THE GREATEST MUSICAL PRODIGY

A musical work edited years ago by Dr. William Crotch reminds us of something striking: it’s hard to find a more extraordinary display of musical genius in a child barely out of infancy than Crotch himself.

He was born in 1775, and by the age of two he already showed intense delight in music. He could pick out tunes on the organ—songs like “God Save the King”—and he could also improvise small melodies of his own, adding a simple but accurate harmony.

His parents proudly displayed him before the King, the royal family, and other titled figures, and everywhere he played people reacted with astonished admiration. By four years old, he had appeared in public many times.

He could name any pitch he heard and loved pleasant harmonies. But he couldn’t hear a discord without showing immediate disgust.

Mozart, too, was a prodigy—but the claim here is that Mozart’s genius did not show itself quite so early as Crotch’s.

Mozart became one of the greatest composers who ever lived. Crotch, though he earned the degree of Doctor of Music from Oxford University in 1799, and was considered an important musician in his day, has become—ironically—almost unknown to the modern musical world.