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Among several pets owned by Mozart, one of his favourites was a starling – as yet unnamed. John Suchet wants to know your ideas.
Not a lot of people know that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart kept a starling for some three years. The first record of the pet is the entry Mozart made in his expense book when he bought it on 27 May 1784.
Starlings are known to have a strong capacity for mimicry and it’s reported that Mozart taught the bird to sing the opening theme of the third movement of his Piano Concerto No. 17 in G. He even noted down how the bird sang it:
It seems that the starling sang a G sharp instead of the G in Mozart's original.
The starling died on 4 June 1787. Mozart buried it in his back yard and wrote a commemorative poem for the occasion.
Mozart was obviously very fond of the bird - but there's no record of it having a name.
Can you think of a suitable name for Mozart’s starling?
Leave your answer below.