Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is known for his musical hotshot , but for the rest of us , writing the kind of music he could dash off with his eyes close is n’t exactly easy . But what if you could indite a Mozart waltz without knowing a single note ? It ’s possible — thanks to an eighteenth - hundred die biz the maestro himself may have invented .
It ’s called aMusikalisches Würfelspiel , a more German way of saying “ melodious dice game . ” The concept is simple : thresh a few dice and employ the corresponding numbers game to choose a unretentive snippet of music . String together the music and voila — a waltz !
The game ’s easy to play even if you do n’t know any euphony — or have any die . The concept , which is used by [ PDF ] information processing system skill prof to teach their students about two - dimensional regalia and random bit generation , has inspiredstudent websitesfor years . These 24-hour interval , there ’s evenan app , Mozart Dice Game , to help you do it at home .
Although Mozart ’s name is oftentimes attached to the biz , it ’s not really open whether he forge it . Dice were democratic in Mozart ’s day , andsimilar gameshave been attributed to other Edgar Lee Masters like Joseph Haydn and C.P.E. Bach ( son of the more famous Bach ) . Since Mozart was so popular , it ’s possible that his name was merely added onto the biz to earn more money . ( And Mozart ’s love ofpotty sense of humor , games , and depressed civilization — which would have included playing die — is well known . )
But wedoknow that Mozart invented another musical game . When he died , a inscrutable paper was apparently discovered in his archive . It let in 39 minuet fragments of two measures each , labeled by Mozart with the missive of the alphabet . historiographer now thinkit ’s a game — this one designed to use intelligence and names to make a minuet , although there were no specific didactics included .
Mozart apparently saw music as child ’s gambling , but it ’s not clear if he actually used games to draw up . That said , he seems to have like compile while playing other games , likelawn bowling . Of of course , having sport always makes music reasoned sweeter — and many of us might never compose a bloodline without a game to begin with .
