Mike Leghorn <[log in to unmask]> writes: >I would like to suggest a fun little exercise: simultaneously play the >4-note theme from the Eroica finale and the 4-note theme from the finale >of the Jupiter Symphony (transposing one so they're both in the same key, >of course). You might be surprised. I was - they don't have anything in common at all! Significant? Of course. What was "Beethoven" trying to hide? Those of Us Who Know have been aware for many years that all these cryptic allusions can add up to only One Thing: Beethoven WAS Mozart! Just as that poor, unfortunate, aristocrat intellectual Christopher Marlowe was forced to change his persona to that of a vulgar, country hick called "William Shakespeare" in order to avoid imprisonment for Crimes Too Black to Mention; so Mozart's debts (and a nagging wife) led him to take Equally Drastic Steps. The simple purchase of a wild wig, bits of padding, some rumpled clothes and an ear trumpet - et voila! Wolfgang A. became Ludwig Van. He was never able to disguise the bad language; and these old snatches from his former persona would keep popping into his increasingly addled head - but then, you see, he really wanted to give himself away. Astute Mr Leghorn is merely latching onto an obvious fact which has been overlooked for Far Too Long. I'm intrigued by his (and Mimi's) suggestion that Ludwig VAN enjoyed a later transmutation into Ralph VAUGHN Williams. Why ever not? The Spiritual Power of Great Art can keep people alive for many years longer than we mere mortals wot of - and "Vaughan Williams"'s Fantasia on Old 104th really does rather give this particular game away. Mozart was able to make further use of his purchase of the ear trumpet, too, in this clever way. I for one wonder who Mozart is masquerading as now? As so many people including Mr Leghorn and Myself have rumbled his little game, you could say that he was living in a GLASS house - so perhaps that's the answer. I'm sure, at least, that he's NOT Harrison Birtwistle! I wonder who I really am? I'd like to be Brahms, though I think he thought he was Beethoven, which muddies the water a little. He used to get quite tetchy about it. When an astute and well-meaning friend pointed out that the tune in the last movement of his 1st Symphony was cribbed from Beethoven's 9th, he snorted, shouted "Any fool can see that" and stomped off. How rude and ungrateful. Peace and blessings, Con xx C. Shacklock (Mrs) Nessun Dorma Villas Bognor Regis W. Sussex