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Wolfgang Amadé Mozart

The subtitle of this dense tome perhaps should be "The Composer as Revolutionary." Its author presents an invigorating portrait of a Mozart schooled in Enlightenment thought and prepared to be a willing participant in the social changes swirling through Vienna in the last decade of the 18th century.

At one point, Knepler -- an unrepentant, East German Marxist -- even compares Mozart to Lenin; each, he writes, had the ability to work with tradition while breaking new ground: ". . . if revolutions are to be genuine and profound rather than mere flare-ups of protest they must be directed, not against the old, but against the obsolete."

Throughout, Knepler relies on a variety of sources from obscure academics to popular writers such as Alfred Einstein, Volkmar Braunbehrens and Nicholas Till. (Wolfgang Hildescheimer also gets a mention, but only so Knepler can disagree with him.) But he is most impressive when he strikes out into fresh territory. For example, almost all biographers recognize the importance of Mozart's disastrous trip to Mannheim and Paris. But few call it a "turning point," as Knepler does. And no one else that I know of so convincingly describes the potential influence of Baron Melchior Grimm, a key figure of the Enlightenment who provided a home for Mozart during his stay in the French capital.

Elsewhere, Knepler spends a good deal of energy trying to explain what makes Mozart's music so ravishing. Success here can only be elusive at best, and his discussion often becomes more academic than enlightening. But his reflections on "The question of imitation" and "Zerlina and the three modes of music" are surprisingly compelling and reveal a good deal about Mozart's methods of composition.

Early on, he identifies Mozart's overriding goal, as expressed in a letter to his father dated November 8, 1777: "I cannot write in verse; I am no poet. I cannot arrange the parts of speech so artfully as to produce effects of light and shade; I am no painter. Not even by signs and gestures can I express my convictions and thoughts; I am no dancer. But I can do so in notes; I am a musician." Convictions is a strong word, Knepler explains, that "can only refer to a complex of meanings adumbrated by terms such as 'attitudes,' 'persuasions,' 'beliefs' -- even 'values.' " Thus from the start Mozart made it clear that he expected more from life than a series of successful commissions and appointments. He was looking to express, in notes, his own convictions and thoughts. Revolutionary, indeed.