Le Nozze di Figaro
Before Lennon and McCartney
there existed another song writing team made up of Mozart and Da Ponte. The former may have been the most successful, if we measure by profit, which is what my world, based on banking, does. However, many of us still retain a respect for the true artist rather than the flash in the pan assisted by hallucinogens. And here, Mozart and Da Ponte were kings, if but for a short while, not for lack of creativity, but for lack of funds.
Mozart, who was pre-wired to live at an accelerated pace speeding through "music" at a phenomenal rate (1.75 yrs. in Mozart time equals 30 yrs. normal composer's time). You do the math: Mozart lived as per time measured in music, for hundreds of years in relation to the average creative composer's life. ( I am speaking here of Mozart's learning curve in music. )
This is the inverse — though complimentary — of the the relation between the biblical Adam and the modern man. Mozart's time was accelerated, Adam's was decelerated. And the average man struggles with sidereal time, the time that accompanies life governed by staccato images. ( Evidence is now gathering — and it's about fricken time — that the human race has been creating art and technology, not least of which farming, not for thousands of years, but hundreds of thousands.)
Of, course, compared to Adam who could hear "God's voice," the same voice which inaugurated light (out of himself) sui generated from the "waters" of the deep, and who ( of Adam) could amanuentically inaugurate (not create) language, Mozart was just a fly, a mosquito...And yet, still a giant to the rest of us.
Financially though,
he was, like all virgins, an amateur and destined to die young at about 400 years old in "ethereal" time. However, if ethereal or idealist time could be translated into staccato time, as light was once translated into stars, an interesting thought experiment presents itself (especially since his song-writing partner, Da Ponte, ended up broke and immigrating to New York where he ran a convenience store).
Substituting Da Ponte for Mozart here, we have a scenario where Mr. Lennon walks into Da Ponte's convenience store to buy a carton of milk (or cigarettes) inaugurating a meeting between the two: "Don't you know me, I am John Lennon of the Beatles, I write songs with Paul McCartney."
"Sorry Sir, I don't. But It's interesting that you write songs. I write songs myself. But my partner has died. I am here now, earning my living in this way."
"I'm sorry to hear about your partner. But you should know about the Beatles. We're everywhere, on radio, TV..."
"I did hear about a group of school boys, in London, by that name, before I arrived here in New York. But you should listen to our kind of music also, my good man."
"Oooh, what did you guys write?"
"Le Nozze di Figaro."