On 12 November 2019, Leopold Mozart’s “Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule” (“Essay on a well-founded instruction for the violin”) has been released as new part of the Digital Mozart Edition (DME). The most important tutor for stringed instruments from the 18th century in German language is now available online. The edition sets scholarly standards and is also intuitively accessible for everybody.
This complete digital edition provides an easy-to-read representation of the text of the first edition of 1756 together with facsimiles of the respective pages of the original print. Over the next months, the second edition of 1769, revised by Leopold Mozart himself, will be integrated into the edition. Two contemporary translations (1766 into Dutch, 1770 into French), a modern English translation and a comprehensive scholarly commentary will also be included.
The Digital Mozart Edition is a joint project of the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation and the Packard Humanities Institute in Los Altos (CA). It is accessible via the internet at https://dme.mozarteum.at. For private, scholarly, and educational purposes the use of all DME content is free of charge.
Last update: November 2019
New Libretto Edition to Don Giovanni online
As part of the Digital-interactive Mozart Edition (DIME), the online edition of the libretto for Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni was released on 5 August 2019. For the first time, this new edition makes it possible to conveniently compare the text versions of the printed librettos for the performances in Prague 1787 and Vienna 1788 as well as the text underlay in Mozart’s autograph score.
Don Giovanni K. 527 was the second opera created in collaboration with Lorenzo da Ponte. The opera was commissioned by the Prague impresario Pasquale Bondini after the unprecedented success of Le nozze di Figaro. The opera was first performed in Prague on October 29, 1787. The opera was also heard in Vienna from 7 May 1788; for the Vienna performances Mozart and Da Ponte made a number of substantial changes.
Last update: August 2019
Digital Edition of Mozart’s Last Three Symphonies Online
In addition to the Symphony in E flat, K. 543, which was released in the summer of 2019, the popular Symphony in G, K. 550, and the Symphony in C, K. 551, known as the “Jupiter Symphony”, are now available in the Digital Interactive Mozart Edition (DIME ). The complete triad of Mozart’s late symphonies exists now in an up-to-date digital format, which opens up new prospects for music lovers and professionals alike to discover Mozart and his music.
The digital edition of the symphonies is based on the established text of the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe, but uses the means typical for the digital medium for a flexible display of the music, which can be actively influenced by the user in a variety of ways. There are also many functions that promote a deeper understanding of Mozart’s music, such as the precise linking of the musical text with real sound recordings. Of course, the use is free of charge for private, scientific and educational purposes.
Wolfgang Amadé Mozart wrote the three symphonies in the summer of 1788, as can be seen from his own work catalogue, the “Verzeichnüß aller meiner Werke”. Nothing is known about the exact circumstances for their creation, and references to performances in Mozart’s presence, for example in Vienna with his patron Baron van Swieten or in 1789 during a stay in Leipzig, are sparse.
The extraordinary grandeur and importance of these symphonies was quickly recognized after Mozart’s death. As early as 1792, a reviewer wrote about the E flat major symphony “a similar symphony could hardly be found in the world”, and the finale of the “Jupiter Symphony”, which got its epithet in the early 19th century, was soon praised as the model of a symphonic fugue.
The symphonies are not only milestones in the development of the genre and the culmination of Mozart’s symphonic oeuvre. Coping with the digital implementation of the orchestral score and especially the revised instrumentation in the G minor symphony was also an important step in the development of the Digital Interactive Mozart Edition. The team has succeeded in consolidating its competence and asserting itself as one of the leading international projects in the field of digital music editing, while upholding the goal of a fully digital edition of all of Mozart’s works, which continues to be pursued even in these particularly challenging times.
The Digital Interactive Mozart Edition is a joint project of the Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg and the Packard Humanities Institute in Los Altos (CA). It is accessible via its website at https://dme.mozarteum.at.
Last update: July 2020
Five Clavier Sonatas by Mozart in the Digital Interactive Mozart Edition now online!
After predominantly orchestral music and chamber works as well as canons and some vocal compositions, the Digital Interactive Mozart Edition (DIME) is now able to present five sonatas for piano by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart for the first time in a fully digital format. The selection includes the sonatas in C major K. 330, A major K. 331, F major K. 332 and B major K. 333, which Mozart created in 1783 for his own performance as a pianist. These four sonatas available in DIME are supplemented by the C major sonata K. 545, written five years later.
Mozart’s sonatas are captivating with their very different attitude, for example the high-contrast A major sonata K. 331 with the famous alla turca finale. On the other hand, there is the late C major Sonata K. 545 which Mozart himself labelled “for beginners”, although it ultimately only has apparently simple features.
The digital editions of DIME are based on the musical text of the second volume of the piano sonatas in the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (NMA IX/25/2). The series of piano works that began with the five sonatas will be continued in the coming months with more compositions from the same volume, namely the Fantasia and Sonata in C minor, respectively K. 475 and 457, and the Sonatas in F major K. 533/494, B flat major K. 570 and D major K. 576. In the fall, we will start the coding of volume 1 of the piano sonatas (NMA IX/25/1).
The peculiarities of the notation for keyboard instruments raised numerous questions regarding the coding of the musical text in MEI as well as its visual rendering in the Digital Mozart Score Viewer (MoVi), which the DIME team was able to solve successfully. DIME users can now experience the typical functions and diverse possibilities of the digital music edition also for the genre of the piano sonata.
The Digital Mozart Edition is a cooperation project between the Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg and the Packard Humanities Institute in Los Altos (CA). It is accessible through its website at https://dme.mozarteum.at.
Last update: July 2021
