Matt Rees's Blog - Posts Tagged "mozart-s-sister"

If there had never been a Palestinian intifada, I might never have written my novel about the death of Mozart, MOZART’S LAST ARIA, which is published today in the UK by Corvus.

Of course, 4,000 people would also be alive who are now dead. In the course of writing about that destruction between 2000 and 2006, I saw some terrible things, experienced some frightful emotions, and internalized shocking facts about the world around me. It would’ve been easy to become depressed or to descend further into the post-traumatic stress disorder that nipped at my mind quite frequently.

Mozart saved me from that. I used to listen to his music in my armored car as I drove through the dangerous roads of the West Bank or on my iPod as I huddled in my Gaza hotel after a day dodging through refugee camps where Palestinians and Israelis were fighting it out. The Maestro’s great works soothed me, enabled me to achieve an emotional calm, when all around me was horror and chaos.

I didn’t use the music to ignore what was happening. Rather the music kept me open to the world around me. I didn’t have to shut out the horror; I could watch it and try to understand it. Because the great Wolfgang was sending me musical signals about the beauty and peace that exists at the core of every man. We only need listen to Mozart to know that he speaks to this part of us, and his immense popularity and immediacy is a sign that it truly is something we all possess.

There’s a good deal of research about Mozart’s music and its phenomenal ability to calm all kinds of disorders and, certainly, to soothe us when we’re stressed. Kids with attention-deficit disorder have been shown to concentrate better if Mozart is playing in their classroom. Epileptics are less likely to have seizures if they’ve been listening to Mozart (an element I worked into the plot of MOZART’S LAST ARIA.)

I found the last six symphonies were the most relaxing, and the piano sonatas. I think that’s because there’s an even greater clarity in these pieces than in some of Mozart’s other work. It’s also in these pieces that he hits the sonic frequencies particular to him which appear to be behind the curative effect of his music – frequencies scientists have found NOT to occur in other great composers like Beethoven or Brahms. (Listen to those other guys and it’ll be good for you, but it won’t really calm you and it certainly doesn’t have the same effect on A.D.D. or epileptics.)

Read the rest of this post on my blog The Man of Twists and Turns.

For today's release of my new historical crime novel MOZART'S LAST ARIA in the UK, take a look at this two-minute video introducing the book. It features my son dressed as Little Mozart, because I'm even more proud of him than I am of the book... Watch more videos about the book.

Who do you think killed Mozart?
In my novel Mozart's Last Aria, the great composer's sister Maria Anna travels to Vienna in 1791 to find out who murdered her brother. Many people think the rival composer Salieri did in Wolfgang. That's been popular since Salieri confessed -- except that he was in a madhouse when he owned up and later said he'd been raving. Still it was at the heart of Amadeus and, when I was writing my book, that's what most of my friends assumed I say. But no. I have a different theory. I think the murder was connected to Mozart's activities as a Freemason. In Vienna at that time Freemasonry was illegal. There's also evidence Wolfgang was engaged in espionage, and of course there are signs of something subversive in The Magic Flute... Who do you think killed Mozart?
Related articles across the web

Classical Memories 27 January: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart's Last Aria
Masonism in Mozart's The Magic Flute
Top Five Myths about Mozart