255:
238:
lived, composed, and corresponded. Mozart was, of course, a supreme musical genius, ... but he was also a man, living in day-to-day world of traditions, practices, and constraints. ... Thus my readings of his letters and those of his family will often deal with quite mundane contextual matters, such as days of the week, exchange rates, and current events. ... Often enough, we shall find that the implications of such simple matters have been overlooked.
118:
1193:
67:
133:(where Mozart had lived for much of his life up to age 25). Much of the Nissen biography included what had been previously written by Schlichtegroll, Niemetschek, and Rochlitz, but Nissen also had access to a great number of Mozart family letters given him by Nannerl. Nissen died in 1826 having only written a small portion of the work, and it was completed (1828) from his notes by others.
33:
1231:
1219:
232:
Mozart lived his life in complex society and culture, where many of the details of ordinary life were very different from the way they are today. Some modern Mozart scholars have attempted to increase our understanding by delving into the available information about Mozart's own life context. Dexter
62:
sent Carl, the elder son, to live with him from 1792-97. Through these relationships with the family, Niemetschek gathered the information needed to write a biography of Mozart. His main source was
Constanze and Mozart's friends in Prague. Therefore, his emphasis was on Mozart's years in Vienna and
319:
There is little doubt that successive generations of scholars have been sincere in their views of the composer, each claiming to be more 'objective' than the last, stripping away the veneer of speculation to arrive at 'the real man'. It is sobering to realize that these different opinions about
237:
Careful contextual readings of
Viennese letters have been few, perhaps because Mozart is such a towering figure that most historians and musicians have tended to see him as the sun around which all else revolved, and they have therefore paid little attention to the mundane contexts in which he
113:
in 1803. According to
William Stafford, the work is "almost entirely plagiarized from Schlichtegroll, Niemetschek, and perhaps Rochlitz"; Stafford does not trust any other material that appears in this work, though he notes that some of it was adopted for appearance in later Mozart biographies.
137:
writes: "Sometimes Nissen corrects the chunks he borrows, and occasionally he tells the reader that he has done this ... unfortunately, he does not always correct and revise in this way. Assembling his narrative with scissors and paste, he allows contradictions to creep in."
270:
The composer's deification in the pantheon of German 'masters' following his death, and his subsequent association with burgeoning German national identity, led to hagiography. When the holes in Mozart's biography needed plugging, rumor and imagination filled the gaps.
23:
Shortly after Mozart's death, biographers began to piece together accounts of his life, relying on the testimony of those still living who knew him, as well as surviving correspondence. The creation of Mozart biographies has been an activity of scholars ever since.
93:(AMZ), a journal published by Breitkopf & Hartel. Motivated by the wish to publicize the company's edition in progress of the composer's works, he published a number of anecdotes about Mozart, many of them vivid and entertaining. However, since the research of
144:
and Mary
Novello made a pilgrimage to Salzburg in 1829, to visit Mozart's surviving relatives and to provide financial support to Nannerl (whom they mistakenly imagined to be impoverished). They did interviews of Nannerl, Constanze, and Mozart's sister-in-law
176:
produced (English version 1965) a widely cited "documentary" biography, in which most of the material is reprinted documentary evidence, tied together by
Deutsch's own commentary. A follow-up volume with additional documents was published in 1991 by Eisen.
19:
died after a short illness on 5 December 1791, aged 35. His reputation as a composer, already strong during his lifetime, rose rapidly in the years after his death, and he became (as he has remained to this day) one of the most celebrated of all composers.
128:
was the second husband of Mozart's wife
Constanze. Both he and Constanze had a strong interest in Mozart biography. They were able to pursue this interest following Nissen's retirement from the Danish civil service, when the couple moved to
97:
in 1991, Mozart scholars have considered
Rochlitz's stories so contaminated by Rochlitz's own fictional additions that they must be considered completely unreliable. They continue to play a role in forming the popular image of the composer.
224:
was written; also the surprising information that Mozart was living in spacious, expensive suburban quarters at a time when conventional scholarship asserted that he had moved to the suburbs to cope with poverty. A web site launched by
920:
63:
his many trips to Prague. Based on research by
Austrian scholar Walther Brauneis, much doubt has recently been cast on the veracity of Niemetschek's claim that he actually made Mozart's personal acquaintance.
43:
was a teacher and a scholar who published Mozart's obituary in 1793. The obituary was part of a volume of obituaries referred to as
Nekrolog. The two had never met. Most of the information was obtained from
200:
An important 20th century trend was the use of careful analysis of both handwriting and watermarks to provide more accurate (and often, surprising) dates for the works Mozart composed. Two standouts were
213:
writes, "the very fact that the two methods have on almost every occasion borne each other out strongly implies that each of them is actually more precise than its protagonist could dare claim."
