Xavier

Franz Xavier was Mozart's son, born a few months before the death of his father. Inevitably overshadowed by Wolfgang's reputation, he left Austria and received patronage in Eastern Europe, teaching and giving concerts of his own and his father's music.

Xavier

These fools who think that lightning will strike twice
and will not release me from my name
demand one more cadenza from me then
I bow suspiciously to their applause.

For in this eastern outpost of empire
beneath their bright provincial chandeliers
I’m prized as replica but fugitive
in the orphaned sonatinas I play.

Winter is bleak inside me. I’m no more
than all these bums on seats expect of me.
Nothing I do is ever good enough.
I am both what I am and what I’m not,
out of and not out of the ordinary,
perhaps no better than I ought to be.