Genius prodigy - Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was the child prodigy par excellence,

playing songs on the harpsichord at four years old and composing
simple music at five. When he was seven years old, the Mozart family
went on the first of several tours to demonstrate the prodigious
musical abilities of the young marvel and his elder sister Maria Anna
(“Nannerel”), who was also remarkably gifted. So, there is no shortage
of anecdotes about the young Mozart’s astonishing musical dexterity,
memory, and creativity in composition. 

One episode stands out, from a visit to the Vatican in 1770, when
Mozart was 14 years old. The story concerns a famous piece of late
Renaissance choral music, the Miserere, composed by Gregorio Allegri
(1582–1652). Allegri had been a priest and member of the choir of the
Sistine Chapel, and his composition, a setting of the 50th Psalm, was
so well loved by the occupants of the Vatican that at some point it
became forbidden to transcribe it for performance elsewhere. Only
three authorized copies were ever made. In 1770 Mozart and his father
heard a performance of the Miserere during Holy Week. That night
Mozart was unable to fall asleep, so he got up and amused himself by
transcribing the whole thing from memory. He went back to hear the
piece a second time a few days later, using the performance to correct
a few errors in his copy, which he had concealed in his hat.

Musicologists have since pointed out that Mozart’s feat of memory was
extraordinary but maybe not as miraculous as it sounds at first.
The Miserere is a somewhat repetitive piece, and Mozart’s
transcription probably didn’t include improvised ornamental passages
that would have been part of the original performance. Even so, a
modern performance takes 12 to 15 minutes, and remembering it all
would require following music written for two choirs, one with five
parts and one with four, brought together at the end in nine-part
counterpoint.