The Mozart Family: Four Lives in a Social Context [Hardcover]

Ruth Halliwell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 9, 1998

Mozart's family has never received the kind of attention that does justice to the complexity of its relationships or its interactions with colleagues, friends, and neighbors in Mozart's native Salzburg. And most biographies of the great composer have neglected the many passages in the rich Mozart family correspondence that do not bear directly on him. This book turns a bright light on this neglected material, most of which has never before been translated into English, to provide a fascinating look at Mozart's parents, Leopold and Maria Anna, and sister, Nannerl.

Challenging most previous views of the individuals in Mozart's family and the relationships within it, Halliwell introduces a wealth of characters from the family's circle in Salzburg, from chambermaids to princes, and relates the gossip stories the family told to their larger outlook on the world. She also draws on the neglected papers of the Berchtold family (into which Nannerl married) and other rare archival material to provide a sympathetic account of the hopes, fears, and expectations of the family within their social context. An important final section traces the role of Nannerl and Mozart's wife Constanze in using, controlling, and handing on the biographical source material after Mozart's death, addressing the question of how myths surrounding his life and death became so prevalent so early.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"She offers students and scholars at all levels an important new look at the milieu of the Mozarts."--Choice

About the Author

Ruth Halliwell is a freelance writer and Associate Editor of the forthcoming Oxford Companion to Mozart.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 788 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 9, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198163711
• ISBN-13: 978-0198163718
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,573,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than most think, December 30, 1999

By 

D. Schuster (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mozart Family: Four Lives in a Social Context (Hardcover)

Halliwell's scholarship is impeccable, and her written style firmly holds the reader for hours at a stretch (I was even thumbing through it at redlights while driving home from work). Much attention is given to the family as a unit as well as historical and biographical background on individuals. The ongoing debate of Mozart and Leopold's respective personalities and their relationship is something that no one book can accurately put to rest, Halliwell's input explores another side of the contemporary idea of Mozart, that can be at odds with traditional views. The reader should be prepared to balance her writing with the works of other Mozart scholars (particularly Knepler, Kuster, and Landons). Incidentally, [e-mail]'s online review at Amazon.com is unjustly critical: from the very beginning Halliwell states that her purpose is to explore Mozart's family, and not the genius himself; this is clearly emphasized in the book's preface. And, while Solomon's "A Life" is a masterful read, there is no reason to grasp it as the Bible of Mozart scholarship (consider W. Stafford and N. Till as well as the previously mentioned authors).

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Family context adds depth to the study of Mozart's life, December 29, 1999

By 

Richard D. Simon Jr. (Walla Walla) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mozart Family: Four Lives in a Social Context (Hardcover)

I found this volume to be well-researched, very well written, and extraordinarily interesting. The strength of this volume is not that it replaces other works concerning Mozart's life but that it richly supplements them. The author has chosen to focus on letters of members (primarily Mozart's father Leopold and his sister Nannerl) of Mozart's family, not just on the letters of Mozart. The author's hypothesis is that much can be learned about Mozart by learning about his family. This book strongly supports this hypothesis. Whereas Solomon (Mozart A Life) presents a rather grim, abusive, and almost criminal picture of Leopold Mozart, I believe that Halliwell's work more likely captures a truer flavor of his character: a very intelligent man concerned for his family, loving but autocratic, less creative than Mozart but still very arrogant, and very much concerned with finances - so much so that Leopold's actions likely adversely affected Mozart's ability to achieve court appointments. In many respects, Halliwell's interpretation of Leopold is similar to Solomon's, except that she suggests a less "criminal" motivation on Leopold's part. One thread that is woven throughout this book, moreso than in others, is the large role that the constant threat of illness and death played in the lives of the Mozart family. The authors hypothesis that this fear of leaving family unprovided for at death provided signficant motivtion for Leopold's actions is certainly plausible. I found, in particular, the chapters on Leopld and Nannerl to be very interesting. I also enjoyed the last several chapters of this book which dealt with the manner in which information was provided by Nannerl and Constanze to the various biographers of Mozart. All in all, I rate this work very highly. This work strengthens and adds family context to the works of Solomon (Mozart: A Life), Einstein (Mozrt: His character, his work), and Braunbehrens (Mozart in Vienna: 1781-1791).

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Was Wolfgang Really As Bad As All That?, May 28, 1998

By 

Carol ([e-mail]) (Augusta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mozart Family: Four Lives in a Social Context (Hardcover)

Having just read the book "The Mozart Family: Four Lives in a Social Context", I think the subtitle should be changed to "Two Lives in a Social Context". The author lavishes a lot of attention and affection on the famous composer's father (Leopold) and his sister (Nannerl). Wolfgang Mozart is merely a shadowy presence in the background. The author has quite a different take on Leopold than that presented by Maynard Solomon in his book "Mozart: A Life". While Solomon was highly critical of the elder Mozart (Leopold had an extremely controlling nature, he was lying when he claimed to be in financial straits, he was overly critical of his son and he seemd to view Wolfgang as a "cash cow"), Halliwell is full of praise for Leopold (he was self-sacrificing, devoted, and justly worried about his son's irresponsible behavior). On the other hand, Halliwell hardly has one kind word for Wolfgang. He was thoughtless, deceitful, self-centered, and oblivious and uncaring about the problems of his father and sister. He thought the world revolved around him, and the expressions in his letters of love and tender concern for his father and sister were completely hollow.

Solomon makes you want to cry for Wolfgang Mozart, while Halliwell makes you want to cry for his father. Who is right ????