Peter Russell - Delphi Masterworks of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Illustrated)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

(1756-1791)

Contents

Delphi Classics 2017

Version 1

Delphi Great Composers

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

By Delphi Classics, 2017

Delphi Great Composers - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

Delphi Classics, 2017.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78656 120 6

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

Contact: sales@delphiclassics.com

www.delphiclassics.com

An eighteenth century depiction of Salzburg, Mozarts birthplace

Salzburg today

No. 9 Getreidegasse, Salzburg, Austria the house in which Mozart was born

The birthplace in 1860

The birthplace today

The Masterworks: A Short Guide

In this section of the eBook there are concise introductions for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts most celebrated works. Interactive links to popular streaming services are provided at the beginning and end of each introduction, allowing you to listen to the music you are reading about. The text is also accompanied with contextual images to supplement your reading and listening.

There are various options for streaming music, with most paid services charged competitively at the same rate and usually offering a similar range of albums. Various streaming services offer a free trial ( Google Play Music , Amazon Music Unlimited and Apple Music ) and Spotify offers a free service after you watch a short advertisement. Amazon Prime members can also enjoy a wide range of free content from Amazon Prime Music . If you do not wish to subscribe to a streaming service, we have included YouTube links for free videos of the classical pieces.

Please note: different eReading devices serve hyperlinks in different ways, which means we cannot always link you directly to your chosen service. However, the links are intended to take you to the best option available for the piece of music you are reading about.

High-resolution scores for the music would be too large in size to include in an eBook; however, we have provided links to free scores available at IMSLP , the International Music Score Library Project, which can be accessed from the SCORES links in each chapter.

Now, settle back and relax as you immerse yourself in the music and life of Mozart...

AMAZON APPLE GOOGLE SPOTIFY YOUTUBE SCORES

The worlds most famous composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on 27 January 1756 to Leopold Mozart (17191787) and Anna Maria, ne Pertl (17201778) in Salzburg, Austria, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. He was the youngest of seven children, five of whom died in infancy. His sole remaining sibling, an elder sister named Maria Anna Mozart (17511829), was nicknamed by the family as Nannerl. Leopold Mozart, a native of Augsburg, Germany, was a minor composer and an experienced teacher. In 1743, he had been appointed as fourth violinist in the musical establishment of Count Leopold Anton von Firmian, the ruling Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. He later became the orchestras deputy Kapellmeister and during the year of his sons birth, he published a violin textbook, Versuch einer grndlichen Violinschule , which achieved some success.

From a very early age Mozart was, understandably, immersed in the study of music. When his sister Nannerl was seven, she was already taking keyboard lessons with her father, with the three-year-old Mozart looking eagerly on. By the time he was four, he was already learning to play the same pieces played by his sister on the harpsichord. Years later, after her brothers death, Nannerl wrote about this formative time: Wolfgang often spent much time at the clavier, picking out thirds, which he was ever striking, and his pleasure showed that it sounded good.... In the fourth year of his age his father, for a game as it were, began to teach him a few minuets and pieces at the clavier.... He could play it faultlessly and with the greatest delicacy, and keeping exactly in time.... At the age of five, he was already composing little pieces, which he played to his father who wrote them down.

The Nannerl Notenbuch (Nannerls Music Book) is a collection of pieces composed chiefly by Leopold Mozart from 1759 to about 1764. They were written for Nannerl to learn and play, though Wolfgang was soon encouraged to add to the book, which now preserves his earliest known compositions. It contains simple short keyboard (typically harpsichord) pieces, suitable for beginners. Many of the works are anonymous minuets, some by Leopold and others inspired by the composers Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and the Austrian composer Georg Christoph Wagenseil. Originally containing forty-eight bound pages of music paper, though only thirty-six pages remain, the notebook also includes technical exercises, a table of intervals and several modulating figured basses. The collection offers an intriguing window into how Leopold approached the teaching of music to his genius son. The tables of intervals reveal that he taught music theory to his children from the start, as well as actual composition, by means of a given bass line, a melody to be varied, a melody to be continued and a structural model.