Constanze Mozart (nee Weber), Mozart's Wife
Constanze Weber was born on January 5, 1762, in Zell im Wiesental. Her mother was Cäcilia Weber, nee Stamm. Her father Fridolin Weber worked as a "double bassplayer and music copyist." His half-brother was the father of composer Carl Maria von Weber.
Early Years of Constanze Weber
Constanze had three sisters, the older ones, Josepha and Aloysia, and the younger, Sophie. All sisters were trained as singers. Josepha and Aloysia both succeeded in their musical careers, later performing in the premieres of some Mozart's works.
The family lived in Mannheim (her mother's hometown) during most of Constanze's upbringing. Mannheim was an important musical center at the time. When he was 21 years old, Mozart visited Mannheim with his mother in 1777 to job-hunt. He developed a close relationship with the Weber family. He fell in love with Aloysia, not Constanze. While Mozart was in Paris, Aloysia obtained a position as a singer in Munich. She rejected Mozart when he passed through Munich on his way back to Salzburg.
Mozart moved to Vienna in 1781 and by that time, Aloysia had married Joseph Lange, who agreed to help Cäcilia Weber with an annual stipend, and she took in boarders to make ends meet. The Webers lived on the second floor of a house at Am Peter 11. It bore a name: Zum Auge Gottes ("God's Eye").
Marriage to Mozart
On first arriving in Vienna on 16 March 1781, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart stayed at the house of the Teutonic Order with the staff of his patron, Archbishop Colloredo. In May, he "was obliged to leave," and chose to board in the Weber household, originally intending "to stay there only a week." After a while, it became apparent to Cäcilia Weber that Mozart was courting Constanze, now 19, and in the interest of propriety, she requested that he leave. Mozart moved out on 5 September to a third-floor room in the Graben.
The courtship continued. Surviving correspondence indicates that Mozart and Constanze briefly broke up in April 1782, over an episode involving jealousy where Constanze had permitted another young man to measure her calves in a parlor game. Mozart also faced a difficult task of getting his father Leopold into granting permission for the marriage.
Despite all the odds and the atmosphere of crisis, the marriage took place on August 4, 1782. In the marriage contract, Constanze "assigns to her bridegroom five hundred gulden which [...] the latter has promised to augment with one thousand gulden," with the total "to pass to the survivor." Further, all joint acquisitions during the marriage were to remain the common property of both. A day after the marriage took place, the consent of Leopold arrived in the mail.
The couple had six children, of whom only two survived from infancy: Karl Thomas Mozart (second child) and Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (the 6th child.)
Life After Mozart's Death in 1791
Mozart died on December 5, 1791, at the age of 35, leaving debts and other responsibilities. Constanze's business skills came into fruition: she obtained a pension from the Emperor, organized profitable memorial concerts, and embarked on a campaign to publish her husband's works. These efforts eventually made her financially secure, and well-off. She sent Karl and Franz to Prague to be educated by Franz Xaver Niemetschek, with whom she collaborated on the first full-length biography of Mozart.
Toward the end of 1797, she met Georg Nikolaus von Nissen, a Danish diplomat and writer who was, initially, her tenant. The two began living together in September 1798, and were married in 1809 in Bratislava. From 1810 to 1820 they lived in Copenhagen, and subsequently traveled throughout Europe, especially Germany and Italy. They settled in Salzburg in 1824. The couple worked on a biography of Mozart that was eventually published by Constanze in 1828, two years after Nissen's death. During her last years in Salzburg, her two surviving sisters, Aloysia and Sophie, also widows by this time, moved to Salzburg and lived with her for life. She passed away March 6, 1842.
Resources:
Image Credit:
Constanze Mozart by Joseph Lange, her brother-in-law. en.wikipedia.org, Public Domain.
Constanze Weber was born on January 5, 1762, in Zell im Wiesental. Her mother was Cäcilia Weber, nee Stamm. Her father Fridolin Weber worked as a "double bassplayer and music copyist." His half-brother was the father of composer Carl Maria von Weber.Early Years of Constanze Weber
Constanze had three sisters, the older ones, Josepha and Aloysia, and the younger, Sophie. All sisters were trained as singers. Josepha and Aloysia both succeeded in their musical careers, later performing in the premieres of some Mozart's works.
