In the Spotlight

Mozart scores exhibit

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birth, the Northwestern University Music Library is currently presenting an exhibit of selected Mozart facsimiles from the Library's collection. These reproductions of the original manuscripts offer an intimate glimpse of a composer at work—from his notes scribbled in the margins, to his ink blots, to his decisions to add or delete segments.

“There’s a popular idea that Mozart just dashed these works off and never made any corrections,” says Music Library Head D.J. Hoek. “And compared to Beethoven’s manuscripts, which tend to be a mess, these are pretty clean. But you do see him occasionally rethinking something.”

The point of collecting facsimile scores, he explains, is for the insight they provide into the composer’s creative process. “Often being able to see what a composer decided not to do is as revealing as seeing what he ultimately chose to do.”

Featured facsimiles include the Jupiter and Haffner symphonies as well as concertos, string quartets, sonatas, and other works. Located in the Music Library lobby on the second level of Deering Library, this exhibit will be in place through December 2006.