298:, inserting footnotes in Hermann Abert's book, expresses sharp skepticism about Constanze's account of the end of Mozart's life, contradicting the more credulous view of Abert; for details see
216:
21st century scholarship has made clear that the old government archives and parish records have by no means been fully exhausted for the purpose of finding out new facts about Mozart. Work by
950:
294:
had strong motivation to paint a tragic picture of her husband's final decline and demise, since she was seeking both a pension from the
Emperor and income from memorial benefit concerts.
58:
was a citizen of Prague, a teacher and writer. Niemetschek allegedly met with Mozart and claimed to have been acquainted with Mozart's friends in Prague. After Mozart's death, his widow
436:(2006), "»Mademoiselle Jeunehomme« Zur Lösung eines Mozart-Rätsels", Mozart Experiment Aufklärung, (Essays for the Mozart Exhibition 2006) Da Ponte Institut, Vienna, pp. 423–429.
304:. The content of Mozart's letters also receives a very different interpretation under the view that they often reflect a desire to placate, and reduce the alarm of, his stern father
290:
Recent scholarship has also shown an increased reluctance to take historical documents at face value when their author had strong reasons to deviate from the truth. For instance,
892:
814:
275:
A possible instance of romanticizing is the belief that Mozart wrote his last symphonies not with the goal of performances and income, but as an "appeal to eternity" (
1127:
912:
254:
960:
262:
Another trend in modern Mozart biography is to reject certain earlier claims as credulous and romanticized. The older tradition of scholarship is criticized by
1163:
955:
945:
940:
935:
242:
In connection with this effort to understand the context of Mozart's life, Edge approvingly cites the work of Halliwell (1998) as well as studies by
1168:
161:. Jahn brought a new standard of scholarship to the field. It is still active as a scholarly document, circulating in versions revised first by
857:
807:
783:
757:
672:
621:
526:
1251:
229:
and David Black continues the tradition established by Deutsch and Eisen, with a compilation of newly discovered or noticed documents.
887:
712:
691:
644:
71:
52:, a friend of the family in Mozart's early years. Therefore, what Schlichtegroll knew and wrote about was the period before Vienna.
516:
1196:
970:
965:
902:
800:
89:
445:
433:
243:
221:
217:
1209:
1057:
749:
882:
1158:
209:, who mastered the exacting methodology for interpreting watermarks. The two often obtained converging evidence;
49:
1256:
1051:
847:
284:
40:
1178:
930:
823:
55:
16:
1235:
1132:
842:
149:, but never converted this material into a biography. The diaries were discovered and published in 1955.
125:
1122:
897:
867:
185:
1069:
1004:
997:
991:
872:
1063:
975:
729:
173:
84:
311:
Revisionism is, perhaps, likely to continue. Assessing the whole tradition of Mozart biography,
1039:
1033:
862:
779:
753:
708:
687:
668:
640:
617:
589:
522:
180:
A great number of additional biographies exist, of which notably recent ones include those by
45:
1223:
1137:
1087:
1045:
925:
852:
741:
734:
291:
181:
59:
449:
1142:
877:
767:
654:
300:
276:
189:
141:
94:
1027:
657:(1991). "The Rochlitz Anecdotes: Issues of Authenticity in Early Mozart Biography". In
554:
312:
305:
202:
117:
1245:
1173:
1099:
1093:
1019:
632:
580:
576:
416:
263:
210:
162:
1105:
1081:
1075:
146:
102:
628:
Contains extensive discussion of the origin of the first three Mozart biographies.
66:
772:
702:
662:
611:
470:
658:
598:
466:
399:
295:
280:
226:
166:
206:
745:
158:
32:
792:
404:
New Mozart Documents: A Supplement to O.E. Deutsch's Documentary Biography
130:
419:. "Preface: Mozart scholarship and the musical world over 35 years". In
605:(Ph.D. dissertation). Los Angeles: University of Southern California.
110:
684:
Mozart in Revolt: Strategies of Resistance, Mischief, and Deception
253:
116:
65:
31:
320:
Mozart as a person are all based on a very similar set of data.
157:
A very important Mozart biography was that published in 1856 by
796:
308:; this view is put forth, for instance, by Schroeder (1999).
