Mozart's earliest compositions - were they written by a 6 year old? Played on the German theorbo

#mozart #theorbo #lute #mozartmusic
Mozart's first compositions - were they really written by a 6 year old child? In this video I explore the circumstances around Wolfgang's earliest pieces, the involvement of his father Leopold, and perform 3 of these early pieces on the German theorbo. There can be no doubt that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a musical genius, perhaps the greatest of all composers. It is plausible that he could have started tinkering on the keyboard as a toddler, then picked it up quickly and reached an impressive standard by the age of 6. We sometimes see child prodigies today of that age. However, to able to compose music of this standard, showing such understanding at the age of 5 or 6 is a whole other level of genius. The pieces were notated by his father Leopold, but is that all he did? Or did Leopold have ulterior motives for making his son look more gifted than he really was at that young age? Let me know in the comments what you think!

The earliest compositions were all for keyboard originally, as a lutenist I always relish the chance to play anything by Mozart, so I adapted 2 of the pieces K3 and K5 for the German theorbo. The lines are identical to the original, just with some octave transposition in certain parts. Then I play a piece in a similar style by Leopold Mozart, so that you can decide for yourself if that is more sophisticated than the pieces by 6 year old Wolfgang. Apologies for the quality of the speech recording, unfortunately my new lapel mic turned out to be useless!

The theorbo is a type of bass lute which was invented around 1600 for accompanying singers. There are various types, by far the most commonly played today is the Italian theorbo, which has a completely different tuning to mine and is usually played today with single stringing. The instrument played here is a German theorbo, which is very rare with only one surviving historical instrument (others are debatable) and very few modern copies. The D minor tuning and double stringing on the melodic/chord strings give the German theorbo a different and more lute-like sound compared to the Italian version. If you enjoyed this video, I would really appreciate it if you like and subscribe to the channel, there is plenty more lute content and other instruments such as the Portuguese guitar, mandolin, melodica and more.

To find out more about the theorbo, click here:
https://youtu.be/oBEoVbY2xrk

To hear more Mozart played on the lute/theorbo click here:
https://youtu.be/yPflNkF1-XA

https://youtu.be/QjPXEABCg8k

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