Mozart's compositional method: Difference between revisions

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==Use of a keyboard==

Mozart evidentlysometimes neededused a keyboard to work out his musical thoughts. This can be deduced from his letters and other biographical material.<ref>This point is made by the authors of the [[Cornell University]] website "Mozart and the keyboard culture of his time", which also offers digital images of the letters in question. See [http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/mozart/myth/TellTale_Letters.htm].</ref> For instance, on 1 August 1781, Mozart wrote to his father [[Leopold Mozart|Leopold]] concerning his living arrangements in Vienna, where he had recently moved:

:"My room that I'm moving to is being prepared—I'm just off now to hire a keyboard, because I can't live there until that's been delivered, especially as I've got to write just now, and there isn't a minute to be lost."<ref>Cited from Konrad 2006, 102</ref>

Konrad cites a similar letter written from Paris that indicates that Mozart didn't compose where he was staying, but visited another home to borrow the keyboard instrument there. Similar evidence is found in early biographies based on [[Constanze Mozart]]'s memories.{{fact|date=September 2014}}

On the other hand, Mozart was in fact able to compose without a keyboard, according to various sources. German musicologist [[Hermann Abert|Prof. Dr. Hermann Abert]] cites Mozart's first biographer [[Franz Xaver Niemetschek]] in his book, who originally stated: <nowiki>''</nowiki>He never went to the keyboard when composing<nowiki>''</nowiki>. Mozart's wife, [[Constanze Mozart|Constanze]], has also stated the same thing and added that he <nowiki>''only tried out a movement when it was finished''</nowiki>.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Abert|first=Hermann|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l6I6BwTMJ3sC&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&hl=de|title=W.A. Mozart|date=2007-01-01|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-07223-5|pages=824|language=en}}</ref> According to Abert, in his later years, Mozart would often compose in his bed <nowiki>''between six and seven in the morning''</nowiki>.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Abert|first=Hermann|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l6I6BwTMJ3sC&newbks=0&printsec=frontcover&hl=de|title=W.A. Mozart|date=2007-01-01|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-07223-5|pages=826|language=en}}</ref>

==Incomplete works==