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Mozart at the Gateway to His Fortune: Serving the Emperor, 1788-1791
"I now stand at the gateway to my fortune," Mozart wrote in a letter of 1790. He had entered into the service of Emperor Joseph II of Austria two years earlier as Imperial-Royal Chamber Composer--a salaried appointment with a distinguished title and few obligations. His extraordinary subsequent output, beginning with the three final great symphonies from the summer of 1788, invites a reassessment of this entire period of his life. Readers will gain a new appreciation and understanding of the composer's works from that time without the usual emphasis on his imminent death. The author discusses the major biographical and musical implications of the royal appointment and explores Mozart's "imperial style" on the basis of his major compositions--keyboard, chamber, orchestral, operatic, and sacred--and focuses on the large, unfamiliar works he left incomplete. This new perspective points to an energetic, fresh beginning for the composer and a promising creative and financial future.
Book Details
- Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
- Publish Date: May 21st, 2012
- Pages: 272
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 8.30in - 5.60in - 0.90in - 0.88lb
- EAN: 9780393050707
- Categories: • Music• Genres & Styles - Classical
About the Author
Wolff, Christoph: - Christoph Wolff is Adams University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University, where he taught from 1976 to 2012. A former director of the Bach Archive in Leipzig, Germany, he is the author of numerous works of music history including Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography, and Mozart at the Gateway to His Fortune: Serving the Emperor, 1788-1791, winner of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award. Wolff lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Praise for this book
At last, we have a text that values the relationships between theory and practice, embraces best practice ideals in the context of real-world uncertainty, and celebrates eclectic therapeutic approaches for aging adults and their families. Piercy guides the reader through an array of complex clinical problems, offering effective interventions. If you work with older adults and their families, this text isessential! --Shirley S. Travis, PhD, APRN, FAAN, Dean and Professor, College of Health and Human Services, George Mason University
This book is a must-read for all graduate students preparing for clinical careers as well as seasoned therapists and other human service professionals working with aging families. Each carefully written chapter describes contemporary issues that frequently challenge the mental health of older adults and provides sound, innovative strategies for working through these concerns with individuals, couples, and families. --Karen A. Roberto, PhD, Professor and Director, Center for Gerontology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
A wonderful merging of research findings and practical guidance. --Peter V. Rabins, MD, MPH, Professor of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
In this enthralling tale of Mozart's imperial appointment and his late torrent of compositions, Christoph Wolff argues, with compelling authority, that those musical triumphs--including the Requiem--point not to an autumnal resignation but toward a propulsive future of complex genius. --Helen Vendler
I was so excited to read Christoph Wolff's remarkable new book, which in one fell swoop dispels myths that arose after Mozart's untimely death. Through his meticulous scholarship, Wolff allows us to reimagine the composer at the apex of his artistic powers and with creative and entrepreneurial plans in place to ensure his continuing artistic output as well as his financial stability. A beloved scholar, Professor Wolff proves his point with revelatory insights that take us into the inner workings of this great composer's mind. --Yo-Yo Ma
Christoph Wolff's remarkable and splendidly readable book presents a new and welcome picture of Mozart's final years. Without resorting to polemics, it disposes of myths and misconceptions by offering facts and sound judgment. Wolff is a master of minute scholarly research that comprises the circumstances of Mozart's life as well as the music itself. Countering the widespread concept of a decline of Mozart's powers, he perceives his latest works, finished and unfinished, as being the point of a new departure--cruelly curtailed by Mozart's death. I shall listen to the Magic Flute, the Requiem, the clarinet quintet, and the E-flat masterpieces--string trio and string quintet--with sharpened ears. --Alfred Brendel
For years I've been wondering and the question becomes ever more cogent, what puzzling new language Mozart used for his three symphonies and even the Magic Flute. It is a new Mozart, and we cannot simply continue as before. Why? What is it? What does it mean today? To the performer, to the listener? Now I found a helping hand in Christoph Wolff's unexpectedly novel book. We musicians, used to helping ourselves, gratefully embrace his assistance. --Nikolaus Harnoncourt
I was so excited to read Christoph Wolff s remarkable new book, which in one fell swoop dispels myths that arose after Mozart s untimely death. Through his meticulous scholarship, Wolff allows us to reimagine the composer at the apex of his artistic powers and with creative and entrepreneurial plans in place to ensure his continuing artistic output as well as his financial stability. A beloved scholar, Professor Wolff proves his point with revelatory insights that take us into the inner workings of this great composer s mind. --Yo-Yo Ma"
Christoph Wolff s remarkable and splendidly readable book presents a new and welcome picture of Mozart s final years. Without resorting to polemics, it disposes of myths and misconceptions by offering facts and sound judgment. Wolff is a master of minute scholarly research that comprises the circumstances of Mozart s life as well as the music itself. Countering the widespread concept of a decline of Mozart s powers, he perceives his latest works, finished and unfinished, as being the point of a new departure cruelly curtailed by Mozart s death. I shall listen to the Magic Flute, the Requiem, the clarinet quintet, and the E-flat masterpieces string trio and string quintet with sharpened ears. --Alfred Brendel"
In this enthralling tale of Mozart s imperial appointment and his late torrent of compositions, Christoph Wolff argues, with compelling authority, that those musical triumphs including the Requiem point not to an autumnal resignation but toward a propulsive future of complex genius. --Helen Vendler"
Any book by the eminent scholar Christoph Wolff comes with the guarantee of fresh musical insights and a magisterial command of the sources. His latest book on Mozart is no exception. It will help to demystify and transform our understanding of the composer s final years. --Sir John Eliot Gardiner"
For years I ve been wondering and the question becomes ever more cogent, what puzzling new language Mozart used for his three symphonies and even the Magic Flute. It is a new Mozart, and we cannot simply continue as before. Why? What is it? What does it mean today? To the performer, to the listener? Now I found a helping hand in Christoph Wolff s unexpectedly novel book. We musicians, used to helping ourselves, gratefully embrace his assistance. --Nikolaus Harnoncourt"
A truly different and exciting look at the last years of Mozart s life. I was especially captivated by the last chapter Mr. Wolff s penetrating comments on Mozart s compositional method are illuminating and also somehow make his genius more personal for us. --Emanuel Ax"