The family lived in Mannheim (her mother's hometown) during most of Constanze's upbringing. Mannheim was an important musical center at the time. When he was 21 years old, Mozart visited Mannheim with his mother in 1777 to job-hunt. He developed a close relationship with the Weber family. He fell in love with Aloysia, not Constanze. While Mozart was in Paris, Aloysia obtained a position as a singer in Munich. She rejected Mozart when he passed through Munich on his way back to Salzburg.
Mozart moved to Vienna in 1781 and by that time, Aloysia had married Joseph Lange, who agreed to help Cäcilia Weber with an annual stipend, and she took in boarders to make ends meet. The Webers lived on the second floor of a house at Am Peter 11. It bore a name: Zum Auge Gottes ("God's Eye").
Marriage to Mozart
On first arriving in Vienna on 16 March 1781, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart stayed at the house of the Teutonic Order with the staff of his patron, Archbishop Colloredo. In May, he "was obliged to leave," and chose to board in the Weber household, originally intending "to stay there only a week." After a while, it became apparent to Cäcilia Weber that Mozart was courting Constanze, now 19, and in the interest of propriety, she requested that he leave. Mozart moved out on 5 September to a third-floor room in the Graben.
The courtship continued. Surviving correspondence indicates that Mozart and Constanze briefly broke up in April 1782, over an episode involving jealousy where Constanze had permitted another young man to measure her calves in a parlor game. Mozart also faced a difficult task of getting his father Leopold into granting permission for the marriage.
Despite all the odds and the atmosphere of crisis, the marriage took place on August 4, 1782. In the marriage contract, Constanze "assigns to her bridegroom five hundred gulden which [...] the latter has promised to augment with one thousand gulden," with the total "to pass to the survivor." Further, all joint acquisitions during the marriage were to remain the common property of both. A day after the marriage took place, the consent of Leopold arrived in the mail.
The couple had six children, of whom only two survived from infancy: Karl Thomas Mozart (second child) and Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (the 6th child.)
Life After Mozart's Death in 1791
Mozart died on December 5, 1791, at the age of 35, leaving debts and other responsibilities. Constanze's business skills came into fruition: she obtained a pension from the Emperor, organized profitable memorial concerts, and embarked on a campaign to publish her husband's works. These efforts eventually made her financially secure, and well-off. She sent Karl and Franz to Prague to be educated by Franz Xaver Niemetschek, with whom she collaborated on the first full-length biography of Mozart.
Toward the end of 1797, she met Georg Nikolaus von Nissen, a Danish diplomat and writer who was, initially, her tenant. The two began living together in September 1798, and were married in 1809 in Bratislava. From 1810 to 1820 they lived in Copenhagen, and subsequently traveled throughout Europe, especially Germany and Italy. They settled in Salzburg in 1824. The couple worked on a biography of Mozart that was eventually published by Constanze in 1828, two years after Nissen's death. During her last years in Salzburg, her two surviving sisters, Aloysia and Sophie, also widows by this time, moved to Salzburg and lived with her for life. She passed away March 6, 1842.
Resources:
- Braunbehrens, Volkmar (1986) Mozart in Vienna: 1781–1791, Timothy Bell Trans, HarperPerennial.
- Davenport, Marcia (1932) Mozart, The Chautauqua Press.
- Carr, Francis (1983) Mozart and Constanze. London: Murray. (1983)
- Glover, Jane (2005) Mozart's Women.
- Halliwell, Ruth (1998) The Mozart Family: Four Lives in a Social Context. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Selby, Agnes (November 1999). Constanze, Mozart's Beloved. Wahroonga: Turton and Armstrong Pty. Ltd.
- Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. On-line edition, copyright 2007 by Oxford University Press.
- Solomon, Maynard (1995) Mozart: A Life, Harper Collins.
Image Credit:
Constanze Mozart by Joseph Lange, her brother-in-law. en.wikipedia.org, Public Domain.
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