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News

Sat, 27 Jan 2024. Three advertisements by Lorenz Lausch

WZ, 1789-08-22

Happy Mozart’s birthday! We have just added three new documents to our site, all advertisements by the Viennese music dealer and copyist Lorenz Lausch. One is a previously unknown advertisement on 22 Aug 1789 offering an arrangement for eight-part Harmonie by Johann Went of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, one week before the premiere of the first Viennese revival of the opera. [...]

Fri, 11 Aug 2023. Four letters by Count Firmian on Mozart and "Ascanio in Alba"

Firmian on Mozart, 1771-02-09

We have just added four new documents to our site: four draft letters by Count Carlo di Firmian regarding the commissioning and preparation of the serenata for the wedding in Milan of Archduke Ferdinand and Princess Maria Beatrice d’Este in the autumn of 1771. This is the commission that became Ascanio in Alba. The letters were first described by Andrea Sommer in her 1981 dissertation at the University of Vienna, but have been overlooked by Mozart scholars. Transcriptions, translations, and commentaries here are by Dexter Edge. [...]

Mon, 17 Jul 2023. Ludwig Fischer in Mannheim, and three other new documents

Fischer

We have just added four new documents to our site: [...]

Thu, 9 Mar 2023. Three Documents from the Mozarts’ first Italian tour

Firmian Letter.4April1770 (extract)

We have just added three new documents to our site, including a newly discovered letter from Count Firmian to Count Giacomo Marulli regarding Mozart. We also take a new look at Marianne and Cecilia Davies in our commentary on a letter from Giammaria Ortes to Hasse. [...]

Fri, 27 Jan 2023. Barrington in a South Carolina newspaper, and four other new documents

SCAmGazNov1771, Barrington-announce

We are celebrating Mozart’s birthday with our first posting of new documents since June 2021! The new documents are: [...]

Mon, 9 Jan 2023. Our old site has been taken offline

The original version of Mozart: New Documents hosted at Google Sites has now been taken offline. [...]

Mon, 21 Nov 2022. Transfer to our new site is complete

We have now completed the year-long process of moving Mozart: New Documents to its new home: [...]

Mon, 28 Jun 2021. Two overlooked references to Mozart in Zinzendorf (and an addendum)

Zinzendorf-1782-12-06_detail

We have added three new entries to our site: two overlooked references to Mozart in the diaries of Count Zinzendorf and a new reading of Zinzendorf’s well-known entry of 5 Dec 1782. The overlooked references were discovered by Mary Sue Morrow and included (without transcription) in her 1989 book on Viennese concert life, but up to now they have not been noticed by Mozart scholars. [...]

Sun, 6 Jun 2021. References to Mozart in Three Letters to Count Wolkenstein

Lodron (detail)

We have just added three new documents to our site, all passages from letters to Count Pio Fedele von Wolkenstein in Trent. All three were discovered by Clemente Lunelli, who first reported them in 1982, but they have remained almost entirely unknown to the Mozart literature. [...]

Thu, 31 Dec 2020. Mozart and Count Firmian (and six other documents)

Knoller-Firmian (announcement)

We have added three new entries to our site: two overlooked references to Mozart in the diaries of Count Zinzendorf and a new reading of Zinzendorf’s well-known entry of 5 Dec 1782. The overlooked references were discovered by Mary Sue Morrow and included (without transcription) in her 1989 book on Viennese concert life, but up to now they have not been noticed by Mozart scholars. [...]

Sat, 15 Aug 2020. The source for Mozart’s entry in Kronauer’s Stammbuch

Mozart, Patience (combined new)

On 30 March 1787, Mozart made an entry in English in the Stammbuch (friendship book) of his fellow Mason Johann Georg Kronauer: “Patience and tranquillity of mind contribute more to cure our distempers as the whole art of Medecine.” Mozart scholars have long suspected that this maxim did not originate with Mozart, but its source remained unknown. [...]

Wed, 29 Apr 2020. Three documents from Leopold and Wolfgang Mozart’s first trip to Italy

Arco letter, 1769-12-11 (reduced)

We have just added three new documents to our site, all from the first month of Leopold and Wolfgang Mozart’s first trip to Italy. All three documents have been previously published, but they are not in Dokumente or Neue Folge and remain little known to Mozart scholars. We are also very pleased to welcome Stefano Frega as co-author (with Dexter Edge) of the three commentaries here. [...]

Mon, 30 Sep 2019. “Entführung” in Dischingen; the Willmann sisters; and Mozart in a play by Frambach

Charlotte von Hildburghausen

We have just added three new documents to our site, which now includes 161 documents. More than 150 others are still to come! [...]

Wed, 28 Aug 2019. “Don Giovanni” and “Figaro” in Bonn; the Keilholz sisters

We have just added three new documents to our site, and we are pleased to welcome Steven Whiting as a guest contributor. [...]

Sat, 6 Jul 2019. Mozart in the coronation diary of Count Zierotin in 1790

We have just added three new documents to our site, and we are pleased to welcome Martin Nedbal as a guest contributor. Nedbal writes on two previously unknown references to Mozart in a diary kept by the young nobleman Count Franz Joseph von Zierotin during his trip to the coronation of Leopold II in Frankfurt in 1790. [...]

