Mozart and the Keyboard Culture of His Time

Mozart Watch
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On Mozart’s childhood tours, aristocratic admirers showered the prodigy with an array of presents such as silver snuffboxes, watches, bejewelled rings, miniature portraits, etc. The Empress Maria Theresa gave a golden pocket watch, with her image on the front, to Mozart in 1771. From the time of Maria Theresa’s gift to the era of quartz watches, a curious reversal of roles took place between patron and artist. In an age of capitalist market values, of corporate images and advertising slogans, it is the face of the genius that sells, though the means of presentation remain essentially the same.

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[top] Mozart Quartz Wristwatch and [bottom] picture of a pocket watch, L’Epine, Paris
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Introduction
From Sketch to Completed Work
From Print to CD
How did Mozart Compose?
The Mozart Myth: Tales of a Forgery
Mozart's Images
Mozart's Images Imagined
What the Score Doesn't Tell Us
The Piano Lesson
The Cult of Mozart
Commodification & Kitsch
Credits
Cornell University Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Cornell University Library

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