Dexter Edge

Emperor Joseph II and Grand Duchess Maria Fyodorovna wager
on the Mozart-Clementi duel

The piano duel on Christmas Eve 1781 between Mozart and Clementi in the presence of Emperor Joseph II and Grand Duchess Maria Fyodorovna of Russia is one of the most famous events in the lives of both musicians, but its documentary sources have never been carefully evaluated. The anecdote presented here stems from Mozart’s friend Giuseppe Antonio Bridi, who sang Idomeneo in the 1786 production of that opera in Vienna. Bridi’s anecdote about the duel has long been dismissed by scholars, but it is, in fact, the earliest published account to describe the contest in any detail: it appeared in 1827, the year before Mozart’s own description of the duel was first published in Nissen’s biography. Bridi’s account is consistent with Mozart’s, but he includes details that Mozart omits. According to Bridi, the duel was the result of a wager between Joseph and the grand duchess, with Joseph championing Mozart and the grand duchess Clementi. Bridi also writes that Mozart, when his turn came, improvised variations on a theme from the sonata that Clementi had just played, his Sonata in B-flat, op. 24/2. My commentary re-evaluates all of the known documentary sources on the duel and sketches a new account collating the most reliable sources.

A collaborative website (with David Black) for the publication of newly discovered documents that refer to Mozart or his music during his lifetime.  The collection will eventually include over 200 new documents.  All documents have a detailed commentary, and most have a facsimile of the original document.  Many of the new documents were found on Google Books and similar digital repositories.  The site will eventually include several thematic essays, in addition to the documents and commentaries.

A revised and updated version of my commentary on a report from Vienna dated 5 Oct 1791 and published in the "Bayreuther Zeitung" that is the earliest known reference to the reception of Mozart's opera "Die Zauberflöte," which premiered on 30 Sep 1791. The report makes the hitherto undocumented claim that Mozart was awarded the gate receipts from the third performance of the opera.

This is the official pdf version of a commentary first published on the site "Mozart: New Documents," edited by Dexter Edge and David Black.

An introduction to the color facsimile of Mozart’s autograph of "Le nozze di Figaro" published by the Packard Humanities Institute and Bärenreiter in 2007. The introduction begins by examining the compositional genesis of the opera. A close analysis of the paper-types in the autograph, in conjunction with a reassessment of the primary documentary evidence, strongly suggests that Mozart began to compose the opera in the summer or even the late spring of 1785, much earlier than previously thought. It appears that the opera was composed in two main stages. Mozart completed much of the work on the first two acts by November 1785, apparently with a view toward a premiere by the end of that year or the beginning of 1786. When that possibility failed to materialize, Mozart turned his attention to other projects for a few months, then finished the rest of Figaro within a period of just a few weeks before its premiere on 1 May 1786. The original orchestral parts and performance score from the first production show that revisions to the opera continued during the rehearsal period, and perhaps even after the premiere. My introduction also looks at the early reception of the opera, and Mozart’s revisions for the first Viennese revival in 1789–1791.

An extended commentary on a reference to “Mozarts Fortepiano” in a satirical vignette by Joachim Perinet, describing Naglergasse in Vienna, a narrow street plagued by the noise of coppersmiths. The commentary explains in detail Perinet’s topical references; it also includes a new biography of Perinet, an important writer in the Viennese comic tradition, based in part on newly discovered documents, one of which potentially also sheds new light on the early biography of Joseph Sonnleithner.

This pdf contains full resolution color images, and is relatively large. A compressed version can be downloaded through a link in the page for this document at the site "Mozart: New Documents."

Most recent revision: 24 Dec 2016

Commentary on the newly discovered report of the earliest known performances of Mozart's "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" outside Vienna. The performances took place in Strasbourg, on 24 and 25 Jan, 1783.

This is a pdf version of a transcription and commentary first posted on Dexter Edge & David Black, eds., "Mozart: New Documents."

An introduction to the new Mozart documents discovered in digital repositories (particularly Google Books). The documents are currently in the process of publication with commentary on the site "Mozart: New Documents," by Dexter Edge and David Black.

