Portland Public Library

Mozart at the gateway to his fortune, serving the Emperor, 1788-1791, Christoph Wolff

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-227) and index

individual biography

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Mozart at the gateway to his fortune

bibliography

755705003

Christoph Wolff

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 [Publisher description]

Prologue : Mozart, 1788 to 1791 : an inevitable end or a new beginning? -- Imperial appointments : Mozart and Salieri. Time for change ; Prolific under discouraging conditions ; Toward spirited partnership -- Explorations outside of Vienna. Traveling again ; Frankfurt, 1790 : the self-styled ambassador ; Leipzig and Berlin, 1789 ; Bach circles at home and abroad -- Grand ambitions : expanding compositional horizons. A musical announcement ; A garden apartment for a bold start ; The notion of "imperial style" -- "Vera opera" and The Magic Flute. What's in a name? ; More than an Egyptian opera ; The language of "grand opera" -- "The higher pathetic style of church music" and the Requiem. An auspicious prospect ; A timely commission ; Envisioning a new kind of sacred music -- "Composed just not yet written" : music never to be heard. A self-assured prodigy ; Work in progress : the fragments ; Windows ajar : fleeting sounds of chamber music ; Epilogue -- Appendix : Currency and monetary values