“Snow!” screamed Wolfi and raced ahead, jumping up and trying to catch the heavy flakes on his tongue. Nannerl ran after him and tried to catch them too; they giggled and ran in circles with their faces to the sky.
Mama and Papa caught up to them. They stared up at the snow and Mama linked her arm in Papa’s. “Grandma Pertl used to say that when the weather was cold at Christmas, the winter would be hard but spring would come early,” she said.
“This spring we shall be in London,” said Papa. “I know my wonderful children will take that city by storm. I was very proud of both of you tonight.”
Nannerl shivered, although she didn’t feel a bit cold. She grabbed Wolfi’s hand and together they raced and skipped and danced ahead. She ran with all her might, looking at the sky and humming a new melody, a song of spring.
Author’s Note
While The Mozart Girl is a work of fiction, Nannerl was a real person, and much of this novel is drawn from real events in her life. My research for this novel came from many books, but two of the most useful were the letters that Leopold Mozart, Nannerl’s father, wrote to their landlord, Lorenz Hagenauer, during the 1763–1766 Grand Tour, and a biography of Nannerl written in German by Eva Rieger. A List of Sources is included for readers who want to learn more about Nannerl.
The dates of the major life events for Nannerl and Wolfi are listed in the book’s Chronology. In the novel, I changed the date of Nannerl’s real birthday to accommodate the Mozarts’ travel schedule. A number of the documents that I have mentioned are real. You can still find Notebook for Nannerl in music stores or at the library if you would like to learn the minuets that Leopold Mozart composed to teach Nannerl how to play the clavier. The book is complete with Leopold’s notes on Wolfi’s progress written at the bottom of some of the pieces.
Nannerl’s diary is also real. For many years she kept a diary which Wolfi sometimes shared. The diary entries in this novel, however, are all imagined. The diary was eventually inherited by Wolfgang’s widow. Unfortunately, she didn’t realize its importance. She lost pages, or cut them up and gave them away to friends and collectors. Those pages that remained were gathered together and published in German.
The newspaper excerpt praising Wolfi and Nannerl is a translation of an actual article written by Melchoir Grimm, the famous editor of the Correspondance littéraire, a literary journal read by many European intellectuals.
The children’s dog and doll are also mentioned in the historical accounts. The Mozarts had a fox terrier who was named Bimberl. The children seemed fond of pet names: Bimberl was also nicknamed Pimperl, Miss Bimbes or Miss Pimsess. The doll, Salome Musch, was named after the family cook. Years after the children had stopped playing with it, the doll was brought down from the attic and given to Nannerl’s son to play with.
Besides the Mozart family, many of the other characters in the novel are also historical. Katherl really was a friend of Nannerl’s. Her full name was Maria Anna Katharina Gilowsky, and she was the eldest daughter of the Salzburg court surgeon, Andreas Gilowsky. Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782), was the son of the famous Johann Sebastian Bach. The meeting in Paris, however, is invented. The Mozarts didn’t actually meet Johann Christian Bach until they reached London, where the prominent and popular composer had a great influence on Wolfi’s style of writing music.
Many of the other musicians mentioned are also historical. Johann Baptist Wendling (1723–1797) was a famous flautist who played in the Mannheim orchestra. Wolfi and Nannerl played a concert at Schwetzingen Palace with the Mannheim orchestra on July 19, 1763. Johann Schobert (1735–1767) was a composer and famous player of the harpsichord. He actually did express his jealousy of Nannerl’s precise and excellent playing of very difficult pieces by Johann Gottfried Eckhardt (1735–1809), another composer. When in Coblenz, the Mozarts spent a good deal of time with the family of the Baron Kerpen. His seven sons and two daughters all played one or two instruments—the clavier, violin, cello—or sang.
In addition, many of the details I have recounted of the events of the Mozarts’ tour I discovered in historical documents, particularly in Leopold Mozart’s letters. During their first musical tour, in 1762, the Mozarts visited Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, home of the Empress Maria Theresa. Leopold Mozart writes, in a letter of October 16, 1762, that Wolfi “jumped up on the Empress’ lap, put his arms around her neck and kissed her heartily.” He tells about the broken wheel in his letter of June 11, 1763. And the Mozarts were stranded in Wasserburg, where Wolfi tried the organ for the first time. Nannerl’s organ concert is, however, imagined.
You can still visit Nymphenburg Palace in Munich. At the Mozarts’ concert for Maximilian the Third, Elector of Bavaria, they actually did run out of time for Nannerl because Wolfi used up all the time improvising and playing a concerto for violin and clavier. Leopold mentions in his letter of June 21, 1763, that “the Elector said twice that he was sorry not to have heard my little girl.” Because of the Elector’s comments, Nannerl went back to Nymphenburg to play for the Elector where she was “warmly applauded.” The Mozarts met Maria Sophia, sister of the Elector, at the dinner at Nymphenburg. (The rest of Sopherl’s story is imagined.)
The little portable clavier was purchased from J. A. Stein in Augsburg so that Wolfi and Nannerl could practice on their travels. The Mozarts arrived at Versailles on Christmas Eve, 1763, and were invited to a public court dinner on New Year’s Day. Leopold writes that Wolfi “was requested to stand all the while beside the queen, to talk constantly with her and entertain her, and frequently to kiss her hands, and to eat right beside her of the dishes which she graciously handed to him from the table […] I stood by him, and on the king’s other side […] stood my wife and daughter.”
