18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 34

[cahn]

And including Emperor Joseph II!

from Derek Beales: Joseph II, Volume 2: Against the World, 1780 - 1790:

Joseph's alleged comment to Mozart about the Entführung, "Too many notes", has been taken as evidence of his ignorance. But he probably said something like, "Too beautiful for our ears, and monstrous many notes." It is always necessary to bear in mind, when appraising the emperor's remarks, his peculiar brand of humor or sarcasm. He was usually getting at someone. And he did not use the royal "we". The ears in question were those of the Viennese audience, whom he was mocking for their limited appreciation of Mozart's elaborate music.

(though not gonna lie, I think it is a LOT of notes)

Comments

Re: Did someone say commenting about your sibling's sex life?

[mildred_of_midgard]

Speaking of prostitutes and my secret memoranda on work and on my sister :P, after I wrote the above, I remembered two posts that may be of interest to cahn. (Anyone is welcome to read and/or comment, but Cahn's the one who's exhibited a great eagerness over the years to swap family and work WTFery stories with me. :D)

Post the first, in which my sister claims 3 times in very implausible circumstances to have been mistaken for a prostitute.

Post the second, in which a coworker at the worst company I ever worked for claims much more plausibly to have been mistaken for a prostitute at work. In a way that was one drop in the bucket of why I started looking for a new job immediately, but now that I'm safely away, makes for a collection of *hilarious* jaw-dropping stories. (Exactly like my sister, who is a collection of jaw-dropping stories, mostly hilarious but sometimes infuriating because of the innocent children.)

Cahn, remember how you said my parents remind you of FW in that you keep forgetting just how bad it was until you get a reminder that no, it really was that bad? My sister is orders of magnitude more awful-cum-bizarre (they were a mixed bag who did many good things for which I remain grateful; her...not so much), and the only reason you aren't constantly being reminded of that is that it's been so long since she was a part of my life that my rants have moved on. But ask me sometime. :P I also took notes on that one workplace, because I knew the list of bizarreness was so long the memories would fade over time, and I knew I would want to tell the story again someday.

Me: *is clearly not as high-minded as Selena*

(Tonight's salon (or salon and gossip) comments brought to you by 5 hours of sleep = 3 pages of German. I was planning to do the Duke of Parma write-up, but ended up helping move furniture instead. One day!)