Mozart: A LifeMozart: A Life is based on an unsurpassed knowledge of the documentary sources, including numerous documents that have not previously appeared in any biography of the composer. It offers a beautifully written and absorbing narrative of Mozart's life, from his birth in 1756 and childhood in Salzburg to the extraordinary decade of acclaimed performances in the capitals of Europe, where he was honored by royal families and adoring audiences, to his emergence as a prolific young composer, his status as Salzburg's favorite son in the 1770s, his conquest of Vienna, his marriage there, his financial vicissitudes, his later journeys to Prague and Germany, his deepening melancholia, his final triumphs, and his premature death in 1791. Narrative chapters alternate with rich and imaginative in-depth explorations of issues crucial to understanding Mozart - his antic disposition, his penchant for the bawdy, his enigmatic Zoroastran riddles, his perplexing adoption of the code name "Adam", his brilliance as an impresario, his tangled finances, his Masonic creed, and his rending contest with his father, which continued to shadow him even after Leopold Mozart's death in 1787. And in a series of highly original chapters, Solomon probes such musical topics as the finding of Mozart's personal voice in his early serenades; the innovative character of his slow movements; the blend of strangeness and ecstasy in some of his most beautiful instrumental works; and the disquieting effect of his later operas. |
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MOZART: A Life
User Review - KirkusFinally, a Mozart biography that evokes a believable portrait of a striving, powerfully creative human being. Solomon, author of the ground-breaking life of Beethoven (1977), now turns his attention ... Read full review
Mozart: a life
User Review - Not Available - Book VerdictSolomon (music, Stonybrook Univ. and Harvard) follows up his well-received Beethoven (LJ 11/15/77) with another ambitious biography. The author explores Mozart's life and works with a wealth of facts ... Read full review
Contents
The Myth of the Eternal Child | 3 |
BEGINNINGS | 19 |
Leopold Mozart | 21 |
Copyright | |
22 other sections not shown
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Common terms and phrases
Aloysia Andante April archbishop aria Augsburg August B-flat beauty Berlin biography Briefe child clavier Cliff Eisen composer composition concert Constanze Mozart Count court creativity death December Deutsch-Paumgartner Don Giovanni ducats Duschek early earnings Emperor Erich father February florins Franz Frau Freemasonry Friedrich friends H. C. Robbins Landon Haydn Herr hope Ibid Idomeneo Jahn January Johann Joseph journey July June kapellmeister Karl keyboard later Leipzig Leopold Mozart lodge London Mannheim March Marianne von Berchtold marriage Masonic mother Mozart wrote Mozart's letters Munich musicians Niemetschek Nissen November nozze di Figaro October opera Paris performance perhaps Piano Concerto Plath played Prague Prince Puchberg Requiem riddles Salzburg September 1778 serenade sister son's Sonata String Quartet style Symphony theater tion trans translation amended Tyson Utters Vienna Viennese violin W. A. Mozart wanted Weber wife Wolfgang Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Plath write written York Zaslaw Zauberflote
Bibliographic information
| Title | Mozart: A Life |
| Author | Maynard Solomon |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | HarperCollinsPublishers, 1995 |
| Original from | the University of Michigan |
| Digitized | May 12, 2010 |
| ISBN | 0060190469, 9780060190460 |
| Length | 640 pages |
| Subjects | › Biography & Autobiography / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |