Not Salieri

I appreciate David English’s letter to the editor (April issue) regarding Salieri’s talent, in which he references Salieri’s harpsichord march in the movie Amadeus. However, this march which is portrayed in the film as being the work of Salieri was never actually composed by him. This simplistic piece used to demonstrate Salieri’s supposed lack of talent is in fact a dumbed-down version of Mozart’s aria ‘Non piu andrai’ from The Marriage of Figaro, specially arranged for the film and erroneously attributed for comedic effect. In reality, Salieri was a great composer whose composing ability

unfortunately continues to be tainted by the entertaining but historically inaccurate Oscarwinning fable that is Amadeus. Katie Connor, via email