Mozart

plural Mozarts

1. By analogy with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a musical virtuoso.

   He is a Mozart in the insect world, sending out his strain upon the evening air.

   1911, Joseph Lane Hancock, Nature Sketches in Temperate America: A Series of Sketches and Popular Account of Insects, Birds,..., page 103

   2 more examples

   One child is a Mozart with a flying start, while another foots it, and makes little way; but the course is the same, being set by the object.

   1933, Sir William Mitchell, The Place of Minds in the World, page 142

   [W]e can understand how a father who is a good musician may have a son who is a Mozart—a genius in music...

   a. 1875, Henry Ward Beecher, Plymouth Pulpit: Sermons Preached in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn (1875) p. 446

2. By extension, a virtuoso in any field.

   There is a Mozart of competitive eating who is yet to reveal himself.

   2006, Ryan A Nerz, Eat This Book: a year of gorging and glory on the competitive eating circuit, page 67

   4 more examples

   Li Po is the most musical, most versatile, and most engaging of Chinese poets, a Mozart of words.

   2001, Victor H. Mair, The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, page 296

   Joyce Carol Oates has said, "If there is a Mozart of interviewers, Larry Grobel is that individual."

   2001, Lawrence Grobel, Endangered Species: Writers Talk about Their Craft, Their Visions, Their Lives

   In contrast, MacDonald's Gibbie is not only a moral prodigy, but also a Mozart of religious sensibility.

   2001, Kathryn Ann Lindskoog, Surprised by C.S. Lewis, George MacDonald, and Dante: An Array of Original Discoveries, page 116

   By the same token, Rembrandt resembled Hawthorne, and the architect who had designed Melrose Abbey was a Mozart among architects.

   1976, Noel Bertram Gerson, Harriet Beecher Stowe: a biography, page 86

plural Mozarts

1. A surname from German; (music) used specifically of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period.

   Of course, this only raises once more the conundrum why the general public should value gothic cathedrals, Mozart's operas, and Kafka's stories so highly, but not the Method of Infinite Descent or Fourier analysis.

   1999, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, translated by Tom Artin, Drawbridge Up: Mathematics—A Cultural Anathema, Natick, MA: A K Peters, page 25

   2 more examples

   How do we know what we think we know about Mozart? And why is he still the most popular composer of the western classical tradition? He is one of the most written-about, dissected and mythologised composers in the history of western music.

   2005 September 16, Nicholas Kenyon, “Myth, Muzak and Mozart”, in The Guardian

   Individuals who are biologically “young” (whatever that means) have no monopoly on “young” or “fresh” ideas. Thus Mozart can write Eine Kleine Nachtmusik before he is dead at the age of 31, Thomas Jefferson can draft the Declaration of Independence at age 34 and Buchminster Fuller, after reaching the age of 70, can continue to get patents for his inventions.

   1997, Larimer v. Dayton Hudson Corportation, Appeal no. 97-2127: Brief of the Defendants-Appellees, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, see footnote 6, page 11

2. A locality in the Oberon council area, eastern New South Wales, Australia.