It seems almost inevitable that the most telling commentary on Mozart will always come from those who are neither musicians nor biographers. Whether it's because of their outside expertise, or perhaps simply because they come fresh to the subject, these writers seem most able to shake off preconceived notions and explain to us plainly why Mozart and his music still mean so much.

Sociologist Norbert Elias' essays are a perfect case in point.

Elias, who died in 1990, may have lacked extensive, detailed knowledge of Mozart's life. (Wolfgang Hildesheimer appears to be his primary source.) But his understanding of the court society in which Mozart moved, and the role of the artist within it, is deep. From his vantage point, Elias clearly sees why Mozart never really had a chance of obtaining a court appointment in Munich (or Paris or anywhere else), why Mozart's rebellion against his archbishop and father was so unexpected and astonishing, and what his revolt meant to the future of his music and of art in general.

Throughout these essays -- actually fragments published posthumously -- Elias works patiently to undo the damage done by generations of biographers, to reconnect Mozart the man with Mozart the artist. He succeeds because, of all those who have written about Mozart, he is one of the most sympathetic and most human.

"Mozart's tragedy . . . is all two easily hidden from later listeners by the enchanting quality of his music," Elias writes. "This dulls our involvement with him. It cannot be quite right to separate the artist from the man retrospectively in this way. It may be difficult, after all, to love Mozart's art without feeling a little love for the man who created it."

http://www.mozartproject.org/books/elias.html