Mozart : the reign of love / Jan Swafford.
| Author/creator | Swafford, Jan author. |
| Format | Book |
| Edition | First edition. |
| Publication | New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2020. |
| Description | xvi, 810 pages, 16 pages of plates : illustrations (chiefly color) ; 24 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Introduction -- Prologue -- Leopold -- Papa -- Das Königreich Rücken -- An instrument at the command of music -- Liars, slanderers, and envious creatures -- Tralaliera -- Exultate, jubilate -- Inertia -- Breaking -- No vacancy here -- Love and money -- Ashes -- A scoundrel, a lousy rogue -- Return -- Gnagflow and Znatsnoc -- Monstrous many notes -- Last return, last departure -- Long and laborious efforts -- The greatest composer -- If you want to dance, my little count -- This truest and best friend -- Viva la libertà -- With nothing you create nothing -- The truth of the moment -- Endings and beginnings -- An eternal crown -- Et lux perpetua luceat eis -- Epilogue -- Appendix: Musical forms in Mozart's time. |
| Abstract | The life and the myth of Wolfgang Amade Mozart has held the world in thrall since his earliest years. In childhood his astonishing musical gifts made him a sensation. During tours throughout Europe, arranged by his domineering father, the boy Mozart was called the greatest prodigy of the age. But behind the legend lies the human story of an artist whose singular imagination was tirelessly at work. Mozart hated to be bored or idle, and he responded to these threats with a repertoire of antidotes mental and physical, going at every part of his life with tremendous creative energy. His wide circle of friends and patrons encompassed anyone who appealed to his boundless appetites for music and all things pleasurable and fun. In this landmark new portrait, the author brushes away the myths and brings Mozart indelibly and movingly to life as a force of nature who could rise from a luminous improvisation at the keyboard to meow like a cat and leap over the furniture. He was forever drumming on things, tapping his feet, in company seeming to be both present and apart. But he also might grasp your hand and gaze at you with a look profound, searching, and melancholy. It was as if Mozart lived simultaneously onstage and off, a character in life's tragicomedy but also outside of it, watching, studying, gathering material for the fabric of his art. Like the author's previous biographies, the book is both wide-ranging and intimate in its exploration of a creator in his life and his setting: a genius who rose from a particular time and place, whose art would enrich the world for centuries to come, who would immeasurably shape the future of classical music, and who from his age to ours has stood as the definition of a prodigy. As the author reveals, to understand the evolution of Western music, it is vital to understand this singular figure as an artist and as a man. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 769-775) and indexes. |
| ISBN | 9780062433572 (hardcover) |
| ISBN | 0062433571 (hardcover) |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Music Stacks | ML410.M9 S93 2020 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |