Maria Anna (nicknamed Nannerl) Mozart was born five years before her brother Wolfgang in Salzburg, Austria. But while she is almost always discussed in connection with her younger brother, she had an illustrious musical career of her own before falling under his shadow.
Leopold Mozart, the infamous stage-parent, began teaching his daughter the harpsichord when she was seven years old. By the age of twelve, she was touring around Europe with her seven-year-old brother, and the two were touted as a double bill of prodigies, with Nannerl accompanying Wolfgang's violin on the harpsichord, singing with his accompaniment, or joining him for four-hands duets. It is important to note that Nannerl was regarded with just as much esteem as her young brother; even her critical father wrote, in a letter to his wife, that "Nannerl no longer suffers by comparison with the boy, for she plays so beautifully that everyone is talking about her and admiring her execution...My little girl plays the most difficult works which we have of Schobert and Eckardt and others, Eckardt's being the most difficult, with incredible precision." In addition, Wolfgang idolized his older sister; her early harpsichord training inspired him to study music, and he frequently praised her talents in their letters--including her skill as a composer. In fact, Wolfgang's letters are the only existing evidence of her compositions, as there are no surviving scores of Maria Anna's music, and mentions of her work are strangely absent from her father's writings. Nevertheless, she may have been as great a composer as a performer--even if she pursued the former more privately.
However, when she turned 18 in 1769, Nannerl's father decided that it would not be appropriate for this young lady of marriageable age to display her musical talents. And unlike her brother, who would later rebel against his father's wishes for his career and marriage, Nannerl remained obedient to Leopold throughout her life. She stayed at home to run the household, continuing her musical career only by giving lessons to supplement the family's meager income--and it is here that she began to fade from the history books, to such an extent that a 1901 Musical Times article praised her "good management of the maid-servant, who was both dirty and untruthful!" more than her musical talents. Again at her father's request, Maria Anna turned down a proposal from a man she loved and instead married a widowed magistrate, Johann Baptist Franz von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg, in 1783. She moved to the nearby village of St. Gilgen and withdrew herself completely from the music world in order to take care of her three children and four stepchildren. In 1801 her husband passed away, and Nannerl moved back to Salzburg, where she started teaching again, eventually retiring with a significant fortune.
Numerous attempts have been made to give voice to Maria Anna's story, which has been so thoroughly obscured by that of her brother. She is the subject of three novels and a biopic, identically titled with the dubiously eponymous "Mozart's Sister." One wonders if the irony was lost on these authors and directors; their attempts to pull Nannerl out of her brother's shadow still rely wholly on his fame to legitimize her talents. It is indeed a cruel twist of fate (if one can call a complex and long-entrenched system of social mores "fate") that leaves us with a dearth of novels, films, or other media chronicling the undervalued accomplishments of "Mozart's brother."
Bevan, C. J. (1961). Marianne Mozart, Sister of a Genius. The Musical Times, 102(1422), 487. Retrieved December 12, 2015, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/949979
The Sisters of Two Great Composers. I. Nannerl Mozart. (1901). The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, 42 (696), 82. Retrieved December 12, 2015, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3366382
Leopold Mozart, the infamous stage-parent, began teaching his daughter the harpsichord when she was seven years old. By the age of twelve, she was touring around Europe with her seven-year-old brother, and the two were touted as a double bill of prodigies, with Nannerl accompanying Wolfgang's violin on the harpsichord, singing with his accompaniment, or joining him for four-hands duets. It is important to note that Nannerl was regarded with just as much esteem as her young brother; even her critical father wrote, in a letter to his wife, that "Nannerl no longer suffers by comparison with the boy, for she plays so beautifully that everyone is talking about her and admiring her execution...My little girl plays the most difficult works which we have of Schobert and Eckardt and others, Eckardt's being the most difficult, with incredible precision." In addition, Wolfgang idolized his older sister; her early harpsichord training inspired him to study music, and he frequently praised her talents in their letters--including her skill as a composer. In fact, Wolfgang's letters are the only existing evidence of her compositions, as there are no surviving scores of Maria Anna's music, and mentions of her work are strangely absent from her father's writings. Nevertheless, she may have been as great a composer as a performer--even if she pursued the former more privately.
However, when she turned 18 in 1769, Nannerl's father decided that it would not be appropriate for this young lady of marriageable age to display her musical talents. And unlike her brother, who would later rebel against his father's wishes for his career and marriage, Nannerl remained obedient to Leopold throughout her life. She stayed at home to run the household, continuing her musical career only by giving lessons to supplement the family's meager income--and it is here that she began to fade from the history books, to such an extent that a 1901 Musical Times article praised her "good management of the maid-servant, who was both dirty and untruthful!" more than her musical talents. Again at her father's request, Maria Anna turned down a proposal from a man she loved and instead married a widowed magistrate, Johann Baptist Franz von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg, in 1783. She moved to the nearby village of St. Gilgen and withdrew herself completely from the music world in order to take care of her three children and four stepchildren. In 1801 her husband passed away, and Nannerl moved back to Salzburg, where she started teaching again, eventually retiring with a significant fortune.
Numerous attempts have been made to give voice to Maria Anna's story, which has been so thoroughly obscured by that of her brother. She is the subject of three novels and a biopic, identically titled with the dubiously eponymous "Mozart's Sister." One wonders if the irony was lost on these authors and directors; their attempts to pull Nannerl out of her brother's shadow still rely wholly on his fame to legitimize her talents. It is indeed a cruel twist of fate (if one can call a complex and long-entrenched system of social mores "fate") that leaves us with a dearth of novels, films, or other media chronicling the undervalued accomplishments of "Mozart's brother."
Bevan, C. J. (1961). Marianne Mozart, Sister of a Genius. The Musical Times, 102(1422), 487. Retrieved December 12, 2015, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/949979
The Sisters of Two Great Composers. I. Nannerl Mozart. (1901). The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, 42 (696), 82. Retrieved December 12, 2015, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3366382