Prague must have been quite the place, to so indelibly stamp liberal and artistic culture with this designation.

Mozart should have stayed there, instead of returning to Vienna - like a moth to a candle - to his death. Well, Mozart had no sense whatever, except in music. In music, Tchaikovsky's description, "The Christ of Music", stands to this day.

It started during his lifetime, and he declared on his deathbed "I did not kill Mozart". It is very certain he had no hand in Mozart's death, but the world needs a villain.

Not only did Salieri try to help Mozart with his career (he had better political connections) he colaborated with Mozart on a number of projects, and helped take care of Mozart's kids after his death.

He was a laid back sort of guy, and the only composition teacher in Vienna who could put up with the young Beethoven - who declared he learned far more from Salieri than all his other teachers combined (which included Hayden).

A number of his pieces have been played on KUSC recently, and they are quite good.

. . made no secret of his admiration for Salieri. Counter stories seem a bit strained in the face of the facts - and his studies with Salieri were after Mozart's death, so that thing of his slamming the door on "Mozart's killer" is patently false.

But the stories live on and on. For instance, the story of Marie Antoinette saying "Let them eat cake". After the Revolution, this was lifted from a novel written long before her adulthood, and falsely attributed to her - as an attempt to justify having beheaded her. This was difficult to justify, particularly since she had actually made statements sympathetic to the peasants.

In any case, top teachers are given short shrift by history. For instance, Rimsky-Korsakov, who taught three of the five greatest orchestrators of all time, Respghi, Stravinsky and - well - Rimsky-Korsakov (he was self taught - and had no formal training or "book learnen" until after he was appointed professor of composition and orchestration at the St. Petersburg Conservatory).

It did piss him off a bit that several of his students, who learned everything they knew from him, worshiped Tchaikovsky (Stravinsky was one of them).

Jim Svejda, lead announcer at KUSC, was always dismissive of Rimsky-Korsakov. After all, how could a Navy officer and civil servant, who was highly successful, respected, fiscally stable, happy, non-suicidal, and in a lifelong marriage to a WOMAN for crissake, be a great artist?

But, he's come around a bit recently. Lately when he plays Shaharazad, part of his announcement is "This is the cloth from which Stravinsky's triumphs were cut".

Another of his favorite targets has been one of history's greatest teachers of music to children, Karl Orff. Of course, Jim read a book that indicated Orff might have been a Nazi sympathizer, and Svejda HATES Nazis. The author of that book has since stated he no longer believes that - but, again, the corrections and retractions are ignored if the initial version said what people wanted to believe.

But even there the cracks may be showing. Orff's Carmina Burana has always been the most requested piece of music on KUSC. Before putting it on, Svejda would always ridicule it roundly.

A couple of months ago, he announced it. Then there was some silence - after which he said, "I LOVE this piece! There, I've said it and I'm glad!" - and I'm not going to let him forget that.

Jim's an opinionated bassard, but I can't complain about that - I'm an opinionated bassard myself - but I can complain about his mistakes.

The term was "common grave". That meant it was not where nobles and royalty were buried. Had he taken better care of himself and lived a bit longer he might have rated an upgrade on that.

It is true that only the gravediggers were at his graveside. That was proper procedure at the time. Paleo-meteorologists have studied this in great detail, and have shown with great confidence that the wind was blowing very strong that day - similar to our Santa Anas here in Los Angeles.

Under those circumstances, especially considering the fancy dress of the time, the funeral party stayed inside where the ceremony was held, and only the gravediggers went out with the casket.

All this stuff and a lot more has been covered over the years in the Archeology magazines I subscribe to, and the Smithsonian magazine.

Yes, exact cause of death is still uncertain. He had a bunch of stuff going on, any one of which could have killed him, but it was probably several of them - answers are seldom as simple as some might desire.

I don't recall a single harpsichord piece by Mozart.