Life of Mozart — Key Ideas to Explore

A Biography Built on Travels

Nohl structures Mozart's life as a sequence of journeys, each marking a phase of artistic growth or disappointment. The first chapter covers the child prodigy's tours across Europe, where he performed for Maria Theresa and met Goethe. The second chapter, titled "The Great Parisian Artistic Journey," details Mozart's disillusionment with Salzburg and his attempts to establish himself in Paris. Nohl frequently quotes from Mozart's letters to show his frustrations with "German 'Free City' life" and his encounters with figures like the composer Stein and the Cannabich family. These travels are not merely geographical; they represent Mozart's search for a patron and a stage for his German opera ambitions.

Recurring Images: The Heart and the Soul

Nohl returns repeatedly to the idea that Mozart's music is "the expression of his own joys and sorrows, the picture of his own soul in tones." The biography's epigraph—"Man's title to nobility is the heart"—sets this tone. In describing Vienna, Nohl speaks of "a warm sensuousness, unpolluted by the coarseness of vice" and of music that speaks "to our heart of hearts and to our mind of minds." This language frames Mozart's compositions as emotional autobiographies. Nohl also emphasizes the role of personal attachments, such as Mozart's attachment to Rosa Cannabich, which he claims influenced the composer's music directly.

Movement Between Scenes: Salzburg to Vienna

Nohl contrasts Salzburg's provincial constraints with Vienna's cosmopolitan energy. He portrays Archbishop Colloredo as a hindrance, quoting Mozart's letter to him as evidence of their conflict. The biography shifts between these two poles: Salzburg represents frustration and limitation, while Vienna offers artistic freedom and a receptive audience. Nohl also moves between different social spheres—from the imperial court to the Weber family's home—showing how Mozart navigated patronage networks. The translator's note highlights that Nohl's larger works had appeared in English, and this shorter biography aims to show "how his life influenced his compositions."

Nohl's Use of Contemporary Witnesses

Nohl draws on a range of voices to build his portrait. He cites the opinion of "the London Bach" (Johann Christian Bach) on young Mozart, and later includes Wieland's impressions. The biography also references Padre Martini and the Philharmonic Society of Bologna, grounding Mozart's early achievements in institutional recognition. Nohl's account of Mozart noting down the Miserere from memory after hearing it in the Sistine Chapel is presented as evidence of his prodigious ear. These witnesses serve to authenticate Mozart's genius without relying solely on Nohl's own judgment.

Readers approaching Nohl's biography should attend to how he weaves together letters, anecdotes, and cultural analysis. The book is less a chronological catalogue than an argument for Vienna's unique role in nurturing Mozart's art. Nohl's emphasis on the composer's emotional life and his struggles with authority offers a humanizing portrait, though one filtered through the biographer's own Romantic sensibilities. For those interested in the social conditions that shaped classical music, this 1880 work remains a valuable, if dated, document.

That rainy afternoon, I drifted through Nohl's Life of Mozart, pausing at his restless Paris letters—the longing for a home that never quite fit. The same ache surfaced later, unexpectedly, in Masters of French Music — Story, Setting & Ideas, where the rain seemed to fall on those later composers' own wanderings. One book simply handed me to the other.