An introduction to the use of R and the package dplyr for analyzing historical box-office receipts.  This document can stand on its own, but also serves as appendix to the extended commentary for an important new early document on Mozart's opera "Die Zauberflöte." The document and commentary can be seen here: https://sites.google.com/site/mozartdocuments/documents/1791-10-05

An analysis of an 18th-century ink drawing depicting an orchestral performance. When the drawing first came to public attention in 1991, it was attributed to Johan Zofanny and said to depict a young Mozart at the keyboard. As I demonstrate, the attribution to Zoffany was without foundation and highly implausible, as was the notion that the drawing depicted Mozart. Yet the drawing was reproduced and discussed several times in the Mozart literature between 1991 and its auction in 2013, and these attributions were never seriously vetted; in fact, the stories built around the drawing grew ever more elaborate.

In this essay, I discuss some of the possible reasons for the drawing's uncritical acceptance. I also consider its potential value as evidence of 18th-century orchestral performance practice, and I critically examine and dismiss three other related attributions to Zoffany: two alleged portraits of Mozart as a child, and one alleged portrait of his sister.

This is a revised version of an essay first published on 24 Aug 2013 on Michael Lorenz's blog "Musicological Trifles and Biographical Paralipomena."

A searchable version of this dissertation is available in two parts here:

Chapters 1-7: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vbzLGzhvxoz_UbzK4Z5mai5R-1d_GIsA/view?usp=sharing

Chapter 8 to end: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15MIqfd1D0GrHydaKaywTbbqhSHw--2Io/view?usp=sharing

Previous Mozart scholars have paid little attention to non-autograph Viennese copies of Mozart’s music. Yet a surprising number of Viennese manuscript copies can be directly linked with the composer. Such non-autograph manuscripts occasionally provide sources for works whose autographs are lost, or reflect authorized revisions that Mozart did not enter into his autographs. Such copies may also shed new light on performance practice, reception, and Mozart’s biography.
    This dissertation first establishes a contextual and methodological framework for the investigation and analysis of early Viennese manuscript copies of Mozart’s music. Chapter 2 examines the musical and professional background of music copying in Vienna in the late eighteenth century. Chapter 3 deals with the analysis of musical manuscripts, with special emphasis on the identification of anonymous musical handwriting and the analysis of music paper. Chapter 4 offers a critique of the concept of “authenticity" of copyists and copies, and suggests a more nuanced taxonomy. The remainder of the dissertation deals with specific copies and copyists. Chapter 5 discusses Joseph Arthofer, who worked for Mozart in 1783. Chapter 6 deals with the most important (still anonymous) Viennese copyist to have worked for Mozart, here called Viennese Mozart-Copyist 1. Chapter 7 discusses the commercial Viennese music copyist Johann Traeg. Chapter 8 treats the non-autograph manuscripts in Mozart’s “estate.” Chapter 9 examines the Mozart manuscripts produced by the shop of Wenzel Sukowaty, chief music copyist of the Viennese court theater from around 1776 to 17%, with special attention to the original orchestral parts from the first production of "Le nozze di Figaro" in 1786, and the first Viennese production of "Don Giovanni" in 1788. Chapter 10 analyzes the recently discovered attributions to Mozart in a Viennese score of the Singspiel "Der Stein der Weisen." Chapter 11 summarizes the larger themes of the dissertation and suggests directions for future research. Appendices include additional facsimiles of copyist handwriting and facsimiles of important watermarks, as well as a complete facsimile of the original performing score of the aria “Alma grande e nobil core,” K. 578, the autograph of which is lost.

Reconsiders the question of Mozart's reception in Vienna during the last five years of his life, taking its departure from an analysis of the box-office receipts from the court theater in Vienna (the Burgtheater) in the seasons 1789-90, and 1790-91. Two of Mozart's operas were in the theater's repertory during those seasons: "Così fan tutte" (premiered near the end of the season 1789-90) and "Le nozze di Figaro" (revived by the theater in a production first performed on 29 Aug 1789). The records of the box-office receipts show that both operas did quite well in comparison to other operas in the repertory, particularly in the season 1789-90.

(The searchable pdf currently available on this site was uploaded on 3/17/2015, and supersedes the one previously available here.)

My first paper on manuscript sources of Mozart's music, delivered in 1989 and published in 1996. The copyist identified here, Joseph Arthofer, became the subject of Chapter 5 of my dissertation, "Mozart's Viennese Copyists" (2001, also available on my page at academia.edu).