Klarinet Archive - Posting 000122.txt from 2005/02

From: orm1ondtoby@-----.net (Ormondtoby Montoya)
Subj: [kl] Language issues when researching Mozart?
Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2005 15:03:26 -0500

Dan, I'm still struggling with the concept that a notation which is
catalogued in Grove has escaped attention for all these years --- but
I'd like to ask a related question:

You mentioned that you have discovered a translation error in one of
Mozart's wife's letters. Was this a modern error (last 25 years), or
was it something older that involved translating from German to Italian,
and perhaps finally to English? (I assume that German was Mozart's
wife's primary language?)

I ask this because I've noticed that expressions and instrument names in
Mozart holographs (the facsimiles that I've seen, and also the holograph
that Library of Congress brought to my town last year) are written in
Italian, not German. I can imagine that customs of the day prompted
Mozart to use Italian in his scores, but presumably German was his
primary language --- in his personal letters and so forth. Why did (if
they did) the Italian musical community have such a 'lock' on musical
language? Perhaps because the major patrons of the day were Italian?

Thank you,
Ormond

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