#i have 2 more pages that still need my handwriting translated into something legible. (the textbox tool)

[summerroseart]

More Final Space AU!!

A few character dynamics/roles, and ...less angsty than the last one :')

Can you tell I rewatched a few episodes

[zayneblumberg14-blog]

Blog Post #8: Influences on Mozart’s Life

1. I think Nannerl influenced Mozart a lot and much more than people give credit for. I believe that people are largely a product of their environment and who they grew up with. I have an older brother and he is one of the greatest influences on my life. I would not be the person that I am today without him and the same goes for my parents. However, my brother and I have a special relationship and we have always pushed each other growing up. Whenever he was doing something like playing a sport or instrument, I wanted to do the exact same thing. I played the same sports that he did and I was on boys teams because he obviously played on boys teams. He played the saxophone and that inspired me to start playing an instrument as well. He was also my coach in the sports that I played. I wasn’t great at listening to him back when we were young, but looking back on my life, he’s taught me a lot about the sports I play today. I have my own talents, but he has definitely been a major influence on my life. I think the same would apply to Mozart and Nannerl, especially considering that she was such a talented harpsichordist. She was musically talented and in his letters, Mozart seemed to admire her talents greatly and they seemed to have a close relationship. I think Mozart looked up to her a lot, which leads me to believe that Nannerl could have been a great influence on him musically. My brother and I have always been competitive with each other, which pushed us in that way. But we also support one another and want to see each other do well and will help one another do whatever it takes to succeed. I think Wolfgang and Nannerl Mozart had a similar relationship and she had a great influence on his music and his success as a musician. 

2. This reading gave a little more insight into who Mozart was not only as a musician, but also as a person. It also describes what events led to him becoming who he was and the difficulties that he faced with his family and his life as a traveling musician. In Eisen’s article, you got the perception that Mozart was an all around genius who suffered through many difficulties, but overcame several obstacles in his life to become as successful as he did. But in this article, you get the perception that Mozart was very different and although he was a genius, he had many flaws as a human being when it came to his social life. Both of the readings have similar outlooks on his music, but they have different portrayals on who Mozart was as a person and what led to his accomplishments.This article describes Mozart as not being all there in the head and constantly needing someone to tell him what he needed to do in order to be perceived as “normal”. The first article didn’t really go into detail about that part of Mozart’s story. I believe the first article was meant for an audience that was more interested in learning about Mozart’s musical style and career rather than his personal life and who he was as a person. The second article seemed to be more of a biography about Mozart that connected to his musical career, but didn’t go into great detail about the music that he composed.

3. Eisen believes that Nannerl had nothing to do with Mozart’s success and that he was not influenced by her in any way because there is no evidence to show her influence. Due to his belief on this matter, I understand more about his perspective and opinion of Mozart. Eisen sees Mozart’s story as impeccable and absolutely incredible. I am not saying that Mozart’s story isn’t incredible because he was a remarkable human being and clearly a genius. However, Eisen has a bias towards Mozart and thinks that his success is due to his talents and hard work rather than other people influencing his achievements. He gives some credit to his father, but also says that his father pushed him a bit too far later in life and he had to overcome the obstacle of pleasing his father. However, he says nothing about Nannerl influencing him because he doesn’t believe she had anything to do with it even though she was a wonderful musician herself. Eisen mentioned that she was also a child prodigy, but she could not compare to her brother. I see the first article having a lot of bias towards Mozart and the type of life he lived. Eisen does not give much credit to anyone else having much influence on his career. It makes me view the article differently because Mozart was a remarkable person and had many obstacles he had to overcome, but I think that a lot of his success came from his family, not only his God given talents and hard work on his part.

4. I read letter 106 from Wolfgang to his best friend who is not named in this letter. It was written on July 3, 1778 from Paris after Mozart’s mother passed away. This was in no way a mundane letter. Mozart was writing about his mother passing away earlier that night and he was writing this letter at 2 in the morning. He was mourning the loss of his mother and describing in detail how she was doing. He begged his friend to not tell his father or sister since they were not there to witness it, but to just prepare them for the news. Mozart was pleading for his best friend to prepare his family for the news and to vent his feelings about losing his mother. Mozart had a very close relationship to his mother so I can only imagine the pain and sorrow he was feeling at this moment. Part of him seemed a little bit relieved in his letter, however, to know that she was no longer suffering. He was writing that she is now with God and no longer in pain. However, he seemed very sad and distraught and just wanted to vent his feelings to his best friend and beg him to prepare his father and sister for the terrible news. 

5. I chose to look at the letter written on September 7, 1771 and I believe it was written to his sister in Salzburg. The letter itself looks pretty illegible and I cannot easily see what words are written on the page due to ink splotches and the handwriting isn’t the greatest either. This letter looks more legible than the other ones that I looked at and the handwriting looks a little better. However, it is still very difficult to read what is on the paper. I’m not sure how the translation was acquired because I cannot really see the letters clearly enough to see if the translations are accurate in German. I may not be able to see it with the naked eye, but I’m sure the people who wrote the letters in clearer writing and translated them had better technology to see what Mozart was saying in the letter. There are tons of letters on this webpage and I think there is a lot we can learn about Mozart’s life and his relationship with his family and friends. As a primary source, I believe that these letters can be used as scholarly sources because it is directly from Mozart. Overall, the letters are in pretty good shape for being so old. Considering that they are still somewhat legible, I think these are good sources to get information not only about Mozart’s life, but about the times.