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There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Anyone who has children can relate to this book and the trials of poor Leopold Mozart with his son Wolfgang. Even now as I write this I am experiencing the most vexing problem of trying to impart my wisdom in my children especially my two teenage daughters who, are themselves struggling to gain independance and who inevitably know it all. Truly a most vexing problem for me. I have two more younger ones that have yet to try my patience and go out on their own,worldy and confident in their own abilities to conquer and reign without my help.
We shall see what is what in the end won't we parents? Can you relate to my plight? If so then this is a fairly well written little book on the life of Mozart as good as any I guess. There is much to this little man and his own relationship with his father here and how it shaped his life and his works. Recurrent themes in his operas appear to be the end result of ongoing paternal angst. There are more expansive histories available but the mans life is at times open to interpretation so sometimes less is more.
This book gets to the point,presents the stages and influences of his development and incorporates them nicely. It does a good job of dispelling the myths associated with the man and is quite clinically basic in its approach.
All you really need to know without the influence of letters to this one and that one back and forth ad nauseum which if presented poorly can make a book longer than it has to be. For the rabid fan of every factotum,no it probably will not do. But for the regular person who wants to know and have a good look at Mozarts life a "just the facts mam" kind of person,you know, just enough current information on the life of Wolfgang A.
Mozart to carry you through some martinis and social banter armed with the truth about him with a well respected author and biographer at the helm then this book is the one for you to read. Secretly,I too wanted to believe in the movie 'Amadeus' and all of its assertions but it's all hogwash. Salieri did not kill Mozart or contribute to his death in any way.
In fact they were actually cordial friends respectful of each other and not mortal enemies as people tend to believe. The cause of death is another matter which I will let you research on your own. I don't want to spoil all your fun. This book will start you on your way very well as it reduces the fluff and gets to the pure genius that was Mozart, a man that was probably the last of his kind,one of the greatest composers ever to yet live, ahead of his time yes, yet had day to day problems just like the rest of us and left us way too early because medicine hadn't caught up yet.
The book will fill you in. Peter Gay's brief biography of Mozart is the third of the new Penguin Lives which I have read, but only the first to offer a reasonably complete portrait. The others were "Mao Zedong" by Jonathan Spence, which seemed disappointingly incomplete, and "Woodrow Wilson" by Louis Auchincloss, which seemed terribly superficial. As an eminent cultural historian of Europe since the Enlightenment and a native of German-speaking Europe himself, Gay is more than qualified to write a superior life story of Mozart and certainly rises to the occasion with a captivating style that made reading this book a pleasure.
For a book that is only pages long, exclusive of endnotes and bibliographic essay, this volume offers an unusually full picture.
It depicts Mozart as man and musician, while placing him and his art in the context of his times. Gay delves into Mozart's complex relationship with his autocratic father, describing his evolution from docile Wunderkind to assertive mature artist.
A biography of the greatest musical mind in Western history. Mozart went into a grave typical of his time, his music to fall into contention and bowdlerisation for a little time to come. Gay also uses letters from Mozart and his father to flesh out their complicated relationship and to gives us a look into the mind of a musical genius whihch at time is rather disgusting and juvenile. He does put to rest the question of whether the Amadeus movie was accurate, not by referring to it - I don't know if it even had been produced in when the book was published - but by telling the accurate story behind the Mozart legends. You get the real story told from the point of view of the Mozarts themselves. I didn't know much about Mozart coming into this book, and I'm not sure I know a whole lot more upon finishing it. I was expecting it to be a little more of a chronological tale of his life, but it was more about his music and what was happening in that day and age.
He also explores Mozart's unusual personality, including his often juvenile sense of humor, his devoted commitment to his wife, his tendency to constantly live beyond his means and the resulting sometimes obsequious dependency on his patrons, and his interactions with contemporary composers, particularly Johann Christoph Bach and Franz Josef Haydn. Gay is especially good at explaining Mozart's major contributions to the development of classical music in terms that even someone who lacks a technical understanding of music can fathom, showing how he contributed to chamber music, the symphony, and opera.
And he briefly points out what is distinctive about a number of the composers' major works. In short, this is a book that offers all the fun of "Amadeus," but a far more satisfying portrayal of Mozart and a fuller explication of why he is an icon of Western civilization. We see the famously dirty sense of humor in all members of his family. This wonderful edition of the letters contains brief introductions to various letters, strong footnotes, and a context-setting introduction.
Mozart: A Life (A Penguin Life) Paperback – August 29, Peter Gay is Sterling Professor of History, Emeritus, at Yale University, author of thirty-two widely respected books, and winner of the National Book Award for his definitive work on the Enlightenment. Editorial Reviews. bahana-line.com Review. In his lifetime, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart didn't have Mozart: A Life (Penguin Lives) - Kindle edition by Peter Gay.
The letters themselves allow us an unadulterated view into the lives of one of the greatest composers. This book is well worth the price and your attention. I know it's not utterly complete, but it is just what I wanted. There are a LOT of letters in here; it's not a superficial selection. Good translation, helpful background notes and footnotes. I'm reading this in tandem with the Abert Mozart biography, and pretty much every letter he references is in this collection.
Who knew that a primary source would be so much better than any biography? This is a surprisingly fascinating and easy read. The translator does a fantastic job with the letters, even getting one of Mozart's silly poems to rhyme in English. You get the real story told from the point of view of the Mozarts themselves. You really feel bad for Leopold as his rather flighty son traipses around Europe running up debts.
I know the letters were voluminous, but I wish there were even more letters included here. Maybe they will come out with an unabridged edition. I know the footnotes were difficult to do, as the Mozarts drop tons of names, but I also wish there was more information included on some of the people referenced in the letters. That said, I highly recommend this. Listen to Mozart's music while reading his letters transports us back to a time when this music was written Every music lover should make the effort to discover the man who gave us such wealth, because it is impossible to imagine a world without his music.
Name withheld because stalkers Google me and I find it annoying. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. I've found several typos just in the foreward.
No one should have to decipher a book's true meaning because of bad typeset. I must confess I'm still reading this wonderful compilation of correspondence; but I can confidently state that it vividly draws you into the daily lives of Mozart and his family. Ever wonder what day-to-day life was like in Mozart's time? There's no better way to experience it than to read these letters and their descriptions of the mundane and the extraordinary, the aggravations of travel, the rewards monetary and otherwise of performing for royalty, and all of the other details that would fascinate anyone who has ever wondered what Mozart's life was really like.
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