The restrictions imposed on young girls and women that are recounted in this novel are true. Both the organ and the violin were seen as instruments to be used by men working as professional directors of music in courts or churches. Since women were never allowed to hold such jobs, girls were not encouraged to play the organ or the violin, or to learn composition or improvisation. Leopold Mozart gave these lessons to Wolfi but not to Nannerl. Nannerl was given lessons in playing the clavier, with and without the keyboard covered by a cloth, and in singing. Though none of Nannerl’s compositions were published, we do know that she composed pieces for the organ and clavier.
Chronology
July 30, 1751:
Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia Mozart is born.
January 27, 1756:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is born.
January 1762–January 1763:
The first tour of the Mozart family through Austria.
June 1763–November 1766:
The grand tour through Munich, Augsburg, the Rhine, Aachen and Brussels to Paris and Versailles; to London for over a year, back through Holland, through Switzerland and Bavaria.
June 1763:
Wasserburg, Munich
July 1763:
Ludwigsburg, Schwetzingen Palace
September 1763:
Rhine journey, Coblenz
October 1763:
Austrian Netherlands, Brussels
November 1763:
Paris
December 1763–January 1764:
Versailles
September 1767–January 1769:
The second tour of Austria, Nannerl’s last
“prodigy” tour.
August 23, 1784:
Nannerl marries Johann Baptist Berchtold zu Sonnenburg.
December 5, 1791:
Wolfgang dies at age 35 in Vienna.
October 29, 1829:
Nannerl dies at age 78 in Salzburg.
Glossary
Baumkuchen:
“Tree cake”; German Advent cake made to look like the cross-section of a tree trunk.
Cartwright:
Christstollen:
German Advent sweet yeast bread, coated with icing sugar and made to resemble the Christ child wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Clavier:
Any musical instrument having a keyboard, especially a stringed keyboard instrument such as
a harpsichord or clavichord.
Concertmaster:
The leader of the first violins in an orchestra,
who is usually the assistant to the conductor.
Concerto:
A composition for one or more solo instruments, with orchestral accompaniment.
Forte:
A direction in music which means “loud.”
Gugelhupf:
A fancy cake mold with a swirled or fluted pattern.
Kapellmeister:
Director of music.
Marzipan:
A candy made of almond paste with sugar that is molded into various shapes.
Minuet:
A piece of music written for the minuet, which is a slow, stately dance popular in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Motet:
A vocal composition with many voices, intended for use in a church service.
Parallel Fifths:
Two voice parts progressing, so that the interval (fifth) between them stays the same.
Pfeffernüsse:
A German Christmas cookie with a gingerbread taste, made by rolling dough into strips and cutting it into small pieces.
Score:
A piece of music with all the instrumental or vocal parts written on each page.
Sight-read:
To play or sing a piece of music without previous practice.
Snuffbox:
A small fancy box for holding ground tobacco.
Sonata:
An extended instrumental composition, usually
in several movements.
Sou:
Either of two bronze coins of France.
Stops:
Knobs which are drawn out or pushed back to control various parts of an organ.
Symphony:
An instrumental composition in three or more movements, similar in form to a sonata but written for an orchestra.
Trill:
A fast alteration of two notes which are very close.
Wunderkind:
“Wonder child.”
Zwölfjahrekerze:
“Twelve-year candle.”
List of Sources
Anderson, Emily, ed. and trans. The Letters of Mozart and His Family. London: Macmillan, 1938.
Buckalew, Martha Harter. “The Other Mozart,” Keyboard Classics 9 (1989): 6-7.
Burney, Charles. Music, Men and Manners in France and Italy 1770. Ed. Edmund Poole. London: Eulenberg, 1974.
Hummel, Walter. “Tagebuchblätter von Nannerl und Wolfgang Mozart,” Mozart Jahrbuch des Zentralinstituts fur Mozartforschung 1957: 207-211.
Hunter, Clarice. “Whatever Became of Nannerl Mozart?” Clavier April 1979: 30-31.
Hutchings, Arthur. Mozart: The Man. The Musician. New York: Schirmer, 1976.
Mozart, Leopold. Notebook for Nannerl. Ed. Hans Kann.Tokyo: Zen-On Music Company, Universal Edition No. 17145.
Perl, Lila. Candles, Cakes, and Donkey Tails. Birthday Symbols and Celebrations. New York: Clarion, 1984.
Rieger, Eva. Nannerl Mozart: Leben einer Kunstlerin im 18. Jahrhundert. Frankfurt am Main: Insel Verlag, 1990.
Russ, Jennifer M. German Festivals and Customs. London: Oswald Wolff, 1982.
Sadie, Stanley, ed. “Maria Anna (Walburga Ignatia) Mozart.” In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. London: Macmillan, 1980.
Schenk, Erich. Mozart and His Times. Eds. and trans. Richard and Clara Winston. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1959.
About the Author
Barbara Nickel is an award-winning poet and author of books for young people. Her work has been shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award and won the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize. Her most recent picture book, A Boy Asked the Wind, was shortlisted for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Award. Barbara lives in Yarrow, B.C. with her husband and two sons.
Visit the author’s website at www.barbaranickel.ca.
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