Mozart is
a new and brilliant study of the great composer's life and creative genius,
written by one of the most important social thinkers of our time.As Elias shows,
Mozart grew up in the tradition of court music, in a society which viewed
musicians as manual workers who were expected to produce entertainment for a
court audience. Throughout his short life he was constantly in search of work;
the only job he was able to find was as an organist at the small court in
Salzburg. Elias describes how the composer tried to live in Vienna as a
freelance musician. It was not, however, until the next generation - that of
Beethoven - that the necessary conditions were created for such an existence.
Mozart failed, he argues, because he took a step towards independence in a
society which was not then ready for it. With the aristocracy of Vienna having
turned its back on him, with mounting debts, no work and no prospect of
fulfilling his innermost desires, Mozart died with the feeling that his social
existence had completely foundered, that his life had become empty of meaning.
In Mozart, Elias brings his enormous powers of insight to bear on this
case of tragic conflict between personal creativity and the tastes of a society
which sought to control it.
Contents: Part I
Sociological Reflections on Mozart. He Simply Gave Up and Let Go. Bourgois
Musicians in Court Society. Mozart Becomes a Freelance Artist. Craftsmen's Art
and Artists' Art. The Artist in the Human Being. The Formative Years of a
Genius. Mozart's Youth - Between Two Social Worlds. Part II. Mozart's
Revolt: from Salzburg to Vienna. Emancipation Completed: Mozart's Marriage. The
Drama of Mozart's Life: a Chronology in Note Form. Two Notes. Editor's
Afterword. Index.
Source: Polity Press book announcement