Patrick,
Please calm down. Piero Melagrani was a teacher of Political Science who studied the subject of whether Mozart learned music from Padre Martini no more than you, Patrick Bateman, have done. Melagrani merely repeated what others had said before him. Countless times. Providing no evidence whatsoever.
But if you have some evidence of the 14 years old Mozart learning composition in Bologna from Padre Martini please provide it here. None exists. It has never existed. And I know a few music articles posted on this thread speaking of this very subject which you and the entire musical public appear not to have read.
It is surely an amazing fact that in more than 200 years of Mozart related research (which is everywhere seen as being presided over by experts and which is patronised and sponsored by major corporations) nobody ever examined or wrote on the musical contents of the operatic score of ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ (1786) used at its premiere on 1st May 1786 - but which is held today in two separated volumes in the Austrian National Library there in Vienna. (Quite a fate for one of the most famous operas in musical history, you may agree !).Quote:
Originally Posted by Patrick_Bateman
In fact, it was not until the late British music researcher Alan Tyson skimmed through those two volumes and wrote to recommend their study without further delay that, eventually (in 2008) two Italian researchers Agostino Taboga and Luca Bianchini, while visiting Austria, decided to pay for a complete microfiche to be made - the first ever made of this famous score - and took the results back to examine and analyse their contents - reaching the remarkable conclusion after close examination of both text and music this is a rather clumsy musical arrangement. (Bianchini being an expert on 18th century opera over many years. And the musical analysis and text further assisted by Anna Trombetta). These volumes are beyond reasonable doubt music that was composed by others earlier that was hastily arranged later by W.A. Mozart for May 1786 for a newly set Italian text by Lorenzo da Ponte. Thus they are derived from an earlier German musical version. Both the music and text are derived from an earlier version that was composed and written by others. But this arrangement was pawned off as being Mozart’s and da Ponte’s own original achievement in Vienna of May of 1786. The arrangement we find here being so poor (musically and textually) that it was withdrawn only a few performances later to hissing and booing from the Vienna audience. Because it is almost unperformable. A fact refered to in newspapers of the time in the Austrian capital but ignored, as so much else in 'Mozart Studies'. Such facts are simply not convenient. The English version of this article includes other notes by me.
http://www.mediafire.com/?p1dbvzi779ankzy
Dear Edward,
Thank you for raising questions on two Mozart family musical notebooks which you have seen for yourself and which, you say, prove that Nannerl and Wolfgang ''were being taught music during their early years. And which are said to prove ''they were also composing works of their own''. And thank you for asking me to answer your points here, so that readers can see for themselves the truth (or otherwise) of these things.
I am of course very happy to oblige. Please post here yourself if you have further problems. But, in the meantime -
In reply to your first question, Mozart’s first public appearance dates from 1761. When he was 5 years old. In Salzburg. But, before we start to eulogise and float away in raptures at such an early date Wolfgang’s role at that time was that of a childhood dancer, with dozens of others. This was for a play where he appeared on the 1st and again 3rd September 1761 in a play called ‘Sigismundus Hungariae’ by Salzburg teacher and prefect Marian Wimmer. With its incidental music supplied by local composer Eberlin. In fact the total production was dominated by the appearance of the town’s children, only some of whom were actually pupils at that school. But all of them were ‘geniuses’, of course. A school play, in fact.
In further reply to your question, (since you believe Wolfgang was undergoing musical instruction and was starting to compose in those early years) reference is made by you to two surviving books. First of which is one written for Nannerl Mozart, his older sister. Which, as it happens, first surfaced 103 years after Mozart's birth and which contains minuets and other short pieces in the hands of numerous visitors to Salzburg, including a set of 12 variations. Each of these variations by another composer. The original theme is assumed to be by Leopold Mozart, her father. And it’s in this book made for Nannerl where we find what are called the ‘first’ compositions of Wolfgang, her younger brother. These two works are listed today as KV4 (a Minuet in F Major) and as KV6 (a Sonata for Harpischord and Violin - which was written in to the book during the Mozart family visit to Paris 3 years later, 1764). But KV4 is not in the hand of Wolfgang at all. Not here in this book. It was merely attributed to him by his father who, after writing it there adds ‘Di Wolfgango Mozart, 11 May 1762’ and, again with KV6 which is written in Leopold’s handwriting there with the inscription ‘16 July 1764’.
We must also apologise for the fact that the 'Mozart' works previously known as KV1, KV2, KV3 and KV5 were finally found (though only after 1860, you see) not to be by W.A. Mozart. Cough. Cough !
The second notebook, which is still generally believed to have been made for Wolfgang, has survived complete. And what could be more convincing than the fact that on its first page is an inscription made in Leopold Mozart’s hand, ‘ To my dear son Wolfgang Amade on his sixth name day, from his father Leopold Mozart. Salzburg. Salzburg. 31st October 1762.’. That sounds convincing, doesn't it ? I mean, it looks great !!!
In fact, this notebook (according to those who have closely studied it) contains 135 musical pieces. Which Wolfgang's proud father may be imagined as compiling for his prodigious and rapidly learning son. A strange fact of which is the relatively recent discovery that all 135 pieces are ordered in exactly the same keys as the Inventions and Sinfonias of a certain J.S. Bach. What chance is there of that ? A strange fact, you may agree ? And are further sub-divided into 25 ‘suites’. The music itself is drawn not from Wolfgang Mozart, nor from Leopold or Nannerl, but (as it happens) has been taken from part of a musical work that had been published back in 1752 (4 years before Mozart’s birth) by a certain Count Stolberg-Vernigerode. (About whom we will hear more later). And the actual composers represented here include music by Johann Friedrich Grafe (1711-87), Conrade Hurlesusche (1696-1765), G.P. Telemann (1681-1767), Johann Adolf Hasse, and others. So none of this music is actually by W.A. Mozart. Sorry about that. !
But no sooner have been disappointed than we now run in to fresh problems. Herman Abert (whose biography of Mozart is well known) wrote an article on this very ‘Mozart Notebook of 1762’ which proved disappointing for him because it has since been discovered the whole notebook was actually written years before Wolfgang Mozart was born - around 1750 - and therefore already existed 6 years before the genius started composing. Unless of course he was composing before the moment of his conception. Sorry about that. ! Furthermore, this notebook has been proved to be a fake by a detailed analysis made of its contents by Wolfgang Plath, also of its paper type, and other music related matters. On which the same Wolfgang Plath wrote a much less well publicised and appreciated article, ‘Leopold Mozart’s Notebook for Wolfgang of 1762 - A Falsification’. Plath, of course, spent decades trying to make sense of Mozart's handwriting. But the verdict on this notebook is not disputed. By anyone. Sorry about that !
Apart from this, you may be sure ‘everything you’ve heard is true’. Honest !
