Maria Anna Mozart

Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia "Marianne" Mozart (30 July 1751 – 29 October 1829), nicknamed Nannerl, was a highly regarded musician from Salzburg. In her childhood, she developed into an outstanding keyboard player under the tutelage of her father Leopold. She became a celebrated child prodigy and went on concert tours through much of Europe with her parents and her younger brother Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. At age 17, her career as a touring musician came to an end, though she continued to work at home teaching piano and performing on occasion. At age 33 she married, moved to a village six hours by carriage from Salzburg, and there raised her own and her husband's children. On her widowhood in 1801, she returned to Salzburg and resumed teaching and performance. She is known to have composed works of music, though no manuscripts survive. In her later years she contributed to the biographical study of her late brother.

Life

Maria Anna Mozart is known to scholarship from a variety of sources. There are a great number of letters, though virtually all of the surviving ones were written to her or her family, not by her. Particularly for the early years, when she was most famous, there are news reports and other observations, collected and recorded by scholars such as Otto Erich Deutsch. She kept a diary, some of which is preserved, and wrote a brief but informative reminiscence of her brother's childhood. There is very little material to indicate what she thought or felt about the events and people in her life.

Childhood and early fame

Maria Anna Mozart was born in Salzburg to Leopold Mozart and Anna Maria Mozart. In childhood, she bore the nickname "Nannerl", a name that is often used for her today; later on her informal first name became "Marianne". When Nannerl was seven years old, her father started teaching her to play the harpsichord. She progressed very rapidly, catching the attention of her little brother Wolfgang, whom Leopold soon started teaching as well. By age 13 Nannerl had reached the point where her father, in a letter (8 June 1764), called her "one of the most skillful pianists in Europe."

As it emerged that both children were musical prodigies, Leopold had the idea of taking them on tour to perform. There were several such journeys: first to Munich (January 1762), then Vienna (18 September 1762 – 5 January 1763), then a three-year grand tour of northwestern Europe (9 June 1763 – 29 November 1766), including long stays in London and Paris. Lastly, there was a second journey to Vienna (11 September 1767 – 5 January 1769), but by this time Nannerl no longer qualified as a prodigy and performed little.

Here are some press notices Nannerl received.

Just imagine a girl 11 years of age who can perform on the harpsichord or the fortepiano the most difficult sonatas and concertos by the greatest masters, most accurately, readily and with an almost incredible ease, in the very best of taste. (from the Intelligenz-Zettel of Augsburg, 19 May 1763)

A Kapellmeister of Salzburg, Mozart by name, has just arrived here with two children who cut the prettiest figure in the world. His daughter, eleven years of age, plays the harpsichord in the most brilliant manner; she performs the longest and most difficult pieces with an astonishing precision. (from Baron Friedrich Melchior Grimm's Correspondance littéraire, 1 December 1763)

His daughter, aged eleven, plays the harpsichord in a distinguished manner; no one could have a more precise and brilliant execution. (Paris Avant-coureur, 5 March 1764)

[Again from Baron Grimm, Correspondance littéraire, but covering the second visit to Paris, 1 July 1766] Mlle Mozart, now thirteen years of age, and moreover grown much prettier, has the most beautiful and most brilliant execution on the harpsichord.

All four reviews quoted go on to praise Wolfgang, though in different terms – not just for his performances of existing works, but also for improvisation and composition.

During the family journeys, Nannerl's life was twice in great danger from illness. The first occasion was in the Hague in November 1765, during the Grand Tour: the Mozarts averted their daughter's death by changing doctors at the last minute, with the altered treatment leading to her survival. In her sickbed she babbled in five languages (helping to distract her frightened little brother), and was administered the Roman Catholic sacrament of extreme unction. Afterwards, Nannerl was "nothing but skin and bones", and had to learn to walk again. A second serious illness occurred in November 1767, when the Mozarts visited Vienna during what turned out to be a smallpox epidemic; see Mozart and smallpox. The smallpox was likely contracted in Vienna (it struck both children), but the actual illness took place while the Mozarts were staying in Olomouc, in a vain effort to escape the disease.

The end of her performing career

Toward the end of the Grand Tour, Leopold pondered and made plans for his children. He sought to prepare Wolfgang for a Kapellmeister position, which would offer a steady and substantial income which would enable him to support the entire family as his parents aged. For Nannerl, however, societal views of the time meant that her opportunities were far more limited. Halliwell writes:

Though Leopold manifestly wanted Nannerl to be capable of earning money from music when she grew up, it was also an assumption of their society that she would marry for financial support.

The only real professional positions open to women were in singing, not Nannerl's forte. Leopold instead sought to prepare her for the profession of piano teaching, with perhaps some performance included as well. This was intended to generate supplementary income, either for the Mozart family or for whatever family she might eventually marry into. Concerning Nannerl's fate, Halliwell writes:

There was now an essential difference between her and Wolfgang which was caused by her sex and not by the fact that his talent was superior. He was thrust forward and had a clear goal to guide him as he worked, while she was forced to adopt a passive attitude, waiting until a man – either Wolfgang or a future husband – could provide the salary and the place of abode which would enable her to practise in the limited way described. At the age of 15, her most dazzling days were behind her.

Wolfgang continued to tour with Leopold (for instance, in three journeys to Italy), while Marianne had to stay at home in Salzburg with her mother.

The years at home before her marriage

After the final visit to Vienna (1767–1768), Marianne lived at home in Salzburg with whatever family were there at the time, up until her marriage in 1784. The Mozarts led a lively and close family life, with numerous visiting friends and much music-making, both among themselves and with visitors. After 1773, there was more room for this, as the family had moved from the cramped quarters where Nannerl and Wolfgang had been born to the more spacious Tanzmeisterhaus "Dancing master's house", which included a capacious salon originally built for dancing. The family frequently attended the theatre when a company was in town (they befriended Mozart's later collaborator Emanuel Schikaneder when he brought his troupe to Salzburg). Often on Sundays there was Bölzlschiessen (recreational dart shooting), followed by a stroll in the Mirabell Park.

A few events punctuated this long period. The three Italian journeys by Leopold and Wolfgang split the family, with Marianne and her mother staying at home. In 1772, she took on her first piano pupil (see below for her career as teacher). In 1777, the family was split again: Wolfgang departed on a long, ultimately failed job-hunting tour, accompanied by his mother. At this point, Marianne took on a number of duties previously performed by her mother, leading her father to write (to his wife, on 27 October 1777), "I have to tell you that Nannerl is astonishingly diligent, hard-working, and attentive to everything that concerns housekeeping." Indeed, Marianne's mother never returned from the trip, as she died in 1778 while she and Wolfgang were in Paris. In 1779, Wolfgang rejoined the household, back from his failed journey. In 1781, Marianne took the last trip of her life outside the Salzburg area, visiting Munich to attend the premiere of her brother's opera Idomeneo, performed at Carnival time, with a side trip to Augsburg to perform with her brother. For the trip she made a "very extravagant purchase", a dress costing 70 florins. Wolfgang went directly from Munich to pursue a career in Vienna, and never returned to Salzburg other than a single visit with his new wife Constanze in 1783. Thus, between 1780 and her marriage in 1784, Marianne was Leopold's only family companion at home.

As piano teacher and mature pianist

Marianne had been taught exclusively by Leopold Mozart, who had independent fame for his pedagogy and was the author of a famous violin text. Her career as a part-time piano teacher began in Salzburg in 1772. By the testimony of Albert von Mölk, a family friend, Marianne was herself highly effective as a teacher: