Playing Second Poem by gershon hepner

Wolfgang Mozart, running neck and
neck with his papa once reckoned
that he could play
the fiddle way
better not as first but second.

The moral of this little story
is you don’t need to be Midori
to play as well
as Mozart. Dwell
as second and you’ll live in glory.

Alan Chapman related this story about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:

Papa was a very good violinist; he was so good that he became the concertmaster of his town. When his sister Nannerl was seven and Wolferl was three, Papa started teaching her to play the piano. Wolferl loved hearing her play and asked Papa to teach him too. When the boy was four, Papa decided to give him piano lessons. But he liked to play violin like Papa. They got him a little violin, just like Papa's, only smaller.
One day Papa came home with two friends. They set up music stands and pulled up chairs so they could play some new 'trios' that one had just written.
Wolferl came into the room with his little violin and said,
'Papa, can I play? '
And his papa looked down at him and said,
'Wolferl, you can't play the violin.'
But Wolferl begged,
'Please, papa. Please, papa.'
The second violinist started feeling sorry for him and said to Wolferl's Papa,
'Let the little one sit next to me. You won't be able to hear him play.'
Papa turned to Wolferl and said,
'All right, you can sit there and play, but make sure no one can hear you! '
Little Wolferl sat down with his tiny violin and began to play.
Pretty soon the second violinist stopped playing. He looked at that little five year old boy who was now playing the second violin part all by himself.


12/1/09