SALIERI Are you sure you can't leave that music, and come back again? I have other things you might like.
CONSTANZE That's very tempting, but it's impossible, I'm afraid. Wolfi would be frantic if he found those were missing. You see, they're all originals.
SALIERI Originals?
CONSTANZE Yes.
SALIERI These are originals?
CONSTANZE Yes, sir. He doesn't make copies.
OLD SALIERI Astounding! It was actually beyond belief. These were first and only drafts of music yet they showed no corrections of any kind. Not one. Do you realize what that meant? He'd simply put down music already finished in his head. Page after page of it, as if he was just taking dictation. And music finished as no music is ever finished.
The music begins to sound under the following:
OLD SALIERI Displace one note and there would be diminishment. Displace one phrase, and the structure would fall. It was clear to me. That sound I had heard in the Archbishop's palace had been no accident. Here again was the very voice of God! I was staring through the cage of those meticulous ink- strokes at an absolute, inimitable beauty.
CONSTANZE Is it no good?
SALIERI It is miraculous.
CONSTANZE Oh yes. He's really proud of his work.
CONSTANZE So, will you help us?