WEBVTT - Just a Kiss

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of

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<v Speaker 1>iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of

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<v Speaker 1>the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all

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<v Speaker 1>of these amazing tales are right there on display, just

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<v Speaker 1>waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.

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<v Speaker 1>In late nineteenth century, Paris rescue workers pulled a young

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<v Speaker 1>woman's body out of the River Sene. By the time

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<v Speaker 1>she was lifted out of the water, she was already

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<v Speaker 1>dead from an apparent drowning, but strangely, there was no

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<v Speaker 1>panic or fear in her eyes. Instead, a rescue worker

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<v Speaker 1>brushed the damp hair away from her face and found

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<v Speaker 1>a beautiful, peaceful half smile on her lips. The work

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<v Speaker 1>didn't find anything in the woman's pockets that identified her

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<v Speaker 1>by name, so, as was customary at the time, they

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<v Speaker 1>took her body to the Paris mortuary. There she was

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<v Speaker 1>put on display in the window that hopes that someone

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<v Speaker 1>passing by would recognize and put a name to her

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<v Speaker 1>serene face. The woman's family never did come by and

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<v Speaker 1>identify her, but her enigmatic expression turned the heads of

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<v Speaker 1>everyone who walked past morbid, Crowds gathered in the street

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<v Speaker 1>to get a look at her eerily calm smile, and

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<v Speaker 1>the Unknown Woman of the Sin, as she became known,

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<v Speaker 1>was a local celebrity. The pathologist who worked at the

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<v Speaker 1>mortuary was so taken by her mysterious beauty that he

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<v Speaker 1>made a cast of her face, and before long it

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<v Speaker 1>was being used to create plaster replicas that were sold

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<v Speaker 1>in souvenir shops all across Europe. Over the next few decades,

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<v Speaker 1>the Unknown Woman became the subject of poems, paintings and novels,

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<v Speaker 1>all of which tried to fill in the blanks of

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<v Speaker 1>who she was and what had led to her drowning.

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<v Speaker 1>The most popular legend was that she had thrown herself

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<v Speaker 1>into the river due to a broken heart. One novelist

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<v Speaker 1>imagined her as an innocent country girl who was seduced

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<v Speaker 1>by a rich Parisian man. Meanwhile, another portrayed her as

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<v Speaker 1>an evil force whose death mask draws the narrator into

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<v Speaker 1>an all consuming obsession. But even as the Unknown Woman

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<v Speaker 1>of the Sin became the most famous face in Europe,

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<v Speaker 1>the actual woman at the heart of the myth remained unidentified.

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<v Speaker 1>As the decades passed, and her fame gradually faded. The

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<v Speaker 1>unknown woman might have been lost to history if a

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<v Speaker 1>Norwegian toy manufacturer hadn't given her a second life. In

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<v Speaker 1>the nineteen fifties, a toy maker named Asmund Laerdahl got

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<v Speaker 1>an unusual request for a custom project. A physician wanted

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<v Speaker 1>him to develop a doll to help doctors practice a

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<v Speaker 1>new life saving technique called cardiopulmonary resuscitation, better known as CPR.

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<v Speaker 1>The doll had to be life sized and functional, with

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<v Speaker 1>open lips that could be used to practice mouth to

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<v Speaker 1>mouth resuscitation, and a realistic face to make the training

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<v Speaker 1>exercise more emotionally impactful and thus more memorable. And Lerdau

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<v Speaker 1>was the perfect man for the job. He sculpted the

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<v Speaker 1>Mannikin's body out of soft plastic and metal springs, and

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<v Speaker 1>when it was time to design the face, an old

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<v Speaker 1>image stirred in his memory, a plaster bust that hung

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<v Speaker 1>on the wall of his wife's parents' house. It was

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<v Speaker 1>a peaceful visage of the unknown woman of the sin.

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<v Speaker 1>The CPR doll, known as Resussi Anni, debuted in nineteen

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<v Speaker 1>sixty and over the coming decades, hundreds of thousands of

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<v Speaker 1>people across the globe learned cpr on versions of her,

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<v Speaker 1>earning the Woman of the Sin a reputation as the

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<v Speaker 1>most kissed face in the world. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart remains

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<v Speaker 1>one of history's most celebrated composers, a prodigy whose melodies

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<v Speaker 1>have echoed through concert halls for more than two centuries.

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<v Speaker 1>At the astonishing age of just five years old, he

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<v Speaker 1>was able to compose short pieces and perform for European royalty.

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<v Speaker 1>By his teenage years, he had produced works that would

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<v Speaker 1>make seasoned masters jealous. Yet behind this musical brilliance lay

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<v Speaker 1>a man of idiosyncratic habits, whose strange appetites and offbeat

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<v Speaker 1>humor revealed a personality as colorful as his scores. One

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<v Speaker 1>of the most charming anecdotes concerns Mozart's pet, Starling, a

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<v Speaker 1>bird presented to him in seventeen eighty four. Enamored with

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<v Speaker 1>the feathered visitor, Mozart transcribed the lilting tune that the

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<v Speaker 1>bird sang into his notebook, a motif that mirrors a

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<v Speaker 1>passage from his own piano concerto number seventeen in G major.

