Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – författare

Få konstnärer är lika mytomspunna som Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Redan som tre-åring skrev han sitt första verk och vid sju-års ålder kunde han utan några problem spela vilket stycke som helst direkt från notbladet. Det är den bild som för det mesta förmedlas av det musikaliska geniet. Men en annan värld öppnas upp i hans brev. En vanligare, mer jordnära person får här träda fram. En själ fylld av tvivel, sorg, glädje och kärlek. -

'They wanted me to give a concert; I wanted them to beg me. And so they did. I gave a concert.'Entertaining, touching and sharp-tongued letters between the great eighteenth-century composer and his mentor father.

A selection of Mozart's letters, translated into English, complete with notes, linking commentary and chronology.

Mozart''s remarkable life was well and richly documented in letters: his own and those concerning him written by others. This volume brings together a fascinating selection, giving us a detailed portrait of the composer''s life and times. Here are letters to and from Mozart''s domineering father, Leopold, the earliest of which, addressed to a friend, describes the six-year-old Mozart''s accomplishments. There is also a letter sent to the Royal Society in London from one of its members describing an astonishing encounter with the eight-year-old prodigy. Here are letters from the adolescent Mozart to his mother and sister; adoring, protective missives to his wife; and, from his later years, letter after letter to friends, family, former patrons, and fellow musicians begging for financial help.Mozart''s correspondence is full of details that illuminate the quotidien aspects of his days, reveal the great joys and burdens of his musical genius, and provide us with a lively account of the musical politics in the courts and opera houses of eighteenth-century Europe. Finally, in a letter written by Mozart''s sister-in-law, this splendid epistolary portrait of the great composer is completed with a deeply moving account of his last hours.

This study has been revised to include new finds about the composition dates of several Mozart works. A new bibliography and a collation with the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe edition of letters, edited by O.E.Deutsch, W.A.Bauer and J.H.Eibl: Baerenreiter, 1962-75 is also included.

Music examples and charts illustrate the analyses, and each essay is fully annotated by the editor. in some cases, the results of the original research by the editor or by others working in the field are published here for the first time. Much of the material has never before appeared in English.A score embodying the best available musical text.Historical background—what is known of the circumstances surrounding the origin of the work, including (where relevant) original source material.A detailed analysis of the music, by the editor of the volume or another well-known scholar.Other significant analytic essays and critical comments, exposing the student to a variety of opinions about the music.