Mozart, and a special kind of genius

[Jason Fraker]

Wouldn't you say that he's an example of supreme musical genius? In addition to being a prodigy as a musician (piano and violin), he began composing at a very young age. He wrote the melody we now know as "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" when he was 3 years old. Mozart wrote his first minuet at age six, his first known complete piece. Mozart's first symphony was composed when he was eight. This is remarkable both because of the fact that most of us at age eight were still playing freeze tag or some such game, and also because the symphony shows signs of excellent development. Even looking at it in his handwriting, it shows remarkable planning from being composed by such a young boy. Mozart also wrote an opera at age twelve. What were you doing at 12? I was probably watching cartoons after school instead of doing my math homework.

Mozart wrote casually to his father describing how he wrote down a symphony while composing the next one in his head at the same time. He was said to have written down music, without any corrections, that was already finished in his head. Mozart's remarkable talent for this was probably the reason he produced such a great body of work in such a short lifetime. He died at 34, but had produced over 600 works in a wide variety of styles and disciplines. His composer friend Haydn told Mozart's father that Mozart was 'the greatest composer known to me in person or by name; he has taste and, what is more, the greatest knowledge of composition'.

If you've seen "Amadeus", you are no doubt familiar with some of these facts, but just listening to his music (and I'm not a musician or a student of music) just fills me with an indescribably awe. It's like a fusion of mathmatics and poetry that gives birth to something more beautiful than either could ever produce. Some people, I believe, are just touched by God in such a way as to remind us what staggering potential human beings have.

Can you guys name some people who are also examples of this level of genius?

[D-Frag]

Da Vinci was pretty much a genius in my book, he had many artistic talents from painting, sculpting, engineering...etc. I think mozart definetly had him beat as far as smarts go. I think every human has an energy force that they are given, almost like a battery. Some will slowly drain it through life, only taking what they need and living normally. Then there are the exceptions of people like Mozart, they can put so much energy into something with so much passion they burn out sooner then others. Its sad, but that's how ive always kinda looked at people.

[Navian]

JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH (http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/composer/bach.html)

[Jason Fraker]

Truly Da Vinci would be on my short list of the most gifted people. He had a sort of extreme curiosity and an inexaustable creativity of thinking that I don't think has been matched. He dared to work outside of acceptable society's boundaries (I'm thinking of his autopsies and anatomical studies here), as well as an articulate organization in his records of these thoughts. He also almost certainly suffered from ADD, given the shortness of his attention span and the rapid pace with which he got bored with a given project. His artistic output is surprisingly small, but well remembered.

[D-Frag]

hahaha, did you just say a r t i t s t i c??

[jimking]

Mosart is one of the greatest. Beethoven wrote some of his best work while stone deaf. Even one of his songs hit the top 40 chart in the 1970s! Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the best. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was brilliant, just to name a few. Paul McCartney dreamed up the song in his sleep "Yesterday".

[Logo-Mechanix]

Albert Einstein, he was in my opinion one of the smartest people to ever live. He graduated as a teacher of matmatics and physics in 1900 at the age of 21. When I was 21 I was just glad I could legally purchase alcohol.

[D-Frag]

yeah but have you ever read any of his stuff? he wasn't as smart as everyone made him out to be. Einstein moved way down on my list of smart people after I read a book on his theory of relativity.

[Logo-Mechanix]

He was probobly the smartest guy to ever live in Jersey.

[rockem]

They both were geniuses, IF you dont have davinci notebooks I suggest picking them up, I have two of the volumes, He has sketches and talks about thing that were invented hundreds of years later, he knew it was possible they just didnt have the technology

[Drawing a Blank]

yeah but have you ever read any of his stuff? he wasn't as smart as everyone made him out to be. Einstein moved way down on my list of smart people after I read a book on his theory of relativity.
Why?

[D-Frag]

because even though he was working with the government to create an atomic bomb, he was also working on other projects as well, in regards to *gasp* flying saucers, warping ships across the ocean. he failed miserably in regards to his idea of what the outcome would be. im not saying the guy wasn't a genius, just saying he made ALOT of mistakes and didn't learn from them and cost many people there lives in the process. im all for science, but don't involve people and there families and them losing relatives all in the name of science and discovery.

