Maria Anna Mozart

 

Maria Anna (Marianne) Mozart was born in Salzburg to Leopold Mozart and Anna Maria Mozart. When she was seven years old, her father started teaching her to play the harpsichord. Leopold took her and Wolfgang on tours of many cities, such as Vienna and Paris, to showcase their talents. In the early days, she sometimes received top billing, and she was noted as an excellent harpsichord player and fortepianist.

However, given the views of her parents, prevalent in her society at the time, it became impossible as she grew older for her to continue her career any further. According to New Grove, "from 1769 onwards she was no longer permitted to show her artistic talent on travels with her brother, as she had reached a marriageable age."^[1] As a result, Marianne had to stay at home in Salzburg with her mother, or, if her mother was gone, with her father. From 1772 on she taught the piano in Salzburg.

There is evidence that Maria wrote musical compositions, as there are letters from Wolfgang praising her work, but the voluminous correspondence of her father never mentions any of her compositions, and none have survived.^[1]

Around the summer of 1783, Mozart seems to have developed a relationship with Franz d'Ippold, who was a captain and private tutor. Why this relationship did not evolve into a marriage is not known.^[2] Eventually, 23 August 1784 Marianne married a magistrate, Johann Baptist Franz von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg (1736–1801),^[3] and settled with him in St. Gilgen, a village in Austria about 29 km^[4] east of the Mozart family home in Salzburg. Berchtold was twice a widower^[5] and had five children from his two previous marriages, whom Marianne helped raise. She also bore three children of her own: Leopold Alois Pantaleon (1785–1840), Jeanette (1789–1805) and Marie Babette (1790–1791). Nevertheless, she continued to see herself as a pianist, practicing three hours a day and continuing to teach the piano.

An unusual episode in Mozart's life occurred when she gave birth (27 July 1785) to her first child, a son who was named Leopold after his grandfather. She had traveled from her home in St. Gilgen to Salzburg for the birth. When she returned to St. Gilgen, she left her infant in the care of her father and his servants. The elder Leopold stated (by a letter that preceded Mozart back to St. Gilgen) that he would prefer to raise the child for the first few months himself. In 1786, he extended the arrangement to an indefinite term. There is no record of Mozart's response to her father's demands. Evidently, Leopold continued to care for his grandson, taking delight in his progress (toilet training, speech, and so on), and commencing with the very beginnings of musical training. Mozart saw her son on occasional visits, but in general, was not involved in his care. The arrangement continued until the death of her father, on 28 May 1787. Biographers differ on the reasons for this arrangement. Little Leopold was ill in his infancy, and perhaps needed to be kept in Salzburg for this reason, but this does not explain why he was still kept there after his recovery. Another possibility attributes the arrangement to Marianne's delicate health or her obligation to take care of her stepchildren. Biographer Maynard Solomon attributes the arrangement to Leopold's wish to revive his skills in training a musical genius, as he had done with Mozart's brother. He also suggests that giving up her son was indicative of her total subordination to her father's wishes.^[6]

 

During their childhood, the four and a half years older Marianne was her brother's idol. According to Maynard Solomon, "at three, Mozart was inspired to study music by observing his father's instruction of Marianne; he wanted to be like her."^[8] The two children were very close, and they invented a secret language and an imaginary "Kingdom of Back" of which they were king and queen. In their early correspondence, Marianne received rather affectionate texts that included scatological and sexual wordplay in which Wolfgang indulged with intimates.^[8]

Her brother wrote several works for her to perform, including the Prelude and Fugue in C, K. 394 (1782) and the four Preludes K. 395/300g (1777.). Until 1785, Marianne received copies of his piano concertos (up to No. 21) in St. Gilgen. Concerning the relationship between the two siblings in adulthood, authorities differ. According to New Grove, Wolfgang "remained closely attached to her."^[1] In contrast, Maynard Solomon contends that in later life Marianne and Wolfgang drifted apart completely. He notes, for instance, that after Wolfgang's visit to Salzburg in 1783 (with his new wife Constanze), they never visited each other again, that they never saw each other's children, and that their correspondence diminished to a trickle, ceasing entirely in 1788.^[9]

Ten years after the death of Wolfgang in 1791, Marianne encountered Franz Xaver Niemetschek's 1798 biography of her brother. Since this biography had been written from the perspective of Vienna and of Constanze, she only then read about certain parts of his life for the first time. In an 1800 letter, she wrote:

Herr Prof. Niemetschek's biography so completely reanimated my sisterly feelings toward my so ardently beloved brother that I was often dissolved in tears since it is only now that I became acquainted with the sad condition in which my brother found himself.^[10]

Scholars still to this day cannot agree on whether Maria Anna Mozart is partly responsible for her little brother's genius. Since their relationship was quite close in their youth, it is likely that they influenced one another musically, where Marianne may have been the dominant part in this dynamic, due to her being over four years older than Wolfgang. As the anthropologist Stevan Jackson states, "No musicians develop their art in a vacuum ... Musicians learn by watching other musicians, by being an apprentice, formally or informally."^[11] There is evidence, however, that Marianne did pose as a role model for her brother, certainly taking on a teaching role in the education of the young boy. Researchers also speculate that she collaborated with Wolfgang on his earlier pieces, since composing a symphony is a rather challenging task for any musician, especially one as young as Wolfgang, whose first symphony was written when he was eight years old.^[11][12]

Based on letters written by Wolfgang to his sister, scholars are certain that Marianne composed musical pieces herself.^[11][13] In one of the passages he wrote to her, he states, "My dear sister! I am in awe that you can compose so well, in a word, the song you wrote is beautiful."^[11] Besides these texts, there is no evidence of her writing her own music because none of her manuscripts have survived.

