Wolfgang Amadé Mozart

Explores Mozart's life and works from many new perspectives.

Georg Knepler (Author), David Blake (Foreword by), J. Bradford Robinson (Translated by)

9780521588232, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 March 1997

412 pages, 18 b/w illus. 191 music examples
23.4 x 15.6 x 2.1 cm, 0.685 kg

'... this is a book to be read enthusiastically from cover to cover, and to return to frequently ... a notable addition to the Mozart literature.' The Observer

Described in Germany as the 'most thought-provoking' book of the bicentennial year, Georg Knepler's acclaimed study of Mozart is now available in paperback. The book explores Mozart's life and works from many new perspectives, providing fresh insights into his music and the tempestuous times through which he lived. Based on a close reading of the family correspondence and a careful consideration of Mozart's entire musical output, the book sheds new light on the composer's creative psyche, his political leanings, his relation to the thoughts and currents of the Enlightenment, and the underlying basis of his musical expression.

1. Outline of a remarkable life
2. From child prodigy to genius
3. 'Expressing convictions and thoughts ... in notes'
4. Mozart's reading habits
5. Making things significant
6. The major-minor opposition
7. Mozart in the eyes of posterity
8. A turning point
9. Taking stock of Salzburg
10. The move to Vienna
11. Other remarkable lives
12. 'Mozart of the Wohltätigkeit'
13. Convictions and thoughts: a closer look
14. A traditionalist?
15. The question of imitation
16. Zerlina and the three modes of music
17. The 'genuine natural forms' of music
18. Musical portraits
19. How opera was dramatised by the symphony
20. How instrumental music was semanticized by vocal music
21. Conclusions from endings
22. Building blocks and principles of construction
23. 'A hostile fate - though only in Vienna'
24. Mozart in his day and ours.

Subject Areas: Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups [AVH]