otto jahn lifted from ludwig

[pianonut]

from the journal Music and Letters 1920 Vol. I No. 2 (p.111)
Mozart and the Europe of His Day:

"in 1914, just before the war broke out, there was published in Germany the first complete correspondence of the Mozart family, which extends over a period of more than 30 years"  It was admirably edited by Dr. Ludwig Schiedermair of Bonn (4 volumes).  These letters were "thoroughly sifted" by Otto John for his great biography.  (So if you, like me, thought Otto Jahn was the giant of all knowledge about mozart, think again).  These letters were a COMPLETE collection (independent of otto)  One thing about the Mozart's is that Leopold took the time to request a friend (Hagenauer) to keep all his letters (while travelling with young mozart and nannerl) in a safe place.  And, WA mozart also kept all of his correspondence, and nannerl, and constanze.  So, with all these letters, one can trace a lot of history. (and genius) 

Don't worry Otto, we still love you.  Just can't read the German. 

[bernhard]

Here is something I often wonder about.

Much is made of the correspondence and diaries (e.g. Schumann) of great composers (or celebrities in general) and these documents are hailed as authoritative evidence of the person’s innermost thoughts.

However, I for one do not pour in letters my truly innermost thoughts. A lot of the Mozart’s letters are to his father – who was an authoritarian figure. So I somehow would take anything Mozart wrote to his father with several spoons of salt.

Then again I may just have become too cynical.

Best wishes,
Bernhard.

[pianonut]

yes.  i agree with what you say about letters not being the last word on any subject.  was just reading about some correspondence of liszt which says he met with beethoven and after he played a bach fugue, was asked to transpose it into another key.  well, come to find out, beethoven was deaf at the time and didn't even know what key it was in in the first place.  then, liszt even contradicted himself several times in discussions with others about how the meeting took place (when he was around 14 years of age).  anyway,  the journal article was saying exactly what you are, that to take things with a grain of salt and compare with what others said and sort of tally it all up.

[Nordlys]

I don''t quite understand your original post.

Otto Jahn died 1869, long before the letters were published.
Is the point that Otto Jahn used the letters of Mozart as the base of his biography, without crediting it?
Or that the complete letters which Schiedermair edited are more comprehensive than the Jahn biography?

[pianonut]

i'm just starting to run for cover.  i am a budding musicologist and i thought otto jahn was the 'end all' to mozart biographies.  come to find out, when mozart died all his correspondence etc. were in different hands and went different places for many years.  as far as i understand (i could be wrong) schiedermair was the first to compile all the letters into the format he did, so people could read their entirety and do their own research as well.  i have great regard for otto jahn.  just that i stopped and ended my research with him until i found out that there was schiedermair and also the journals Music and Letters which help you find even more information than you thought was available (and it's in english!).

here's a bit more info. on what happened after mozart died (you may already know this).  constanze married georg nikolaus nissen.  he went through mozart's stuff to authenticate which sketch's and manuscripts were mozart's and to testify and sign  ('mozart's handwriting' in the hand of gnn).  then some of mozart's musical estate was purchased by the german publisher johann anton andre in 1799.  later, adolf andre (grandson of johann) inherited some stuff, but not before heinrich henkel (1822-1899) who was a student of johann and later assisted him in organizing his collection also inherited a portion of andre's collection.  (so, now things are split - with some stuff here and some stuff there). 

in the early 20th century materials belonging to the andre family were sold by auction in 1929 and 1932.  some ended up with a person named batchelder.  in 1936 he donated his collection to the library of congress.  i found out that a 'missing autograph sketch' (K577) was discovered by william parsons of the music division of the library of congress in an uncatologued portion of the the john davis batchelder collection.  woopee!  even tho, i am quoting an article, i feel like an archeologist when all the other things i read said 'cannot be found.'  unusual things show up after many years in very many unusual places!