Those three years could have made a real difference in Wolfgang’s brain development, says Gottfried Schlaug, director of the Music and Neuroimaging Laboratory at Harvard Medical School. Because of Wolfgang’s apparent aptitude, Leopold soon launched his son’s music education instead of waiting until the boy was 8. “‘This minuet and trio were learned by Wolfgang in half an hour, at half-past nine at night on the 26th of January 1761, one day before his fifth birthday,’” Leopold jotted in Nannerl’s music book, according to Maynard Solomon’s Mozart: A Life. Wolfgang’s early forays into music-making took his father by surprise. “Young Wolfgang was probably impressed by that and inspired to play.” “Over time, Nannerl’s playing became more and more brilliant, her technique perfect,” Rieger says. After a few years, Wolfgang tried to play sections from Maria’s music book. She progressed quickly, with 3-year-old Wolfgang often at her side. Leopold Mozart, a court musician, began teaching Maria Anna, his first-born child, to play harpsichord when she was 8 years old. “Musicians learn by watching other musicians, by being an apprentice, formally or informally.” Being in a musical family with a musical sibling, in particular, can heighten one’s musical interest, expertise and musical drive, Jackson says. “No musicians develop their art in a vacuum,” according to Stevan Jackson, a musical sociologist and anthropologist at Radford University in Radford, Virginia. “I’m not sure there is evidence that the dynamic was in any way exceptional beyond what you might think between one relatively talented musician and one who far outshines the other.” “To answer the question of how much Nannerl influenced Wolfgang musically, I would say not at all,” says Cliff Eisen, professor of music at King’s College in London and editor of the Cambridge Mozart Encyclopedia. Such a suggestion may seem far-fetched to Mozart fans and scholars. “I’ve never really considered that possibility, and I don’t know of anyone who has before.” “That’s a very interesting question,” says Eva Rieger, retired professor of music history at the University of Bremen and author of the German-language biography Nannerl Mozart: Life of an Artist in the 1800s. But as one of Wolfgang’s earliest musical role models, does history owe her some measure of credit for his genius? The young virtuoso, nicknamed Nannerl, was quickly overshadowed by her brother, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, five years her junior. “What it all amounts to is this, that my little girl, although she is only 12 years old, is one of the most skillful players in Europe.” “My little girl plays the most difficult works which we have … with incredible precision and so excellently,” her father, Leopold, wrote in a letter in 1764. When she toured Europe as a pianist, young Maria Anna wowed audiences in Munich, Vienna, Paris, London, the Hague, Germany and Switzerland. Her admirers were truly fascinated by the 11-year-old girl who could interpret the most demanding sonatas of the most renowned composers with utmost grace, delicacy, and taste.“Virtuosic.” “A prodigy.” “Genius.” These words were written in the 1760s about Mozart-Maria Anna Mozart. At that time, Maria Anna was as much admired as her little brother. In fact, at the height of their genius, the sibling prodigy duo traveled throughout Europe demonstrating their talent during Wolfgang’s 18-month stay in London. Everyone remembers Wolfgang, but the role of Maria Anna, commonly nicknamed Nannerl, is rarely mentioned. Maria Anna Mozart expands aspects of the life of one of the most recognized musical genius who ever lived and opens a door for historical revisionism, as well as one more argument to make it clear that it is not speculative to talk about marginalization and oppression and how it has affected the course of humanity. Such is the case of Maria Anna Mozart, who like her brother, Wolfgang Amadeus, was a musical prodigy, only the scales of time and recognition did not tip in her direction. Can an outstanding person fade from the general panorama until they practically inhabit the shadow of others? The answer is yes. In the process, figures are exalted while others, just as prominent and talented, are left behind. Subject to the context, circumstances, and collective culture of the time, history can mean one thing to some and something completely different to others.
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