, who perfected what he found, rather than someone who takes the art form to a completely new and different level (like Beethoven). Mozart did develop the sonata form further from where Haydn had taken it, and in his final years started integrating Bachian counterpoint in his work. On the other hand, his final works have tinges of Beethoven’s middle symphonies, so maybe he would have developed much further if it hadn’t been for his death. Looking at the current music scene, I would suggest someone like Prince might be a comparable artist: highly talented, taking in lots of different styles and transforming these into his own kind of music. ---
**Author:** ![Hoops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoops/32/6408_2.png) [@Hoops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoops)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984/12 "2003-05-24T18:26:01Z")
I bet he’d make a good jazz pianist: incredible ear, good improviser, nice harmonic concept, propensity for nimble linear runs . . . On the silly end, I can’t help lifting one of Letterman’s top ten list lines (originally on ‘What would Lincoln say if he were alive today’): “EEEYAGHH! IRON BIRD!” ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984/13 "2003-05-24T18:33:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lost4life \* > \*\*If Mozart were alive today, he’d most likely be scratching on the lid of his coffin trying to get out. > > Sorry, that’s my standard answer for the “If they were alive” questions. \*\* That was going to be my reply until I remembered that he didn’t have a coffin. Marc ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984/14 "2003-05-24T22:04:39Z")
> [@](#): > > ‘What would Lincoln say if he were alive today’ I’ve got such a fucking headache! 😛 Back to the first post: most of the questions about ‘would he get airplay’ assume that he’d be trying to work in popular music instead of classical. All things being equal, I don’t think he’d have that much trouble getting played on classical radio if that’s what he was doing. But seriously, I think this question has already been answered by the classic film “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.” ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2003, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984/15 "2003-05-24T23:58:36Z")
What about JS Bach? Will he ‘Stomp’ like Kirk Franklin? His unsurpassed mastery of melodic counterplay would clash with today’s minimalist world. Will he return to cathedral obscurity again, only to be rediscovered by Prince Rogers Nelson V? ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984/16 "2003-05-25T20:47:49Z")
Has anyone else read Robert Silverberg’s story “Gianni”? It’s about a composer plucked from the past and brought into the present. Although the fictional Gianni was a minor composer (so that his disappearance from the past would not be noticed), I always felt the character was based on Mozart. It’s a great story. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2003, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984/17 "2003-05-25T21:20:27Z")
There’s a classic cyberpunk story, Mozart in Mirrorshades. > **[Scifi.com](https://www.syfy.com/scifi/sfw/issue232/books.html)** > > Visit Syfy.com ---
**Author:** ![Nostromo2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a698b9/32.png) [@Nostromo2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nostromo2)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984/18 "2011-10-28T17:32:10Z")
If Mozart were alive today he would be in the music business. His father was a musician and it is irrelevant what kind of musician his father would have been today. Mozart was a child prodigy and they are rarely ignored, so he would have been well known even when he was a child. Somebody would have capitalized on it, but unlike Michael Jackson and Charlotte Church, he wasn’t known for singing. His compositions are very tuneful, so he surely would have had hits at least comparable with Lennon and Macartney since they would sound effortlessly simple and catchy. He liked to party and today he would probably be into drugs and get bad press. Mozart did not really create any new styles, but expanded on the styles that were popular in his day, so I wouldn’t expect him to be avant-garde. He was very prolific, so I can imagine he would be writing hits, film scores, Musicals and would probably be the best Jazz improviser you ever heard. There were more popular musicians around in his day that were more simple and more straightforward to listen to, but serious musicians would know that he was a cut above all of them. Mozart wasn’t ignored in his day, he just spent so much time composing and partying that he never got down to business, so today, he may have destroyed his career before he even got to the top, you never know. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984/19 "2011-10-28T17:42:43Z")
No, he’d still be in prison for murdering Falco in 1986. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2011, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984/20 "2011-10-28T18:30:10Z")
I’ve heard him compared to Tupac Shakur or Jimi Hendrix: Virtuoso, cutting edge, party animal, died young. Of course, if he was alive today, he wouldn’t be any of those guys, since they’re dead, but… you know what I mean. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-mozart-were-alive-today/176984.md?page=2)