Mozarts Ausbildung zum Komponisten (1761-1765)

Mozart’s early compositions show the development of the conceptual musical thought which would also produce his later great masterpieces. Detailed analysis of pieces composed before 1765, based on relevant historical concepts, traces Mozart’s development from ‘small pieces’ through the first sonata movements to the symphony. The ‘Nannerl Notenbuch’ in particular is subjected to intensive philological and analytical studies; these provide equal insights into Leopold Mozart’s teaching methods and Wolfgang’s progress as a pupil in composition. A comprehensive examination of the compositional environment, including Leopold’s keyboard sonatas, in the context of contemporary theory brings central compositional and formal categories of the period back to light. Largely forgotten foundations of periodic and metric structures with their differing types of interaction, together with a contemporary discussion about questions of the interrelation of content, offer a new approach to the music of the 1760s. This study lays the foundations for historically-informed analyses of works of Viennese classical