Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Whom did they choose?Antonio Salieri: Herr Zummer.Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Herr Zummer? But the man's a fool, he's a total mediocrity!Antonio Salieri: No, no, he has yet to achieve mediocrity.
But why? Why would God choose an obscene child to be His instrument? It was not to be believed! This piece had to be an accident. It had to be!... It better be!
Actually, the man had no ear at all. But what did it matter. He adored my music.
Antonio Salieri: Astounding! It was actually, it was beyond belief. These were first and only drafts of music, but they showed no corrections of any kind. Not one. He had simply written down music already finished in his head! Page after page of it as if he were just taking dictation. And music, finished as no music is ever finished. Displace one note and there would be diminishment. Displace one phrase and the structure would fall. It was clear to me that sound I had heard in the Archbishop's palace had been no accident. Here again was the very Voice of God! I was staring through the cage of those meticulous ink-strokes at an absolute beauty.Constanze Mozart: Is it not good?Antonio Salieri: It is miraculous!