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#26: Musical Genius

January 27th marks 264 years since the birth of one of western music’s greatest composers: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

To celebrate Mozart’s birthday, this week we’re inviting you to explore different facets of both his life and his legacy. From little-known biographical details to the things he’s most remembered for, let the tune of his life inspire you to create your own entirely unique masterpiece.

P.S — Want to learn more about the lives and legacies of other greats? Check out this list of our 30 favorite biographies.

This week's prompts

Write about a character who was considered a prodigy when they were young.

Fiction – 61 stories

Write about a character who goes by many different names throughout their life.

Character – 50 stories

Write about a character who was raised in a musical family.

High School – 49 stories

Write a story about a musician struggling to find work during wartime.

Historical Fiction – 42 stories

Write a story about a character obsessed with one of the long-dead “greats” in their profession.

Adults – 24 stories

Stories

“Forgotten” by John Parker

Submitted to Contest #26

Silence is the only thing that follows me and shadows nameless and cold. Shadows, shadows are the absence of light the wonderful light. The light is something I can only hope to reach, a place without pain, without darkness. A place where I can remember, remember my name. My name, the thing that I cherished most became forgotten after the accident, lost to the dark depths of my own mind. The accident that landed me in the darkness to never be able to escape. Nowadays I go by many names, some days I am Angelo and some days I am Osric and some...

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“The Violinist” by Adelia Marsa Calista

Submitted to Contest #26

Indonesia Dutch East Indies World War II 1943 “Eat it, or I will.” I look down at a lump of boiled corn in front of that doesn’t look appetizing at all. It is one of those days when we have to eat plain foods—corn or ration rice that’s so bad that there is no nutrition left. Ibu—Mother—talks all the time about being grateful that we still have food on our table, “Paiman’s family next door doesn’t even have salt in their home” that’s what she always says in low voice, glancing at the shack a few meters from our house. Atik, their daugh...

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“The Greatest Since Orpheus” by Ian Wilson

Submitted to Contest #26

I strummed a single chord. “No,” I said to myself. I strummed another chord. “That’s more like it.” I began to play around that chord, strumming and picking various notes until a song started to evolve. But it was garbage. I put the lyre down with a thud. “Don’t you have better things to do with your time?” said Paris. My brother had apparently just come back from hunting. He smelled like dirt. “You’re a prince of Troy,” he continued, “there’s no reason for you to be a musician, like some common vagabond.” “But I’m not going to inherit...

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“The grand piano ” by Samantha Ribeiro

Submitted to Contest #26

My family is much like yours we have our ups and downs, our good and bads but one thing that sets aside my family from everyone else's is there crazy unhealthy obsession with music. Music can you believe it? I bet you anything that for every genre of music out there I have a family member who has dedicated their life to it.Rock N' roll easy my brother Charles he claims to own an autographed album of every true rock n' roll artists out there. Opera? Aunt Lucille would have to take that category. She has dedicated her life going to every ...

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“Wartime Freedom” by Sophie-Dominique Waddie

Submitted to Contest #26

‘Music? That’s just a hobby, isn’t it?’ Natasha had heard those words often throughout her life. Her parents, whilst loving their child, could never understand why she wanted to spend all her time singing. It almost didn’t help that she was an intelligent young woman, she could have done anything, been anything, at least as much as the world she lived in allowed. But Natasha knew in her heart all she really wanted to do, all that would really make her happy was to sing. She was blessed with a beautiful clear voice, which ...

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“Almost Hitchcock” by Mike Garrigan

Submitted to Contest #26

A few decades ago, I did something that I’ve never told anyone. I broke into a Blockbuster Video store. In the small hours of that mid-January morning, the unseasonable Carolina warmth painted a shimmer on the roads, like it had just rained. North Carolina is like that. I stepped from my Honda CRX, which I had parked in plain view in the strip mall parking lot, grabbed my backpack of VHS tapes, and walked around to the back of the store, past the Kroger and the Little Caesar’s pizza. The cartoon “Pizza, Pizza” guy gave me a thumbs up fr...

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“A Virtuouso's Virtue” by Kai S.D.

Submitted to Contest #26

He’ll show up, I tell myself. Two more minutes pass. There’s no more feed for me to scroll through. I look around. No one. I light a cigarette. A few drags later, I crush it into the ashtray. The damn thing’s made me nauseous. Still, I’ll probably smoke another one in a couple of minutes. It’s better than having no distractions. I take the cheap coffee, that’s still way too expensive for my current income. It’s scorching, undrinkable. I can barely hold it. At the same time, a burst of wind assaults me, scurrying down my neck and bothering ev...

