Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Other Mozart

Episode Date: August 10, 2021

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is known to almost everyone in the world. If he isn’t known, then his music certainly is. Even though he is one of the greatest composers in history, he was not the only musician in his family. In fact, according to some, he might not have even been the best musician in his family. Learn more about Maria Anna Mozart, the other Mozart, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is known to almost everyone in the world. If he isn't known, then his music certainly is. Even though he's one of the greatest composers in history, he was not the only musician in his family. In fact, according to some, he might not have even been the best musician in his family. Learn more about Maria Anna Mozart, the other Mozart,

on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time, to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. This episode is sponsored by Expedia's OutTravel the System podcast.

I know you'll love to hear the story behind the story. So let me tell you why I think you might want to listen to the Expedia podcast, OutTravel the System. This season alone, the show talks to someone on a mission to visit every country in the world. In case you're wondering, the tally stands at 194 out of 197 countries. There's the man who's visited and stayed at literally thousands of hotels, who shares some of his favorite unique accommodations and experiences. Or how about the woman who has reached some deep philosophical conclusions about travel and privilege in no small part because of the pandemic? Get all of this and more when you tune into the show, including larger insights about the future of travel, as well as tips and tricks to maximize your savings for your next trip,

whenever you feel ready to head out into the world again. You can find Out Travel the System on your podcast platform of choice. On January 27, 1756, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in the town of Salzburg in what was then the Holy Roman Empire. While he is a celebrity, which makes this story interesting, this story is not about him. It's about his older sister, Maria Anna, who was born four and a half years before her brother Wolfgang.

However, for this story to truly make sense, we have to take one more step back and talk about their father, Leopold Mozart. Leopold was a very well-educated man for the time. Born in Augsburg, he attended a local Jesuit school where he graduated Magna Cum Lauda. There, he developed an interest in all academic things, including philosophy and science.

It was also there where he learned to play the violin and the organ. His parents wanted him to become a priest, but instead he went to Salzburg for university and got a degree in philosophy and law. His career actually took him into music, becoming a professional musician and writing several musical compositions. In 1747, he married a woman named Anna Maria Pertel, and they had seven children. Unfortunately, five of the children died before turning one year old. The fourth child, born in 1751, was a girl named Anna Maria. Leopold got a job as a court musician for the Count who ruled Salzburg. One of the major parts of his job was teaching violin,

and by all accounts, Leopold was a very good teacher. In fact, teaching music was the thing he was probably best at. In 1755, he wrote a book titled A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing, which was published in 1756, the year his seventh and last child, Wolfgang, was born. The book became a standard for the teaching of violin during that period, and it showed that Leopold put a great deal of thought into the idea of teaching music. Around 1759, he began to teach his seven-year-old daughter, now nicknamed Nannerol, how to play the harpsichord. She proved a very quick learner, and soon was playing more difficult pieces.

While she was receiving her lessons and practicing, she was being watched over by her three-year-old brother, Wolfgang. By all accounts, Wolfgang adored Nannerl. As children, they were very close and played together all the time as they were the only two children in the house. They created their own secret language and invented an imaginary kingdom where they were the king and queen. It's believed that much of Wolfgang's development as a musician at this very early age can be attributed to his sister. Wolfgang was emulating what he saw his sister do and she was probably teaching him as well when their father wasn't around.

Maria Anna wrote later in her life about her brother, quote, He often spent much time at the clavier picking out thirds, which he was ever striking, and his pleasure showed that it sounded good. In the fourth year of his age, his father, for a game, as it were, began to teach him a few minuettes and a few pieces at the clavier. He could play it faultlessly, and with the greatest delicacy, and keeping exact in time. At the age of five, he was already composing little pieces, which he played to his father who wrote them down. At some point, the enormity of his children's talent dawned on Leopold. It wasn't just the father of two musical prodigies, but this was something that could open doors to royal courts all over a year. In 1762, the Wunderkin siblings performed for the Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Teresa in Vienna.

This was their big debut and their first significant public performance. It took three weeks to travel from Salzburg to Vienna with two small children, and it put the family deep in dead. However, their performance was a smashing success. Leopold sent home the equivalent of two-year salary after only a few weeks of performing in Vienna. With this success, they set out on a grand tour of year. visiting royal courts all over the continent. At the start of the tour in 1763, Wolfgang was seven, and Non-Roll was 11. At the beginning of the tour, Nunrull often received top billing.

In a letter home, Leopold wrote, quote, My Little Girl plays the most difficult works which we have, with incredible precision and so excellently. What it all amounts to is this, that my little girl, although she was only 12 years old, is one of the most skillful players in Europe, end quote. As they traveled, Leopold basically acted as an agent for his children. It wasn't just the royal courts in large capital cities where they performed. They would also try to arrange performances in every city they visited, and Leopold would often put notices in local newspapers.

Over the course of three years, the family worked their way across Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, with the furthest point being London. On the way back home, they went through France and Switzerland. During this trip, Wolfgang began composing at a furious pace, including writing his first symphony at the age of eight. Maria Anna often helped her little brother in writing down the music he wrote. They returned home to Salzburg in 1766 and continued to make side trips to earn money, including a return trip to Vienna.

In 1769, Leopold set out again, but this time he only brought Wolfgang with him. If Maria Anna had grown up in the present day, she undoubtedly would have been one of the world's foremost musicians. However, she grew up in the 18th century, and she was so. subject to the norms and the culture of that period. Once she reached an age where she could marry, she wasn't allowed to perform in public again. To do so would be unseemly. She actually didn't get married until she was 33, which meant she spent 13 years not performing when she could have been one of the premier musicians in Europe.

We do know that she was composing music, but there are no surviving examples of it. What we know came from her brother. In a letter dated 1770, sent from when Wolfgang was in Rome, he noted, quote, my dear sister, I am in awe that you can compose so well in a word the song you wrote is beautiful, end quote. There is also speculation that she may have collaborated on some of the early compositions of her brother when they were on their world tour. One lingering question that music historians have asked is if Maria Anna was a better musician than her brother. In one of his letters, Leopold wrote, quote, Not a role no longer suffers by comparison with the boy, for she plays so beautifully that every

everyone is talking about her and admiring her execution." End quote. Many of the surviving flyers promoting their performances across Europe had Maria Anna as the star of the act. While Wolfgang was unquestionably the better composer, it's highly likely that Maria Anna was the better instrumentalist. It wasn't so much that Wolfgang was bad, but that she was just really, really good. Wolfgang went on to fame in Vienna, struggled financially, and died at the age of 35.

He was stubborn and rebellious with his father for the rest of Leopold's life. Maria Ana lived with her father until she was married, and was always the dutiful daughter. We know after her period of public performances, she did continue to play in private. Likewise, her brother always held her opinion in high regard and would frequently send her copies of his compositions. After the death of her brother, she made at her mission to preserve the reputation of him by donating all of her correspondences with him to his widow who was commissioning a bio-eastern. Later in her life, she became a music teacher, having never lost her passion for music. For the most part, other than letters and a few biographical facts, Maria Anna mostly disappeared

from history. She passed away at the age of 78 in 1829. There's been a revival of interest in her story over the last two decades. There have been several movies and books written about her, many of which are fictional. What we do know about Maria Anna Mozart is that she had a profound impact on the development of her brother Wolfgang, and that she was a phenomenal musical talent in her own right. However, we will never know just how great she could have been, and just how far her musical career could have gone. The associate producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Thor Thompson. If you'd like to support the show, please donate over at patreon.com. There is content only available to supporters, merchandise, and even

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