Composers Forum is a daily web log that allows invited contemporary composers to share their thoughts and ideas on any topic that interests them--from the ethereal, like how new music gets created, music history, theory, performance, other composers, alive or dead, to the mundane, like getting works played and recorded and the joys of teaching. If you're a professional composer and would like to participate, send us an e-mail.
Record companies, artists and publicists are invited to submit CDs to be considered for review. Send to: Jerry Bowles, Editor, Sequenza 21, 340 W. 57th Street, 12B, New York, NY 10019
I just read a wonderful novel called Stitches In Air by Liane Ellison Norman (2001). It is the story of Mozart's mother. The author wanted to write a nonfiction book on this subject but could not find enough source material. So she took what she had and wrote a book assuming that Mozart's mother, Anna Pertl Mozart, was a gifted composer who studied at the Nonnberg convent before her marriage to Leopold. It is a beautifully written and imagined book. In the Afterward the author makes it very clear what information she did have and which ideas she made up. The title refers not only to the lace that she made but also to the fact that all her music and almost all her letters disappeared into the air. Mozart's sister and fellow composer, Nannerl, is a major figure in this family novel. The world's effect on all musicians of the day, especially the women, is dramatically brought to life.
posted by Beth Anderson
10:32 AM
