I think one of advisors’ worst nightmares is to edit student’s thesis. Even Mozart had to deal with his lovely, talented student’s compositions:
Here’s What ‘the Most Important Mozart Discovery in Decades’ Sounds Like
NY Times Link Jeffrey Arlo Brown June 22
In 1778, a young musician named Marie-Louise-Philippine de Bonnières de Guînes was sitting in a composition lesson in Paris, trying to come up with a melody. She wracked her brains for 15 minutes. Finally, her teacher — Mozart — wrote the beginning of a tune and asked her to continue it.
“Look what an ass I am,” he told her, as he recounted in a letter to his father. “I started a minuet, and I can’t even complete the first part — would you be kind enough to finish it?”
In the letter, Mozart complained that his pupil, a duke’s daughter who was a talented harpist, completed her music theory exercises well enough, but “had no ideas at all.”
…
Now, the dynamic that frustrated Mozart is precisely what makes the manuscript so valuable. A more inspired pupil would have given him less to do.
It’s 7 pieces for flute and harp. The other only existing mozart piece was K. 299 (the Flute & Harp concerto). I’m really excited for it!