Vogel Stahrl, 34 Kreuzer

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had, by May 1784, just finished his Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major. The piece was barely six weeks old.

Walking past a shop that month, he heard a starling whistling the third movement.

He went in. The bird had made two small edits: it held a fermata Mozart hadn't written, and it sharpened one G to G#. Mozart bought it for 34 Kreuzer, wrote the bird's version into his household expense book beside his own transcription of the tune, and appended, in his own hand, "Das war schön!" That was beautiful.

He kept the starling three years. On 28 May 1787 his father Leopold died in Salzburg. Seven days later the starling died in Vienna, and for the starling Mozart travelled, as far as the garden.

He staged a full procession. Everyone who could sing was made to sing. The mourners were heavily veiled. There was a requiem, a grave, and a rhymed German epitaph, read aloud, which begins, with a straight face, "Here rests a beloved fool."

Ten days later he finished A Musical Joke.