[Navian]

In my opinion; anyone who has the ability start or to be involved in a huge landmark/changes in the history of this planet. So if it was discovering something, inventing, changing major events before they happen that would have effected alot of lives, changing major events as they happen and where starting to effect alot of lives. Anything major, even the great rememberable and/or historically documented people who have grazed our lives where it past, present, and/or in the future; by there contribution to what ever aspects of there presence of our existence; is a genius.

[Jason Fraker]

Logo, what about John Dalton. He is famous for arranging the periodic table of elements, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. He became a schoolmaster at age 12, and would study Newton's "Principia Mathematica" in latin when he was 15.

[Drawing a Blank]

because even though he was working with the government to create an atomic bomb, he was also working on other projects as well, in regards to *gasp* flying saucers, warping ships across the ocean. he failed miserably in regards to his idea of what the outcome would be. im not saying the guy wasn't a genius, just saying he made ALOT of mistakes and didn't learn from them and cost many people there lives in the process. im all for science, but don't involve people and there families and them losing relatives all in the name of science and discovery.

Fair enough. Thanks for answering.

[Jason Fraker]

Henry Cavendish and Isaac Newton are also on my list.

Cavendish measured (pretty accurately) the mass of the earth in 1798. It took him 3 years to do it, and the instruments used were so delecate, he made his observations from another room with a telescope, because his very breath and movement would throw off the results. He was so shy that he communicated with his servants via letter, and couldn't interact socially. Because of this extreme shyness, many of his discoveries, though up to 200 years before their time, would be credited to others, and later found to be his.

Newton invented calculus, but didn't tell anyone for 35 years. He also wrote a formula that discribed the elliptical path that planets take around the sun, but never told anyone either. He's most known for his laws of motion and description of gravity (the apple on the head story is most likely not true), but he was a very strange guy. He spent half his life pursuing alchemy (that's lead into gold, kids), and strange treasure hunting adventures. He once stared into the sun until he could no longer tolerate the pain, just to see what it'd do to his vision (he had to spend two weeks in the dark, but sustained no lasting damage), and stuck a heavy gauge needle into his occular cavity and "wiggled it about to see what was in there" (again, managing to avoid blindness).

I guess one conclusion to make from all these geniuses is that they are also very unusual and quite often eccentric.

[rockem]

times were very different back then when einstein was working

[Jason Fraker]

Rockem, you might say that today's scientists are standing on the shoulders of geniuses. How many new ideas have been uncovered in the last 100 years or so? What we have now are elaborations and new uses for centuries old ideas. The only advantage of science today vs. science then is better instruments.

[rockem]

Rockem, you might say that today's scientists are standing on the shoulders of geniuses. How many new ideas have been uncovered in the last 100 years or so? What we have now are elaborations and new uses for centuries old ideas. The only advantage of science today vs. science then is better instruments.

I know, I was kinda refering to dfrag comment about einsteins mistakes how things have changed since then and will contine to change

[D-Frag]

yeah were not killing people anymore by fusing them with solid matter ;)

[rockem]

like slavery that didnt stop not to long before einstein, value of life was very different

[Jason Fraker]

Einstein, if I'm not mistaken, was a pacifist by and large. The only reason he agreed to help the US develop nukes was because the Germans were going to beat us to it, and he considered us the lesser of two evils. From what I hear, he regretted his involvement for the rest of his life. With most of his work, the biggest threat to human life was inhaling too much chalk dust while attending a lecture.

[JPnyc]

I always thought the man most directly responsible for nuclear weaponry was Oppenheimer.

[jimking]

Oppenheimer was the manager of many scientists in New Mexico. I don't think Einstein was under him at anytime.

[Rocketpig]

Weapons were not the only things to come out of the discovery of how to create an atomic reaction. Don't forget that.

[jimking]

We discovered a fancy way to boil water---Nuclear power plant. Because that is what it does------boil water, creates steam, turns the turbines, generates electricity. I'll take a dam! :D