220:
has established the correct name of the person for whom the
121:
Georg Nikolaus Nissen. Painting by Ferdinand Jagemann, 1809
1207:
1151:
1115:
1018:
984:
911:
830:
637:
Wolfgang Amadè Mozart: Essays on His Life and Music
771:
733:
613:The Mozart Family: Four Lives in a Social Context
372:
370:
283:on factual grounds; for detailed discussion see
808:
8:
557:. "Mozart's personality and creativity". In
454:Newsletter of the Mozart Society of America
279:); a claim that has been argued against by
981:
815:
801:
793:
165:, then by the contemporary Mozart scholar
778:(1st ed.). New York: HarperCollins.
704:The Mozart Myths: A Critical Reassessment
541:
376:
349:
521:. Oxford University Press. p. 234.
387:
361:
285:Symphony No. 40 (Mozart) § Premiere
134:
36:Friedrich Schlichtegroll; artist unknown
1214:
752:. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
707:. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
585:, masonic opera, and other fairy tales"
336:
329:
450:"Mozart's Apartment on the Alsergrund"
406:. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
558:
420:
7:
686:. New Haven: Yale University Press.
502:
490:
196:Adding to the documentary evidence
14:
101:I. T. F. C. Arnold, an author of
72:Veit Hanns Schnorr von Carolsfeld
1229:
1217:
1192:
1191:
1052:Maria Anna Thekla Mozart (Bäsle)
205:, who analyzed handwriting; and
70:Friedrich Rochlitz, portrait by
1169:Beethoven–Haydn–Mozart Memorial
736:Mozart: A Documentary Biography
518:Mozart, His Character, His Work
250:Revisionism in Mozart biography
90:Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung
469:; David Black (28 June 2021).
1:
616:. New York: Clarendon Press.
75:
1078:(paternal great-grandfather)
921:Concert arias, songs, canons
1252:Biographies about musicians
1058:Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart
1040:Maria Anna Mozart (Nannerl)
667:. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
639:. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
423:, pp. xiii-xvi (xiii).
1273:
701:Stafford, William (1993).
603:Mozart's Viennese copyists
1187:
1164:Mozart in popular culture
976:Relationship with G minor
682:Schroeder, David (1999).
515:Einstein, Alfred (1962).
50:Johann Andreas Schachtner
893:Appearance and character
610:Halliwell, Ruth (1998).
41:Friedrich Schlichtegroll
1179:Mozart Monument, Vienna
824:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
471:"Mozart: New Documents"
56:Franz Xaver Niemetschek
48:, Mozart's sister, and
17:Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
1072:(paternal grandfather)
561:, pp. 21-34 (21).
322:
273:
259:
240:
192:, and Ruth Halliwell.
122:
87:was the editor of the
81:
37:
317:
268:
257:
235:
126:Georg Nikolaus Nissen
120:
69:
35:
971:Compositional method
951:Works for solo piano
222:Ninth Piano Concerto
186:Volkmar Braunbehrens
1070:Johann Georg Mozart
1005:Neue Mozart-Ausgabe
998:Alte Mozart-Ausgabe
730:Deutsch, Otto Erich
348:See, for instance,
172:The Mozart scholar
1064:Karl Thomas Mozart
260:
174:Otto Erich Deutsch
123:
85:Friedrich Rochlitz
82:
38:
1205:
1204:
1034:Anna Maria Mozart
1014:
1013:
785:978-0-06-019046-0
759:978-0-8047-0233-1
674:978-0-19-816191-2
623:978-0-19-816371-8
590:Acta Musicologica
528:978-0-19-500732-9
153:Later biographies
28:Early biographers
1264:
1234:
1233:
1232:
1222:
1221:
1220:
1213:
1195:
1194:
1084:(brother-in-law)
1046:Constanze Mozart
992:Köchel catalogue
982:
966:Violin concertos
817:
810:
803:
794:
789:
777:
768:Solomon, Maynard
763:
742:Peter Branscombe
740:. Translated by
739:
718:
697:
678:
655:Solomon, Maynard
650:
627:
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292:Constanze Mozart
182:Marcia Davenport
80:
77:
1272:
1271:
1267:
1266:
1265:
1263:
1262:
1261:
1257:Mozart scholars
1242:
1241:
1240:
1236:Classical music
1230:
1228:
1218:
1216:
1208:
1206:
1201:
1183:
1147:
1128:Catholic Church
1111:
1108:(sister-in-law)
1102:(sister-in-law)
1096:(sister-in-law)
1090:(mother-in-law)
1010:
980:
946:Piano concertos
907:
826:
821:
786:
766:
760:
728:
725:
723:Further reading
715:
700:
694:
681:
675:
653:
647:
631:
624:
609:
597:
583:Die Zauberflöte
575:
572:
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555:Steptoe, Andrew
553:
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536:
529:
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446:Lorenz, Michael
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368:
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335:
331:
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301:Death of Mozart
277:Alfred Einstein
258:Alfred Einstein
252:
198:
190:Maynard Solomon
155:
135:Stafford (1993)
109:, published in
95:Maynard Solomon
78:
30:
12:
11:
5:
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1079:
1073:
1067:
1061:
1055:
1054:(first cousin)
1049:
1043:
1037:
1031:
1028:Leopold Mozart
1024:
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986:
979:
978:
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931:Horn concertos
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784:
774:Mozart: A Life
764:
758:
724:
721:
720:
719:
713:
698:
692:
679:
673:
664:Mozart Studies
651:
645:
635:, ed. (1996).
