Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has become an important (even indelible) part of our lives. Yet the more we prepare for our performance of the C Minor Mass, the more we come to understand what it must have been like to be part of HIS life. Wolfgang's remarkable musical triumphs were accompanied by equally remarkable personal trauma and family dynamics. Some historians maintain that his genius for composition was on a level so far

.What rubbish.

His genius was, indeed, on a level none of us lesser geniuses will ever comprehend. So it follows, does it not, that we'd also be at a loss to explain exactly how his creative process was influenced by the sturm und drang that enveloped him.

It seems to us that Wolfgang's real genius was causing all the compositional ingredients — emotional and otherwise — to sublimate their individual identities to the perfection of the whole.

Mozart himself always described his music as "natural," as coming from a place even he didn't understand or question. It just happened.

At least we can all agree that the world is a far more enjoyable place because of that enigma…witness the C Minor Mass. (Please!)

In the Grand Mass, Mozart challenges us as musicians more than in any of his other choral works. Why is that?

Is it mere coincidence that this piece happens to be, in a single stroke:

His most brilliant and ambitious expression of counterpoint — on a scale worthy of Johann Sebastian Bach himself AND...

The fulfillment of a solemn vow he made to his bride-to-be AND...

A uniquely Mozartean olive branch to his badly estranged father AND...

A so-subtle-he'll-never-get-it final snub to the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg?

Hmmmm…that's one heck of a coincidence, to be sure. And why, pray tell, would he have tried to accomplish all of that with an unfinished Mass??

What was he thinking???

That, dear friend, is exactly what you'll try to unravel in our C Minor Mastery game. Click on over to "The Story Begins..." and start reliving the early events that guided this young man's pen in later years.

Then, just for fun, play Round 1 of C Minor Mastery. Match your wits and wisdom against your fellow Mozart fans as you vie for two free front-row seats at our performance. Not to mention the envy and admiration of all the lesser geniuses around you. Click here to check out a sample quiz.