 

After the death of her husband in 1801, Marianne returned to Salzburg,^[1] at first accompanied by her two living children.^[14] Financially well provided for she still gave piano lessons and was a highly esteemed piano soloist in the concerts at Prince Ernst von Schwarzenberg's. Her students during this time included Anna Sick, who later became the court pianist at Stuttgart.^[15]

In 1821, Marianne was visited by Wolfgang's son, Franz Xaver Mozart, whom she had never met during her brother's lifetime. She took the opportunity to tell him about his father's childhood, and to introduce him to various family friends.^{[citation needed]}

In her last years, Marianne's health declined, and she became blind in 1825. Mary Novello, visiting in 1829, recorded her impression that Marianne was "blind, languid, exhausted, feeble and nearly speechless", as well as lonely. She mistakenly took Marianne to be impoverished, though in fact she was frugal and left a large fortune (7,837 florins).^[1]

Marianne died on 29 October 1829, aged 78, and was buried in St Peter's Cemetery, Salzburg.^[1]

Maria Anna Mozart provided the inspiration for many authors' fictional characters.

• English songwriter Leon Rosselson wrote the song "Whatever Happened to Nannerl?" and recorded it on his album Wo sind die Elefanten? (1991)^[16]
• The Secret Wish of Nannerl Mozart (1996) by Barbara Kathleen Nickel is a young adult novel.^[17]
• Marianne was the subject of a 2001 "biography in poems", The Other Mozart by Sharon Chmielarz.^[18]
• Mozart's Sister, a 2005 novel by Alison Bauld,^[19] follows Marianne's life through marriage, children, widowhood, and death in conversations with her nephew Franz Xaver.
• Nancy Moser wrote Mozart's Sister: A Novel (2006).^[20]
• In La sorella di Mozart, a 2006 novel by Rita Charbonnier [it],^[21] Marianne initially tells her life's story through a series of fictional letters to the Major Franz Armand d'Ippold, grows frustrated and debilitated by her father's refusal to acknowledge her ability to compose music, and eventually devotes her life to the promotion and study of her brother's music.
• Ann Turnbull's 2007 young adult novel Mary Ann and Miss Mozart refers to Maria Anna Mozart.^[22]
• The popular young adult author Carolyn Meyer wrote of Nannerl's life in her 2008 novel In Mozart's Shadow: His Sister's Story.^[23]
• Marianne was the subject of Nannerl, la sœur de Mozart (tr. "Nannerl, Mozart's Sister"), a 2010 French-language film from director René Féret.
• In his 2011 novel Mozart's Last Aria, Matt Rees has Marianne investigating her brother's death.^[24]
• In 2013, Marianne's life was adapted into a one-person theatre piece called The Other Mozart where writer/musician Sylvia Milo portrayed Marianne in a partially fictional autobiography.^[25]
• She appears in several episodes of the Amazon series Mozart in the Jungle.^[26]
• In 2019, the American band Saint Motel released the song "Diane Mozart" which seems to be based on Marianne, especially her relationship with her brother.^[27]
• She is the protagonist of the 2020 young adult historical fantasy novel The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu.^[28]
• The 2024 documentary film Mozart's Sister by Madeleine Hetherton-Miau ad Rebecca Barry investigates the role of Maria Anna in relation to her brother.^[29]

Works of biography

• "Mozart family". Grove Music Online (8th ed.). Oxford University Press. 2001. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.40258. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0.
• Deutsch, Otto Erich (1965). Mozart: A Documentary Biography. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-0233-0. OCLC 8991008.
• Eisen, Cliff (2009). "Mozart in Italy and the Enigma of a Collection: Newly-Discovered Portraits and Artifacts" (PDF).
• Solomon, Maynard (1995). Mozart: A Life. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-019046-9. OCLC 31435799.

Works of literature with Maria Anna Mozart as a main character

• Bauld, Alison (2005). Mozart's Sister. London: Alcina Press. ISBN 978-0-9550713-0-0. OCLC 64769121. Bauld has also published a fictional diary as Nannerl Mozart in the form of Nannerls' blog.
• Charbonnier, Rita [in Italian] (2007). Mozart's Sister: A Novel. Ann Goldstein (trans.). New York: Crown Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-307-34678-0. OCLC 132585106. Originally published in Italy as: Charbonnier, Rita (2006). La sorella di Mozart: romanzo (in Italian). Milan: Corbaccio. ISBN 978-88-7972-759-4. OCLC 64219881.
• Chmielarz, Sharon (2001). The Other Mozart: Poems. Princeton: Ontario Review Press. ISBN 0-86538-101-1. OCLC 45207996.
• Lu, Marie (2020). The Kingdom of Back. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 978-1524739010. OCLC 1141426794.
• Meyer, Carolyn (2008). In Mozart's Shadow: His Sister's Story. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-15-205594-3. OCLC 180689946.
• Moser, Nancy (2006). Mozart's Sister. Minneapolis: Bethany House. ISBN 978-0-7642-0123-3. OCLC 70045811.
• Rees, Matt (2011). Mozart's Last Aria. New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0-06-201586-0. OCLC 703206599. A historical thriller in which Nannerl travels to Vienna to uncover the mysteries of her brother's death.

•   Media related to Maria Anna Mozart at Wikimedia Commons