Monday, April 25, 2011

Let's Not Forget "Nannerl" - a Question Never to Be Answered...

The entire world recognizes the wonder child Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and his unequaled attainment level.
But; perhaps, just a few words about his older sister, Marie Anna, born five years before Amadeus...
Of course, any of us who follow the course of the history of Western music know that the wonder child had an older sister, who demonstrated undeniable brilliance in keyboard abilities at an early age - we know that both brother and sister performed often in Europe as duo pianists, with works including some written by Little Brother.
However, we shall never know precisely as to the level of brilliance Nannerl (her nickname) may have possessed, as regards her station as a performer and composer (yes, she also wrote music).
The times, it appears, dictated to her a diminishing role as she became a young woman, seemingly placing her more as one of a coming marriageable age, more than as one of demonstrable promise as a musician. The social constraints of the times, it seems, may well have been complicit in the lack of our abilities to determine as to whether Mozart's older sister could have become a musician of import.
An unanswerable question - would Nannerl, if she had been born at a later time in history, have become a renowned musician?

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