Walter Meyer wrote about Mozart, giving an example from the film 'Amadeus': >... Somebody once described genius as the ability to make the unexpected >appear inevitable in retrospect. Remembering now how "inevitable" some of >Mozart's melodies sound, and forgetting that we've been hearing them for >all our musical lives, it's hard to realize how "unexpected" they were when >first heard. It's said that Mozart was a genius at using and re-inventing the conventions of his day. That's sort of in line with your Salieri example. That also made me think of something enigmatic said by somebody (all I remember - vaguely - is reading it in Wolfgang Hildesheimer's Mozart biography - although I could be wrong): Haydn surprises you with the unexpected, Mozart with the expected. Profound! Felix Delbruck [log in to unmask]