MUS390: Topics: Mozart, Life, Times, and Selected Works

This website explores the notion that - contrary to traditional biographies of the composer - Mozart was engaged with everyday life, that what he saw, the places he visited and the objects he owned or encountered, offer new insight into his life and, as a result, how we might understand his music. The most important source for documenting Mozart's material worlds is the family correspondence, together with surviving objects that they owned. By way of introduction, the first chapter of this site illustrates some of 'what Mozart saw,' as opposed to the usual bias of Mozart studies, 'what Mozart heard.' It then explores one sort of object, souvenirs, in particular as they were understood in the eighteenth century and how that may inflect the way we read some of Mozart’s works.

This site is a pilot project. Readers are encouraged to consult the Project Information page for an overview of the much larger project for which it is proof of concept, as well as for information on the structure of this site and how to navigate and use it.

The digitized version offers the musical text and the critical commentaries of the entire Neue Mozart-Ausgabe, edited by the Internationale Stiftung Mozart in cooperation with the Mozart cities of Augsburg, Salzburg, and Vienna. The printed edition has been published by Bärenreiter-Verlag (www.mozart-portal.de and www.baerenreiter.com). Some restrictions apply to the reproduction of images of source materials, particularly in the supplement to the edition.

The publisher of the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe is Bärenreiter-Verlag Kassel (www.mozart-portal.de); The volumes of the printed edition can be ordered through specialized trade. You can obtain further information on the publisher's website (www.baerenreiter.com).