More Elias on Mozart

Last week‘s blog ended rashly with “So what was Elias doing in them? Ah, that’s for next week!”. This is in reference to the different sections of Elias’s book on Mozart, those which reference letters by Mozart and those that do not. It was rash because a confession is needed – I still do not know what he was doing. I was going to add that no progress has been made, but so long as progress is interpreted as whether there has been some change, then this has happened. The changes are that the book has been read again, different structural features of its chapters have been recorded within already-existing notes, and a summary of Elias’s overall argument across the chapters has been made. What remains is to look closely at exactly where the letters appear, and whose letters they are, whether Mozart by himself or some of the member of his family or circle. Life and work have prevented this latter stage from being embarked on, let alone completed. It is the last major week of teaching in this semester, the previous ten days have also contained marking of assessment work from classes taught, so something had to give!

Last updated:  21 March 2019