Maria Anna Mozart
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Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia Mozart (July 30, 1751–October 29, 1829), nicknamed "Nannerl" Mozart, was a famous musician in eighteenth century Europe. She was the older sister of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and daughter of Anna Maria Mozart.
When she was 7 years old, Leopold Mozart, their father, began to teach her how to play the clavier. Initially she had seemed a potential child prodigy. Their father took them on tours to many cities, such as Vienna, and Paris to exploit their talents. In the early days she sometimes received top billing on these tours and she was noted as an excellent harpsichord player and pianist. However ultimately Nannerl's talents were overshadowed by those of her younger brother. Although she was a talented musician in her own right, often accompanying Wolfgang during his tours, she was not noted as a composer. Hence Wolfgang wrote many piano pieces, in particular duets so that his sister could play along side him. Her brother respected her talents and believed she could succeed as a music teacher or player in Vienna, Austria, but her early promise was never fully realized.
Although her brother rebelled from their father, to a degree, she remained primarily under his direction. Because of this, as well as due to contemporary views of women, he decided that her brother should be the focus and her goal should become a suitable marriage. To assure she married someone "respectable" he refused her own choices of spouses and selected a wealthy magistrate, Johann Baptist Franz von Berchtold zu Sonnenburg, for her instead. Added to that her brother's rebelliousness and marriage to Constanze Weber seemed to have estranged the two. After her father died they resumed contact, but the conversations were formal and concerned estate matters. Her life revolved around a husband she did not love, one surviving child, and a teaching career in a town she disliked (Salzburg, Austria). She was the subject of a "biography in poems", The Other Mozart by Sharon Chmielarz (ISBN 0-86538-101-1).
