Well, pete, if only we could resurrect Michelangelo and Tintoretto and ask 'em. I have a feeling that they'd answer, to make a bob or two out of my talent. Why did Mozart compose The Magic Flute? To make his living, that's why. He was hopeless with money and was in debt at the time. The Beethoven late quartets, the most sublime music ever composed, were written to a commission. No guessing about this then, eh, pete?