Nannerl's Music Book

Mozart's Family / Nannerl's Music Book

 

The Nannerl Notenbuch, or Notenbuch für Nannerl (English: Nannerl's Music Book) is a book in which Leopold Mozart wrote pieces for his daughter, Maria Anna Mozart (known as "Nannerl"), to learn and play. It was written from 1759 to about 1764, when Mozart was 3 to 8 years old. His son Wolfgang also used the book in which his earliest compositions were recorded (some penned by his father). 

The book contains simple short keyboard (typically harpsichord) pieces, suitable for beginners; there are many anonymous minuets, some works by Leopold, and a few works by other composers including Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and the Austrian composer Georg Christoph Wagenseil. There are also some technical exercises, a table of intervals, and some modulating figured basses. 

Interesting link (22 videos) by Ivan Rolon Piano:  Nannerl's Music Book. I-XXIII (no video for XX)

Refer to the Table of Contents that summarises the contents of the notebook, here. 

(Apology, this link is no longer available at Youtube. 6 April 2024.)  Leopold Mozart - Nannerl Notenbuch, Volume #1, No 1 - 32. Completely created using virtual instruments. Instrumentation: Harpsichord. Composition Year: 1759 to about 1764. Movements: 32. YouTube, uploaded by Midi Mozart. Accessed October 28, 2020. 

Wolfgang A. Mozart's earliest compositions at the age of 5. These are the first 5 completed pieces of music that he wrote, short pieces performed on the harpsichord. Kochel Catalogue n°1. YouTube, uploaded by fabonino1. Accessed October 28, 2020.

Wolfgang Mozart's Compositions in the Book 

1. Andante in C, K. 1a. 

2. Allegro in C, K. 1b. 

3. Allegro in F, K. 1c. 

4. Minuet in F, K. 1d. 

5. Minuet in G, K. 1e. 

6. Minuet in C, K. 1f. 

7. Minuet in F, K. 2.

8. Allegro in B-flat, K. 3. 

9. Minuet in F, K. 4. 

10. Minuet in F "Triolen-Menuett", K. 5. 

11. Klavierstück in C, K. 5a. 

12. Andante in B-flat, K. 5b

The notebook originally contained 48 bound pages of music paper, but only 36 pages remain, with some of the missing 12 pages identified in other collections. Because of the simplicity of the pieces it contains, the book is often used to provide instruction to beginning piano players. 

 

Resources: 

Nannerl Notenbuch. en.wikipedia.org. Accessed October 28, 2020.  

Wolfgang Amadeus Book / Nannerl's Music Book. Pianoshelf. Accessed October 28, 2020

(c) October 2020. Updated April 6, 2024. Tel. Inspired Pen. All rights reserved.

Mozart Venite populi

 Mozart Works / Choral, Sacred, Motet

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Venite populi, K.260 (KV 248a) is one of the composers few works for double choir (an offertorium for two choirs), and one of the few settings of this rare and unusual text. It deserves to be better known.  

The 0ffertorium de venerabili sacramento “Venite populi” à 2 Chori K. 260/248a – dated Salzburg, 1767 by Mozart in his autograph score – clearly reveals a striving for more pronounced contrapuntal work. A short, homophonic central movement is framed by two predominantly polyphonic movements that are fashioned from the same thematic material. The two-chorus texture offers many opportunities for interweaving, as well as contrast and echo effects of all kinds. It is not known who wrote the non-liturgical text. [Music Room]

Title: Venite populi, K.260
Composer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Number of voices: 8vv   Voicing: SATB.SATB
Genre: Sacred, Motet, Eucharistic song

Language: Latin
Instruments: 2 violins, cello, organ (continuo) OR organ (orchestra reduction)

Below, Mozart's Venite populi performed by the Scottish Chamber Choir. Director Mark Hindley, chamber organ Philip Sawyer, violin 1 Kate Miguda, violin 2 Simon Graham, cello Pete Harvey, double bass Emily Scott-Moncrieff. Recorded at Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh on 15 November 2014. Accessed October 27, 2020.

