Mozart was not Austrian
NewsBavarian Radio is claiming him as a local lad, whose family spoke German with a strong Swabian accent.
The Mozarts lived in Augsburg from the 15th century: there is a plaque in the Fuggerei housing complex to prove it. They were bakers and bricklayers.
Leopold Mozart, the composer’s father was the first to leave home, journeying to Salzburg to study and eventually landing a fourth violin seat in the court orchestra. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, but his roots were way to the west and his father never shed the clunky Augsburg accent, or so they say.
Identity politics raging now in the field of music history.
So, the Mozarts were immigrants, not ‘pure’ Austrians.
My PA claims she always heard that in the music.
A great loss for the local extreme-rightwing party.
Cool your jets, you are reading too much into this. Salzburg wasn’t annexed to the Austrian empire until 14 years after W.A. Mozart’s death.
Why are you spoiling my day??
Sally
The Mozarthaus in Augsburg is very much worth a visit as, indeed, is the rest of this cultured city. When I was there I watched the Puppet Theatre perform Der Ring des Nibelungen (abridged), attended a church service which included a complete performance of a Bach cantata and saw a play at a small independent theatre in the suburbs. Together with the museums, the river walks and the lovely botanical garden, Augsburg has a lot to offer.
I see. Anyne actually around to hear his accent?
Well even Salzburg wasn’t Austrian at the time but its own country under the Fürsterzbisschof.
I thought Leopold played the viola, rather than the violin .
I thought this was why Wolfgang also played viola.
Oh boy… You seem to be aware of the existence of the Internet, it takes seconds to look up that what you “thought” might not indeed be a fact…
So the internet is the font of all wisdom, facts a Bible truths? Why be tetchy about debate?
https://www.amazon.com/Treatise-Fundamental-Principles-Violin-Playing/dp/019318513X
A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing, by Leopold Mozart.
It’s very interesting and informative, though he contradicts himself sometimes.
Why is this even being discussed? Who cares, if they have the least bit of intelligence? Next thing that will come out, is that the Mozart Family had some Jewish blood; and that will be the beginning of the end for Wolfgang Amadeus’ standing.
Actually, Mozart was black, only he hid this under a thick layer of make-up. He was the only black in the family and thus, a great embarrassment to his father Leopold. And it was the real reason why the bischop in Salzburg fired him, with a kick in the ass, because he had appeared at a rehearsel in a hurry and had apparently forgotten his nose.
Salzburg was part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. So was Austria. Thus Mozart was a Salzburger and a German; much like many Americans say they are from Ohio-USA. Austria was the most important German state until 1866 when it was expelled by Prussia. In 1918 Austrian Parliament demanded the Anschluss with Germany. The Allies refused and even didn’t allow the country to call itself Deutsch-Österreich. The Anschluss of 1938 was considered by most Austrians as a reparir of the age old historical situation.
I realize your intention is not to defend national socialist propaganda of the period, but regardless, we can’t say “by most Austrians” because there was no viable data sample, only a rigged, highly-pressured election in an environment where dissenting rhetoric was suppressed under threat of violence.
Anyone who has read Mozart’s letters know he always calls himself “a proud German”. Moreover, Salzburg at the time was part of Prussia, not Austria.
Mozart was Salzburger, not Austrian. The German-speaking world’s overreach in lionizing “Germans” in the music historiography of the 18th and 19th centuries was self-aggrandizing by design.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall of the Mozart household! A thick Bavarian accent would be music to the ears!
Of course Mozart was born and raised a German, but worked and died an Austrian.