Mozart and the Enlightenment

"An erudite mix of music, history, philosophy, biography, sociology, and even depth psychology—adding up to a triumphant study of Mozart's supreme masterworks." —Kirkus Reviews

In this fascinating study of Mozart's operas, Nicholas Till shows how the composer's work was informed by Enlightenment ideas and discoveries. The author, who has directed operas at the Glyndebourne Festival, draws on such writers and thinkers as Richardson, Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant, Goethe, Schiller, and Blake to advance his thesis. He evokes the Vienna of the 1780s, a world of intense intellectual argument, political debate, and religious inquiry that deeply influenced Mozart. Each of the composer's major operas is analyzed in terms of the role it plays in demonstrating Mozart's philosophical ideas.

1995 / paperback / ISBN 0-393-31395-6 / Photographs / 400 pages / MUSIC

• "Takes the Mozart story right out of fable and fantasy—all that rubbish of the golden lad, of music flowing directly from the gods. Nicholas Till has given Mozart a brain that was well fed and watered by the ideas of his day." —BBC World Service