Mon, 25 Feb 2019. Six Documents from 1765

We have just added six new documents to our site, all from 1765, during the Mozart family’s European tour. We are also delighted to welcome Christopher J. Salmon and Catherine Sprague as guest contributors. Mozart: New Documents now has 152 documents online; we expect the project eventually to have more than 300, and new documents are still turning up! [...]

Mon, 24 Dec 2018. Mozart vs Clementi, Mozart vs Bachmann, and Mozart in America

We have just added four new documents to our site, including a description of the piano duel between Mozart and Clementi, which took place 237 years ago today. Happy Holidays! [...]

Sun, 29 Jul 2018. Four new documents on Mozart’s “Idomeneo” (and an addendum)

We have just added four new documents and one addendum to our site, and we are pleased to welcome Bruce Brown as a guest contributor. [...]

Tue, 3 Apr 2018. Leopold and Wolfgang visit Cignaroli (Verona 1770); Constanze’s benefit concert in the Burgtheater (23 Dec 1791); and 5 other new documents

We have just added seven new documents to our site, and we are pleased to welcome Matteo Magarotto as a guest contributor. [...]

Sat, 20 Jan 2018. Giovenale Sacchi on the young Mozart in Milan; and Girbert orders “Entführung”

We have added three new documents to our site: [...]

Tue, 29 Aug 2017. New Documents on the Mozarts and the Netherlands

With this group of new documents on the Mozarts and the Netherlands, we are pleased to welcome Kris Steyaert (University of Liège) as a guest contributor. The new documents, many discovered on the Dutch site Delpher, include a previously unknown version of a Dutch report on Wolfgang in England (16 Feb 1765); an advertisement by the Hummel brothers of Wolfgang’s op. 2 (K. 8 & 9; 28 Feb 1765); two reports of his performance on 18 Sep 1765 for William V, Prince of Orange; and the earliest known Dutch report of Mozart’s death (6 Jan 1792). [...]

Mon, 22 May 2017. An unknown incident in Mozart’s life in 1791

Mozart: New Documents is pleased to announce the posting of two documents that bring to light a previously unknown incident in Mozart’s life in 1791, and to welcome Michael Lorenz as a guest contributor. [...]

Fri, 7 Apr 2017. Three documents from Meyer’s biography of Schröder

We have just added three new documents to our site, all from Meyer’s 1819 biography of Friedrich Ludwig Schröder. Meyer’s long personal acquaintance with Schröder gave him access to important primary documents, including Schröder’s travel diary from 1791. [...]

Wed, 21 Dec 2016. A Memorial Concert for Mozart in Hamburg on 19 Feb 1792

We have just added two new documents to our site; both are reports on a memorial concert for Mozart in Hamburg on 19 Feb 1792. Although these reports have been known since at least 1890, they are not in Dokumente or its supplements, and the concert has received little attention in the Mozart literature. The concert is of exceptional interest, however, because the program consisted entirely of music by Mozart and much of the program can be reconstructed: it consisted of a piano concerto (K. 595 or K. 456), the aria K. 505, a cantata (K. 471 or K. 619), and three symphonies, including, at the conclusion of the program, the Symphony in E-flat, K. 543, currently the earliest documented performance of that work.  [...]

Wed, 28 Sep 2016. Joachim Perinet refers to “Mozarts Fortepiano,” and 6 other new documents

We have just added 7 new documents to our site: [...]

Thu, 3 Dec 2015. The two premieres of "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" in Warsaw and 5 other new documents

We have just added 7 new documents to our site, including two with commentaries co-authored by DE and Anna Parkitna, a doctoral candidate at Stony Brook University, on the premieres of Die Entführung aus dem Serail in Warsaw in German and Polish. [...]

Mon, 10 Aug 2015. The premiere of "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" in Leipzig, and two other updates

We have just published significant updates to three commentaries on our site, including a new article-length commentary on the premiere of Die Entführung aus dem Serail in Leipzig. [...]

Tue, 21 Jul 2015. “Mozart: New Documents” reaches 100

We have just added 11 new documents to our site (which just had its first birthday on 12 Jun 2015!), bringing the total published so far to 100. We now expect that the site will eventually include well over 200 documents. [...]

Wed, 13 May 2015. The premiere of "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" in Strasbourg on 24 January 1783, and 10 other new documents

We have just added 11 new documents to our site. Highlights include: [...]

Mon, 16 Mar 2015. Three new documents on "Die Zauberflöte"

We have just added to our site three early newspaper reports on Die Zauberflöte: [...]

Mon, 23 Feb 2015. 1 New Document

We have added one new document to our site: a report that suggests Mozart conducted Handel's Judas Maccabeus. [...]

Sun, 11 Jan 2015. 9 New Documents

We have just added nine new documents to our site: [...]

Sun, 7 Dec 2014. 5 New Documents

We have just added five new documents to our site: [...]

Wed, 5 Nov 2014. 6 New Documents

We have just added six new documents to our site: [...]

Sun, 21 Sep 2014. 17 New Documents

We have added 17 new documents to our site, including: [...]

Sun, 20 Jul 2014. The earliest report of Mozart's death

We have just added four new documents to our site: [...]

Sun, 15 Jun 2014. Welcome

Dexter Edge and David Black are pleased to welcome you to Mozart: New Documents, our collaborative website for the digital publication of previously unknown references to Mozart or his music during his lifetime. Our site initially includes 33 documents with commentaries, and we will be adding more than 60 additional documents over the coming weeks.  We expect that the site will eventually have well over 100 new documents. [...]