Latin Text:

Venite, populi, venite
de longe venite,
et admiramini gentes.
Venite, populi, venite,
an alia natio tam grandis,
quae habet Deos appropinquantes sibi,
sicut Deus noster adest nobis,
cujus in ara veram praesentiam
contemplamur jugiter per fidem vivam,
an alia natio tam grandis?
O sors cunctis beatior,
O sors sola fidelium,
quibus panis fractio
et calicis communio
est in auxilium.
Eja ergo epulemur
in azymis veritatis et sinceritatis,
eja ergo epulemur
et inebriemur vino laetitiae sempiternae;
an alia natio tam grandis?
Venite, populi, venite. 

English Translation:

Come, O peoples, come;
come from afar,
and marvel, O races.
Come, O peoples, come;
is there any nation so great
that it has its gods so near to it
as our God is near to us,
whose true presence on his altar
we continually contemplate through living faith:
is there any nation so great?
O fate more blessed than all others,
O fate only of the faithful
for whom breaking bread
and sharing the cup
is a help
Therefore let us feast
on the unleavened bread of truth and sincerity,
Let us feast, therefore,
and become drunk with wine of eternal joy;
is there any nation so great?
Come, O peoples, come. 

 

Resources:

A mere mention from A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Mozart, Wolfgang (... a litany 'de venerabili' (243); an offertorium for 2 choirs 'Venite populi' (260); a graduale 'Sancta Maria' (273); a serenade for the wedding...). 

Venite populi (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart). CPDL. Accessed October 27, 2020. 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Venite Populi In D Major: Mixed Choir. Music Room. Accessed October 27, 2020.

(c) Oct 2020. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.

Sydney Philharmonia Sings Fauré Requiem

CHORAL MUSIC / Sydney Philharmonia Choirs


Sydney Philharmonia Choirs presents:

Fauré Requiem
Saturday,  31 October 2020,  2PM and 5PM
St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney

Gabriel Fauré composed his Requiem in D minor, Op. 48, between 1887 and 1890. The choral-orchestral setting of the shortened Catholic Mass for the Dead in Latin is the best-known of his large works.

The focus of Fauré Requiem is on eternal rest and consolation. It depicts peace and beauty of the heavenly afterlife. It restores the spirit and heals the soul.  

 

Sydney Philharmonia Choirs sings again! They've continued to do so under the challenges of COVID-19 – zooming in from their homes each week to rehearse and share their music-making with us in the digital realm.

But we all know – and you know – it’s simply not the same as real-life concert-giving.

As restrictions begin to lift, they're excited to bring this live concert in the vaulted space of St Andrew’s Cathedral.

In putting this concert together, their choices have been practical: they’re featuring music for small choir and just four instrumentalists – music that will allow them to keep distance accordingly. Music they know and love.

But, as conductor Brett Weymark points out, the constraints have resulted in a program that is satisfying and consoling. Imagine: from silence a single line emerges singing of charity, love and gathering together to forget the frictions in our lives and experience true joy. That’s the Latin prayer of Duruflé’s Ubi caritas. Then the sheer beauty of Fauré’s Cantique de Jean Racine – a song of hope in which we literally ‘break the silence’. And we reprise Fauré’s Requiem, not in its grand symphonic version, but in an arrangement that restores its original conception as something intimate and restful. If 2020 has left us feeling drained and exhausted, then Fauré’s Requiem will restore spirits and heal souls.

Indeed, a joy to sing again.  

Image Credit: Eva Tilley

Program:

Ubi caritas, Op. 10
Maurice Duruflé

Cantique de Jean Racine, Op. 11
Gabriel Fauré   

Requiem 

Gabriel Fauré
(arr. by David Hill)
Published by Novello & Co Ltd
By kind permission of Wise Music Australia

Artists:

Brett Weymark, conductor
Ross Cobb, organ
Fiona Ziegler, violin
Anthea Cottee, cello
Owen Torr, harp

CHAMBER SINGERS

VOX

Orlando Lennon, treble soloist from St Andrew’s Cathedral Choir
Benoît Deney, baritone soloist from Sydney Philharmonia Choirs

Brett Weymark, SPC Music and Artistic Director

Elizabeth Scott, SPC Music Director VOX
Claire Howard Race, SPC Assistant Chorus Master and Rehearsal Pianist
 

The 5pm performance will be recorded by Fine Music Sydney for future broadcast.

Concert duration: 50 minutes, no interval

General Admission $50