In no way shape or form was Nannerl Mozart a prodigy. She was a talented keyboardist,("piano" from here on) but talented is the key word. As far as composing goes, she was a very poor composer and she definitely was NOT composing Mozart's music for him. On the contrary, there are a few existing letters from her, asking him to compose piano pieces for her.
Contrary to modern belief, a very large number of upper-middle class and wealthier ladies were STELLAR pianists. There were no radios and the piano was their entertainment, for their husbands and themselves. This leads to an incontrovertible fact: the VAST MAJORITY of pianists in the 17th and 18th, even 19th centuries, were women. NOT MEN. Men just didn't have the time needed to learn to play the piano, and very very few did.
In order to play the piano during these eras, one needed extensive training, 4 years minimum to reach a modicum of proficiency, in both reading sheet music, as well as improvising and composing. Of the women playing piano, they not only knew how to compose music, but were expected to do so. Music history is FULL of female composers. But the bottom line is, they are not famous because they are not good enough. Play anything from Maria Hester Park, Clara Schumann, or Fanny Mendelssohn and compare it to any famous male composer from the same era and there is no competition.
Maria Hester Park is considered part of the "Mozart Circle" btw. Meaning her compositional style was HEAVILY influenced by him. So let's compare. Copy each fragment below, open a new window, go to youtube and paste the fragment after the dot com and hit enter.
2 pieces for piano from Maria Hester Park /watch?v=-paYk0zJZts and
/watch?v=FwBto5iueig
2 pieces for piano from Mozart: /watch?v=l0ecUq1z1TE and
/watch?v=1BkZ8ci8_k4
Maria Hester Park was famous in her day, and she is still known 250 years later. But do not even try to claim her pieces are on par with Mozart. Even today, with all the hooray for woman, the female composers are STILL ignored. This bizarre erroneous belief that woman were beaten down just isn't true.
On top of this lack of virtuosic skill, we have the problem of travel. With all the hardships, danger and crime on the road in the 1700s, women did not WANT to travel. (Mozart's mother actually died from pneumonia, while on the road with him) It was easier on women to stay home and be a wealthy house-wife than it was to travel as a composer and performer. Before electricity, a wealthy woman could run her house, or, if she was crazy, she could try to join the men and swing an ax, dig for coal, haul manure, slaughter animals, or any other number of nasty, sweaty, exhausting thankless jobs. Heat of summer, wet of rain, or freezing snow... like traveling across Europe by horse drawn wagon to play a piano in the next big city two - three weeks away. Do you have ANY idea how slow horses trot compared to cars and planes?
I'm not even going to go into detail about how utterly absurd it is to claim that Nannerl not only knew the Hier of the French Throne, but was in a secret, quasi homosexual, cross dressing relationship with him. Good God...
Contrary to modern belief, a very large number of upper-middle class and wealthier ladies were STELLAR pianists. There were no radios and the piano was their entertainment, for their husbands and themselves. This leads to an incontrovertible fact: the VAST MAJORITY of pianists in the 17th and 18th, even 19th centuries, were women. NOT MEN. Men just didn't have the time needed to learn to play the piano, and very very few did.
In order to play the piano during these eras, one needed extensive training, 4 years minimum to reach a modicum of proficiency, in both reading sheet music, as well as improvising and composing. Of the women playing piano, they not only knew how to compose music, but were expected to do so. Music history is FULL of female composers. But the bottom line is, they are not famous because they are not good enough. Play anything from Maria Hester Park, Clara Schumann, or Fanny Mendelssohn and compare it to any famous male composer from the same era and there is no competition.
Maria Hester Park is considered part of the "Mozart Circle" btw. Meaning her compositional style was HEAVILY influenced by him. So let's compare. Copy each fragment below, open a new window, go to youtube and paste the fragment after the dot com and hit enter.
2 pieces for piano from Maria Hester Park /watch?v=-paYk0zJZts and
/watch?v=FwBto5iueig
2 pieces for piano from Mozart: /watch?v=l0ecUq1z1TE and
/watch?v=1BkZ8ci8_k4
Maria Hester Park was famous in her day, and she is still known 250 years later. But do not even try to claim her pieces are on par with Mozart. Even today, with all the hooray for woman, the female composers are STILL ignored. This bizarre erroneous belief that woman were beaten down just isn't true.
On top of this lack of virtuosic skill, we have the problem of travel. With all the hardships, danger and crime on the road in the 1700s, women did not WANT to travel. (Mozart's mother actually died from pneumonia, while on the road with him) It was easier on women to stay home and be a wealthy house-wife than it was to travel as a composer and performer. Before electricity, a wealthy woman could run her house, or, if she was crazy, she could try to join the men and swing an ax, dig for coal, haul manure, slaughter animals, or any other number of nasty, sweaty, exhausting thankless jobs. Heat of summer, wet of rain, or freezing snow... like traveling across Europe by horse drawn wagon to play a piano in the next big city two - three weeks away. Do you have ANY idea how slow horses trot compared to cars and planes?
I'm not even going to go into detail about how utterly absurd it is to claim that Nannerl not only knew the Hier of the French Throne, but was in a secret, quasi homosexual, cross dressing relationship with him. Good God...