Washboard, Teabox and other unusual instruments

[Jürgen]

Hi Jung,

the harpsichord or the spinnet have always held a special fascination for me since I first consciously heard these instruments as a teenager. It must have had something to do with the special sound of these instruments, which, unlike the piano, made me travel back in time. In times when people lived in magnificent castles, wore these strange white wigs and were wrapped in colorful, magnificent clothes: The Baroque and Classical periods. Thanks for the beautiful sounds on the harpsichord

The entire Mozart family seemed to have been extremely talented musically. Wolfgang’s mother too. I came across an interesting interview with a musicologist from Salzburg who is a member of the Mozarteum Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the life and work of W.A. Mozart.

https://youtu.be/ukRyhyYBSZU?si=03z7GO0lyk_g09vo

[Jung Roe]

Hi Jurgen

Thanks for posting the video about Maria Anne Mozart. It is interesting the musicologist of the Mozarteum foundation insists the interviewer show proper respect and address Mozart’s sister as Maria Anne Mozart, and not Nannerl which is a nickname used by those who knew her personally.

Since that interview in 2020 there has been some additional discoveries that challenge the status quo belief held by the Mozarteum about Maria Anna. For nearly a decade, Darwin academic professor Martin Jarvis studied various documents and letters of Maria Anna and Wolfgang Amadeus, and in 2022 uncovered some startling evidence that Maria Anna did in fact compose brilliant music.

Professor Martin Jarvis and a team of forensic analysts say they have uncovered the musical handwriting of Marie Anne Mozart, elder sibling of her famous brother.
“We have discovered the piece of handwriting DNA, so to speak, that has enabled us for the first time in about 250 years to pinpoint Marie Anne Mozart’s music handwriting,” Professor Jarvis said.
“Initially I thought, well, there’s nothing here, but then I noticed something very strange,” he said.
“Of the five violin concertos, three of them were composed by a person called Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and two of them — in a different handwriting — were composed apparently by Amadeus Wolfgang Mozart.”
Professor Jarvis, who founded the Darwin Symphony Orchestra, said his research had led him to believe the signature ‘Amadeus Wolfgang Mozart’ had been written by Mozart’s older sister, nicknamed Nannerl.

Darwin professor suggests Mozart claimed credit for some of his sister’s compositions

I think in fairness to Mozart’s genius, it was more a case of Maria Anne Mozart chose to have her work published under her brother’s name because at that time, “women were not supposed to be composers”. It was not a case of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart trying to take credit for his sisters talent, he was a brilliant genius in his own right. It doesn’t take away from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s genius and brilliance as a composer.

I love the story of the sibling bond that existed between Maria Anne and Wolfgang that fueled their creativity and innovation. They were close and kept in touch through many letters over the years. Unfortunately in the last few years before Wolfgang’s death, they lost touch for some reason know one knows.

abc.net.au

Mozart claimed credit for concertos written by his sister, suggests Darwin academic

A Darwin academic says he has found evidence that suggests one of the greatest composers of all time claimed credit for some of his older sister's work. 

[Jürgen]

Hi Jung,

thank you very much for your very interesting post. From today’s perspective, it is certainly difficult to determine exactly who was working on which of Mozart’s works during Mozart’s time or whether some of his works were written by someone else. In any case, it is clear that Maria Anna was apparently also very musically gifted, like the entire Mozart family. And why shouldn’t she have also composed her own pieces? Maybe also under the synonym Amadeus Wolfgang? But one thing can be said with certainty: W.A. Mozart and his family left us a wonderful musical legacy.

[Jung Roe]

Hi Jurgen

Thanks for reading that article. Yes, it interests me not for the sake of digging up dirt on Mozart, or sensationalizing it, but rather for doing justice to his sister’s amazing talent, by bringing evidence to the light of day that might suggest the truth about Maria Anne Mozart, AKA Amadeus Wolfgang Mozart, the sibling Wolfgang Amadeus idolized as a child for her musical genius.

In that same article Professor Martin Jarvis also uncovered things about Bach’s wife too. Will leave that one for another time. Makes you wonder how many other great woman composers were muted because of the gender biases of the times, and their genius expressed under the name of one of the male composers of the time, because that was the only way.

[Jürgen]

So it’s not surprising that pieces of rock music that use the harpsichord (and there are quite a few of them) particularly touch me in some way:

https://youtu.be/EmrAeH7Wvlc?si=VEUjjESkGMmoH5zj