This dissertation reassesses the Mozarts' stay in London, from April 1764 until July 1765. It explores the family's professional, social and intellectual networks, considering how they were formed, how they functioned, and the interrelationships between them to ascertain the extent of the Mozarts' engagement with both musical and wider cultural life. The first chapter lays out the broad range of primary sources available for studying the Mozarts in London. It includes the first fully annotated edition of Leopold Mozart's London Reisenotizen, highlighting several pre-existing networks that the Mozarts engaged with. The four remaining chapters use these networks as a point of departure to provide a fresh perspective on the fifteen months. Chapter 2 explores the Mozarts' navigation of Westminster's musical scene, focusing on public concert life, subscription concerts and private concerts. Chapter 3 examines Leopold's engagement with the knowledge of his patrons, furthering his interests in science and technology. It then situates the Mozart children as part of London's scientific culture, themselves an object of curiosity. Chapter 4 considers Leopold's contact with merchants and traders based in the City of London as relationships with potential patrons, offering a revised context for the Swan and Hoop Tavern appearances. Chapter 5 documents the Mozarts' exposure to London's musical club cultures, music by English composers, and the memory of Handel. The number of musicians and patrons whose interests traversed different musical spheres suggests greater degrees of fluidity among London's musical cultures than is typically allowed. This dissertation positions the Mozarts' stay in London as an educational journey for the whole family, of which music was a significant but not the sole focus. Its approach challenges existing narratives of the family's London period and childhood travels, and has implications for understandings of eighteenth-century London's musical life as well as wider Mozart biography.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:713072 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Templeton, Hannah Margaret |
| Contributors | Eisen, Cliff |
| Publisher | King's College London (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/the-mozarts-in-london(54130024-c2e4-4ce1-a6d0-35a235f01734).html |
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