Tenderness in Mozart's Starling


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart purchased a cheap starling from a bird shop in 1784 after the bird sang an off-key version of the composer’s theme from his Piano Concerto Number 17in G. While not much is known about Star’s life once it became a pet of the Mozart clan, it is known the bird received its own attended funeral, even though Mozart didn’t attend his own father’s funeral not too long before.

In Mozart’s Starling, Lyanda Lynn Haupt, an ecophilosopher and naturalist who thanks in her acknowledgments Beatrix Potter, and Georgia O’Keefe, and likely feels camaraderie with these artists who brought the natural world to life in their works, brings Star to life. In a compelling parallel, Haupt describes her rearing of Carmen, a starling she rescues and brings into her home.

Mozart’s Starling was engrossing in large part because of Carmen. Haupt rightfully describes starlings as invasive birds which many ornithologists show disdain. Placed in a home with a loving caregiver and her family, Carmen becomes a unique creature, full of curious head tilts, a love for baths in Haupt’s hands, and a need to be around her new family. When Haupt introduces Carmen to someone who has already decided they hate starlings, she asks if they hate this starling, and the answer, as far as we know, is consistently "no."

Haupt includes pictures of Carmen throughout the book, adding to the bird’s allure. Carmen, and Haupt’s relationship with her, provided some tender, human, and enjoyable reading.

The chapters focused on Mozart’s Star were less engaging, as Haupt had to rely on research and her own imagination to create the relationship between revered composer and bird.

Haupt also spends chapters building a case for how Star influenced Mozart’s music, and also to attacking the credibility of researchers who don’t understand how brilliant starlings are at language and music (more research, Haupt admits, needs to be done). These latter thoughts are nice, and are perhaps even true. Here, they seem like musings needed to fill pages in a book, rather than as necessary connective tissue for the whole.


Thanks to Caitlin Swofford for recommending Mozart’s Starling. It is one of my favorite reads so far this year.


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