Mozart's name

The composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart went by many different names in his lifetime. This resulted partly from the church traditions of the day, and partly from the fact that Mozart was multilingual and freely adapted his name to other languages.

Baptismal record

Mozart was baptized on 28 January 1756, the day after his birth, at St. Rupert's Cathedral in Salzburg as "Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart". The baptismal register of the cathedral parish contains the entry shown below, written down in Latin by city chaplain Leopold Lamprecht. The parallel five-column format of the original document, seen in the figure, is transcribed below in five consecutive paragraphs. Material in brackets represents editorial additions by Otto Erich Deutsch (see below), intended for clarification.

Mozart's baptismal record

[Januarius] 28. med[ia hora] 11. merid[iana] baptizatus est : natus pridie äh[ora] 8. vesp[ertina]
Joannes Chrysost[omus] Wolfgangus Theophilus fil[ius] leg[itimus]
Nob[ilis] D[ominus] Leopoldus Mozart Aulæ Musicus, et Maria Anna Pertlin giuges
Nob[ilis] D[ominus] Joannes Theophilus Pergmaÿr Senator et Mercator civicus p[ro] t[empore] sponsus
Idem Leopoldus Lamprecht Capellanus Civicus

Mozart's father Leopold announced the birth of his son in a letter to the publisher Johann Jakob Lotter with the words "... the boy is called Joannes Chrisostomus, Wolfgang, Gottlieb" ("der Bub heißt Joannes Chrisostomus, Wolfgang, Gottlieb" in German). The baptismal names "Joannes" and "Chrysostomus" also have German equivalents, namely "Johann" and "Chrysostomos" (or less frequently, "Chrysostom"). The widely used Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians employs these versions in the heading name for its Mozart article, which parenthesizes the little-used baptismal names: "(Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart."

Here are the details of the various names given on the register:

Later life

Austrian musicologist Otto Erich Deutsch, who studied all available letters and documents about the composer, arrived at the following conclusion about what the composer called himself: "In Italy, from 1770, Mozart called himself 'Wolfgango Amadeo', and from about 1777, 'Wolfgang Amadè'."

The use of multiple language versions of the same name was perhaps common in Mozart's day. Joseph Haydn went by "Joseph" (German, English and French), "Josephus" (Latin) and "Giuseppe" (Italian); and Ludwig van Beethoven published his works as "Luigi" (Italian) and as "Louis" (French).

Mozart's preference for "Wolfgang Amadè" can be seen on the wedding contract for his marriage to Constanze Weber, dated August 3, 1782, where the composer's signature is "Wolfgang Amade Mozart". In the parish register entry for the marriage, dated August 4, Mozart is referred to as "Herr Wolfgang Adam Mozart".

Mozart spelled "Amadè" variously in regard to the accent on the final letter. Robert Spaethling, who translated many of the composer's letters, writes, "[Mozart] is especially nonchalant in his placement of Italian and French accents: sometime he writes 'chèr papa', at other times 'chér papa,'[1] and even his own name appears variously as 'Amadé', 'Amadè', and plain 'Amade'."[2] As a web search indicates, modern usage also varies among these three alternatives.

Mozart's preference for "Amadè" was not in general respected by others. Frequently, he was called either "Wolfgang Amadeus" or "Wolfgang Gottlieb". Here are examples:

The rise of "Amadeus"

It is possible that the now-standard "Amadeus" originated as a facetious name. In three of his letters he signed himself in mock Latin as "Wolfgangus Amadeus Mozartus";[3][4][5][6] this was certainly no accident as in one letter he did the same to the date of the letter as well: adding "-us" to the end of each word.

Mozart's only mention as "Wolfgang Amadeus" in an official document made during his lifetime was found in 1998 by Mozart scholar Michael Lorenz in the registers of the Lower Austrian Governorship, where in May 1787 "Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus" is referred to as having applied for the return of his written surety for his friend Franz Jakob Freystädtler. Other uses of "Amadeus", from immediately after Mozart's death in 1791, are given above.

The 19th century saw the gradual victory of "Amadeus" over alternative middle names. Volkmar Braunbehrens (1988) observes that early (18th century) biographers of Mozart, such as Friedrich Schlichtegroll and Franz Niemetschek, used "Gottlieb". However, in 1798 the publishing firm of Breitkopf & Härtel began to issue a (partial) Complete Works edition under the name "Amadeus". The dominance of "Amadeus" began around about 1810; Romanticism, notably in the person of E. T. A. Hoffmann, "seized upon this name to proclaim its veneration for Mozart". Although various scholars since that time have made use of "Amadè" or "Gottlieb", "Amadeus" remains by far the most familiar term for the general public.[7]

Facetious names

In the frequently playful letters of his youth Mozart sometimes would spell his name backwards, viz., "Mozart Wolfgang" or "Trazom". See above for the possible origin of "Amadeus" as facetious.

Notes

  1. ↑ French for 'Dear papa'. Modern French usage is accentless. it is possible that Mozart wrote an accent by analogy to the feminine form, which is spelled 'chère'.
  2. ↑ Spaethling (2000:xii)
  3. ↑ Katherine Arens (1996), Austria and other margins: reading culture, Camden House, p. 55, ISBN 978-1-57113-109-6
  4. ↑ 莫札特著錢仁康編譯 (2006), "The Mozart Family Correspondence", 我是你的莫札特, 聯經出版, p. vii, ISBN 978-957-08-3020-0 (reprinting Robert D. Levin)
  5. ↑ James M. Keller, Program Notes
  6. ↑ Michael Steinberg; Larry Rothe (2006), For the love of music: invitations to listening, Oxford University Press US, p. 21, ISBN 978-0-19-516216-5
  7. ↑ Source for this paragraph: Braunbehrens, 1988

References

Further reading

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