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<v Speaker 1>When the song died three years later, Mozart staged a

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<v Speaker 1>miniature funeral, complete with a tiny coffin and mournful procession

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<v Speaker 1>to honor his small companion. His sense of humor was

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<v Speaker 1>equally distinctive, although far less refined than one might expect

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<v Speaker 1>from a classical maestro. Scatological jokes pepper his private correspondence

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<v Speaker 1>The Verses, brimming with body wordplay that would shock modern readers.

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<v Speaker 1>Historians debate whether these jokes merely reflect the culture of

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<v Speaker 1>eighteenth century Vienna or served as a deliberate, playful rebellion

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<v Speaker 1>against social conventions. Occasionally, the levity seeped into his music, too,

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<v Speaker 1>where he set riskaye German lyrics to familiar tunes as

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<v Speaker 1>inside jokes for close friends knots. All of Mozart's experiences

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<v Speaker 1>were so lighthearted, though at eleven he contracted smallpox, a

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<v Speaker 1>disease that claimed countless lives in the eighteenth century. The

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<v Speaker 1>illness temporarily blinded him and forced his family to flee

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<v Speaker 1>Vienna to escape the epidemic. Such a severe setback could

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<v Speaker 1>have ended his career before it truly began, and yet

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<v Speaker 1>Mozart recovered and continued to compose works of astonishing depth

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<v Speaker 1>and variety. But the most haunting chapter of Mozart's biography

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<v Speaker 1>revolves around his Requiem in D Minor, the work that

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<v Speaker 1>he never lived to finish. In the autumn of seventeen

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<v Speaker 1>ninety one, a mysterious patron approached a trusted intermediary, France

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<v Speaker 1>van Walseg, with a commission for a solemn mass for

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<v Speaker 1>the dead Valsig, a wealthy amateur composer, desired the piece

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<v Speaker 1>to appear as his own tribute to his late wife,

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<v Speaker 1>a secret that he guarded jealously. Mozart accepted the commission

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<v Speaker 1>unaware of his client's true identity. He was already ailing

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<v Speaker 1>persistent fever. Exhaustion and a lingering respiratory infection weighed heavily

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<v Speaker 1>on him, and yet the promise of a substantial fee

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<v Speaker 1>and the artistic challenge of a liturgical masterpiece spurred him onward.

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<v Speaker 1>He began sketching the Introitis in early November, his pen

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<v Speaker 1>moving swiftly, as if racing against an invisible clock, and

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<v Speaker 1>in a sense he was. As the days passed by,

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<v Speaker 1>Mozart's health deteriorated, he worked feverishly, often through the night,

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<v Speaker 1>dictating sections to his devoted copyist, Joseph Elesser, and confiding

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<v Speaker 1>in his wife Constanza, who assisted with copying and proofreading.

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<v Speaker 1>Although the days were prolific, his body could no longer

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<v Speaker 1>sustain the effort. Legend holds that on the evening of

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<v Speaker 1>December fourth of seventeen ninety one, Mozart, barely able to

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<v Speaker 1>lift his head, whispered the opening bars of the Lachrymosa,

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<v Speaker 1>the final movement, which would remain forever finished. He died

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<v Speaker 1>two days later on December fifth, leaving the Requiem a

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<v Speaker 1>half rendered tapestry of soaring vocal lines and trembling orchestration.

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<v Speaker 1>This manuscript, scattered across several pages, bears his unmistakable handwriting,

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<v Speaker 1>interspersed with frantic corrections and marginal notes. After his death,

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<v Speaker 1>his student, Franz Javert Sussmyer, was tasked with completing the work.

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<v Speaker 1>Using Mozart's sketches and verbal instructions. Sousmir finished the Lachrymosa,

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<v Speaker 1>added the remaining movements, and orchestrated the entire piece, striving

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<v Speaker 1>to honor his master's voice while filling in the inevitable gaps.

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<v Speaker 1>And thus the Requiem stands as a dual monument, on

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<v Speaker 1>one hand, a testament to Mozart's unrivaled capacity to convey grief,

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<v Speaker 1>awe and transcendence, and on the other, a poignant reminder

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<v Speaker 1>of a life cut short. His final masterpiece forever tinged

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<v Speaker 1>with mystery listeners still hear in its somber chords, the

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<v Speaker 1>echo of a composer confronting his own mortality, a fitting

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<v Speaker 1>if tragic coda to a career that reshaped Western music.

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<v Speaker 1>In the end, Mozart's life, marked by laughter and sickness,

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<v Speaker 1>creative brilliance, and bizarre episodes, serves as a testament to

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<v Speaker 1>the multifaceted nature of human genius. These strange vignettes do

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<v Speaker 1>not diminish his achievements. Rather, they add depth to the

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<v Speaker 1>story of a man whose music continues to captivate the world.

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<v Speaker 1>I hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet

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<v Speaker 1>of Curiosities. This show was created by me Aaron Mankey

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<v Speaker 1>in partnership with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the

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<v Speaker 1>Grim and Mild team, and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn

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<v Speaker 1>more about the show and the people who make it

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<v Speaker 1>over at Grimandmild dot com slash Curiosities. You'll also find

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<v Speaker 1>a link to the official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book

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<v Speaker 1>available in bookstores and online, as well as ebook and audiobook.

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<v Speaker 1>And if you're looking for an ad free option, consider

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<v Speaker 1>joining our Patreon. It's all the same stories, but without

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<v Speaker 1>the interruption for a small monthly fee. Learn more and

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<v Speaker 1>sign up over at patreon dot com. Slash Grimandmild, and

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<v Speaker 1>until next time, stay curious. H