Klarinet Archive - Posting 000093.txt from 1997/07

From: "Dan Leeson: LEESON@-----.edu>
Subj: Mendelssohn and Mozart in English
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 1997 19:04:14 -0400

Connie Josias mentioned that, in addition to Mendelssohn, whose
knowledge of English was remarkable, he being absolutely fluent
in the langauges as well as being idiomatically perfect, Mozart
also spoke English too.

Connie is correct, but Mozart's English was very elementary. When
the tenor (Micahel Ocelli, I think, based on his real name "O'Kelly")
left Vienna to return to England, Mozart dashed of a tune or
something on paper and wrote "Don't never forget your own true
friend." The motet, "God is Our Refuge" was written by Mozart
and in English when he visited there are something like the age
of 8. Unfortunately, Mozart did not have much of chance to practice
his English so it was on his linguistic periphery.

=======================================
Dan Leeson, Los Altos, California
Rosanne Leeson, Los Altos, California
leeson@-----.edu
=======================================