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“There's a Catch” by Kris Simonian

Submitted to Contest #26

"Of course, but there is a catch."It's a phrase I've said a thousand times to a thousand different people about a thousand different things. Sometimes the people actually HEAR the catch and walk away. I can't waste my time thinking about what could've been with them - only that I need to keep going. Sometimes they're ready to sign on the proverbial dotted line when some long-dead animal instinct kicks in and they run away. But sometimes they sign and those times are the best times.Who am I? What do I offer? It all really depends on where we ...

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“The Reunion ” by Alex Morse

Submitted to Contest #26

I had an uncle who was a strange man. Alone, distracted and strange. Always keeping to himself and speaking rarely, he was none the less very dear to me. Some of my fondest memories are of him and his kind eyes, smoking a cigarette and reading to me when I was young. Or when he would play his favorite guitar, finger picking his nylon strings and looking off into the distance as if he could somehow see the song he was playing. My grandmother had played piano and there was always music in their house as he was growing up. My father told me abo...

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“The Eldest Sibling” by Deborah Landers

Submitted to Contest #26

Lucy was about to commit blasphemy. Or something near enough to it in the eyes of her family, though she wasn't doing anything wrong. Somehow, she still couldn't divorce herself of the idea that she was doing something illegal.The trombone wasn't stolen. It wasn't the then twenty-year-old instrument she had started playing fifteen years ago, but for how dirty she felt standing in front of a pawn shop with it, it might as well have been.That trombone had belonged to her father, and he had started her on it as soon as possible. She was the fir...

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“Piano Man” by Lauren Ford

Submitted to Contest #26

“Piano means quiet in musical terms, did you know that?” Maggie tells me. Her usual sparkling emerald eyes have dulled to a murky myrtle tone in the dimmer lighting of the bar we sit in. Good. Less temptation that way.“I didn’t know that,” I admit. How did I not know that?I made a mental note to fact check this before the story went to print.“So Maggie, uh, I guess we should start at the beginning. What’s your relationship to Ernest?”Her eyes dipped towards the voice recorder, sitting obtrusively in the middle of the heavily lacquered m...

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“Boss's Orders” by Cory Pines

Submitted to Contest #26

“Ya got a name, Freckles?" the bartender asked as I threw myself onto a stool in the nearly empty bar and ordered nice, frosty whiskey on the rocks. The only folks who thought it’d be clever to show up at the bar in the early light of the day were myself, the bartender, and a wrinkled older woman with baggy under-eyes snoring in the corner. She had probably been bundled up in that same spot for a week, drowning her life away in alcohol and one-night stands. "Do you people usually ask for a man's name when he orders something strong early in ...

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“Musical Hearts” by Anna Komora

Submitted to Contest #26

Cole wakes up when he hears the cry room in the other room. A loud and urgent wail coming from just down the dark hall. Beside him, his wife shifts and moves to sit up, but the man mutters something along the lines of ‘I’ve got her’ while gently placing a hand on her back. The tired new mother relaxes and sinks back into the bed with a sleepy smile, and thank you while her partner sits up and pulls a shirt on before making his way to the nursery. A smile breaks out in his face as well when he sees his little baby in her crib, even as ti...

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“Fine Beyond Fine” by Deborah Mercer

Submitted to Contest #26

Christa Kingdom was the younger child and only daughter of a family doctor, who was generally known as Dr Frank, to distinguish him from his father, Dr Kingdom, who was now semi-retired, and a computer programmer called Emma. She and her brother Darren had a happy childhood, with holidays by the sea, shelves overflowing with books, their grandmother’s exquisite chocolate cake, and often the sound of lovely music . Frank and Emma had good, and varied taste in music, and had every intention that Christa and Darren should grow up that...

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“Clouds” by Shalom Aranas

Submitted to Contest #26

CloudsAman arrived from somewhere on the planet. He arrived at my door with his bag and clothes soaked with rain. The clouds behind him was dark and torrential, it seemed to usher him in to our house.My husband approached from behind me. He is Indian and is a most welcoming man but when he found the sores in this man’s neck and arms, he stopped in his tracks eyeing the man, nudging me not to let the stranger in. I had to explain he is a friend from a previous relationship.The clouds thundered and clipped lightning. My husband naked from...

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$50

Prize money

226

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 31, 2020 EST

Won by Hannah Carter 🏆

Title: Lara

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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