MISFORTUNE met the first five of her children, either died at childbirth, or came out blind, deaf or lame. The father was suspected of having a venereal disease, the mother had weak lungs.

Thus a doctor urged the mother to abort the child. But the mother, although poor, remained true to her faith in God, insisted on having her child.

On January 27, 1756 a boy was born to the fearful but grateful parents, Maria and Leopold, who joyfully and gratefully had their son baptized in the cathedral church of Salzburg, Austria as Johannes Chrysostomus, Wolfgangus, Theophilus Mozart.

Being a music teacher, the father, Leopold Mozart, taught one of his daughters how to play the clavier (piano). Curiosity, or the genius in him, urged the three-year-old younger brother, Wolfgang Amadeus, to tinker with the musical keys. To the surprise of his father, the young Mozart quickly learned to play the musical instrument; at age 5, the young boy could play it so skillfully and with the finest of touch while keeping pace flawlessly. Moreover, then he was already composing little pieces which his father later wrote down.

In his adulthood the gifted musician was not exactly a saint; this angered his main rival, Antonio Salieri: nephew of a prominent Austrian ecclesiastical figure. Exasperated, Salieri was overheard to have said, “Why, O Lord, do you give the gift of music to this “sinful” and childish Mozart, while I, a good man, languish in his shadow?”

Salieri received no answer from above. He was angered all the more, for his rival, whom he considered ungodly, produced all in all over 600 musical compositions.

When he died at the early age of 35 in 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart -- spared from the horror of abortion—had warmed the hearts of millions with his heavenly music.