633:Sadie, Stanley
629:
622:
607:
595:
593:(76): 193–219.
577:Buch, David J.
571:
568:
566:
565:
546:
542:Schroeder 1999
534:
527:
507:
505:, p. 194.
495:
483:
458:
438:
434:Michael Lorenz
426:
408:
392:
380:
377:Halliwell 1998
366:
354:
350:Halliwell 1998
341:
328:
326:
323:
313:Andrew Steptoe
251:
248:
244:Michael Lorenz
218:Michael Lorenz
203:Wolfgang Plath
197:
194:
154:
151:
107:Mozart's Geist
29:
26:
13:
10:
9:
6:
4:
3:
2:
1269:
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1174:Mozart effect
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1100:Aloysia Weber
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1094:Josepha Weber
1092:
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1088:Cäcilia Weber
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714:0-8047-2222-6
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693:9780300075427
689:
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646:9780198164432
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493:, p. 18.
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439:
435:
430:
427:
422:
418:
417:Stanley Sadie
412:
409:
405:
401:
396:
393:
390:, p. 25.
389:
388:Stafford 1993
384:
381:
378:
373:
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367:
364:, p. 19.
363:
362:Stafford 1993
358:
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264:David J. Buch
256:
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234:
233:Edge writes,
230:
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163:Hermann Abert
160:
152:
150:
148:
147:Sophie Haibel
143:
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127:
119:
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103:Gothic novels
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68:
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61:
57:
53:
51:
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42:
34:
27:
25:
21:
18:
1159:Georg Nissen
1106:Sophie Weber
1082:Joseph Lange
1076:Franz Mozart
1003:
996:
898:Pet starling
837:
773:
750:Jeremy Noble
735:
703:
683:
663:
659:Eisen, Cliff
636:
612:
602:
599:Edge, Dexter
588:
582:
559:Sadie (1996)
549:
537:
517:
510:
498:
486:
474:. Retrieved
461:
453:
441:
429:
421:Sadie (1996)
411:
403:
400:Eisen, Cliff
395:
383:
357:
344:
337:Solomon 1991
332:
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106:
100:
88:
83:
54:
39:
22:
15:
1133:Freemasonry
858:Nationality
838:Biographies
467:Dexter Edge
315:concludes:
296:Cliff Eisen
281:Neal Zaslaw
227:Dexter Edge
167:Cliff Eisen
79: 1820
1246:Categories
1116:Influences
961:Symphonies
848:Grand tour
843:Birthplace
570:References
207:Alan Tyson
1224:Biography
1123:Beethoven
868:Scatology
863:Residence
831:Biography
746:Eric Blom
503:Buch 2004
491:Edge 2001
159:Otto Jahn
60:Constanze
1197:Category
1042:(sister)
1036:(mother)
1030:(father)
985:Editions
873:Smallpox
770:(1995).
732:(1965).
601:(2001).
579:(2004).
131:Salzburg
105:, wrote
1210:Portals
1152:Related
1143:Salieri
956:Sonatas
661:(ed.).
448:(2010)
402:(1991)
306:Leopold
142:Vincent
46:Nannerl
1048:(wife)
1020:Family
941:Operas
936:Masses
926:Dances
888:Prague
883:Berlin
782:
756:
711:
690:
671:
643:
620:
525:
476:9 June
266:thus:
111:Erfurt
1138:Haydn
1066:(son)
1060:(son)
913:Music
903:Death
878:Italy
456:14:2.
325:Notes
211:Sadie
853:Name
780:ISBN
754:ISBN
709:ISBN
688:ISBN
669:ISBN
641:ISBN
618:ISBN
523:ISBN
478:2022
1248::
748:;
744:;
587:.
452:,
369:^
287:.
246:.
188:,
184:,
169:.
76:c.
74:,
1212::
816:e
809:t
802:v
788:.
762:.
717:.
696:.
677:.
649:.
626:.
581:"
563:.
544:.
531:.
480:.
352:.
339:.
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