Bibliotheca Mozartiana

Dr. Armin Brinzing

Schwarzstr. 26, 5020 Salzburg

Tel:+43 662 889 40-13/-14 bibliothek@mozarteum.at

Opening hours

The library is closed from 24.12.2021 to 9.1.2022

Monday to Friday 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. - 5 p.m. (pre-registration requested).

Original manuscripts, early printed editions, modern editions of scores and writings on Mozart in every known language: the Bibliotheca Mozartiana is the world’s largest library specializing in the life and works of Wolfgang Amadé Mozart.

Readmore Visit ofAutograph Vault

The library houses around 35,000 books and articles and more than 6,000 scores. Established in 1841, the collection has continued to grow around this historical nucleus and now includes a broad range of titles on the history of European music and culture from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries.

OPAC

The online catalogue (OPAC) lists all of the printed books, articles and scores in the library’s holdings as well as a complete Mozart bibliography. Works that have already been digitalized may be accessed directly via a link.

The online catalogue lists the following holdings:

– modern and historical books and journals
– the Mozart Bibliography (books and articles on Mozart)
– the collection of historical librettos from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries relating to works by Mozart and other composers
– historical and modern editions of works by Mozart (practically complete); at present only a fraction of works by other composers is included here.

Works that are not listed in the online catalogue may be found via the library’s internal catalogues. The library staff will be happy to help you here.
Scores by composers that were acquired before around 1998 are listed in the Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (Library siglum: ‘A-Sm’)

OPAC

Autographs & Manuscripts

Since the middle of the nineteenth century the Mozarteum Foundation’s most valuable holdings have been letters and documents as well as autograph scores relating to the Mozart family. The library holds more than half of all known documents associated with the family, including around 200 of Mozart’s original letters (he himself is the main contributor to 150 of these and one of multiple contributors in the case of the other fifty), around 300 letters written by his father Leopold and more than 100 autograph music manuscripts, most of them sketches and drafts of Mozart’s works in addition to autographs in the hand of Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart. The collection also includes scores, letters and other documents relating to numerous other figures from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. We are working hard to catalogue these holdings as part of various ongoing projects.
The basement of the building in which the Mozart family lived houses the vault containing these autograph treasures as well as an exhibition space that may be visited as part of special guided tours.

Bibliotheca Mozartiana digital

The Bibliotheca Mozartiana’s holdings are being systematically digitalized. Our aim is to grant free access to the priceless originals in the form of manuscripts, scores, books and so on in as simple a way as possible. To this end the portal “Bibliotheca Mozartiana digital” has been established. This helps users to locate the digitalized treasures and then to view them and, if necessary, to download them as pdf files.

Bibliotheca Mozartiana digital Read more

Mozart Bibliography

The online Mozart Bibliography lists writings on Mozart from all over the world and is based on data from the Mozarteum Foundation’s Bibliotheca Mozartiana catalogue. It includes monographs, newspaper articles, reviews, electronic publications and concert notes that contain factual information relating to Wolfgang Amadé Mozart, his family and his circle.

Readmore Search inthe Mozart Bibliography

Current projects

Databases

Full text databases available within the Mozarteum Foundation:

The online edition of Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart

JSTOR Digital Library, Music Collection

The Mozart Collection of the Augsburg State and City Library (scans of printed music editions)

Other Useful Links

Dexter Edge and David Black (eds.) Mozart: New Documents

Mozart Society of America: Early Mozart Biographies Project

ANNO – Austrian Newspapers Online (Austrian newspapers and periodicals from an earlier period)

Digital Auction Catalogues (1930–1945, Heidelberg University Library)

Online Bibliography of Writings on Music

An online edition of Robert Eitner’s Biographisch-bibliographisches Quellen-Lexikon der Musiker und Musikgelehrten

Hofmeister XIX (digitalized copies of Friedrich Hofmeister’s Monatsberichte from 1829 to 1900, including a full text search function)

RISM online (online catalogue of music manuscripts from all over the world)

Virtual Specialist Library in Musicology (Bavarian State Library)

Nazi Provenance Research at the Bibliotheca Mozartiana

Since its beginning in 1880, the International Mozarteum Foundation has held important collections, the core of which goes back to its predecessor, the Dommusikverein and Mozarteum, founded in 1841. The most valuable parts of the collections, with numerous original manuscripts by Mozart and his family, musical instruments owned by Mozart, paintings and many personal mementos, were gifts or bequests from members of the Mozart family. Since then, the holdings have been further expanded as far as the available resources allowed.

During the period of National Socialism, those responsible at the Mozarteum Foundation made intensive efforts to expand these collections – especially the library – with the help of those in power, in order to further develop the foundation’s position as a central site of Mozart research. There is evidence of various efforts to use the close ties to the Nazi state in order to profit from its racially or ideologically motivated repressions against individuals or institutions. The focus was primarily on valuable collections of original documents of Mozart and his family, but also on larger historical music collections.

Despite intensive attempts, the Mozarteum Foundation did not succeed in profiting from the manifold state repressions against Jewish collectors or antiquarians in Vienna, Berlin and other places because of its legal form as a private association. In contrast, the Foundation was very successful in the Reichsgau Salzburg, where it was directly involved in the political structures. In Salzburg, it was especially the Catholic Church that was subjected to repression, confiscation and expropriation. In the process, those responsible for the foundation, above all its secretary general Erich Valentin, who was also head of the library, and its president Albert Reitter, succeeded in gaining access to important ecclesiastical collections.

In this way, extensive holdings of music and books from confiscated or expropriated church libraries were transferred to the Mozarteum Foundation, which had dropped the word “International” from its name during the Nazi era. After the end of World War II, these holdings were for the most part returned to their rightful owners. However, since the acquisitions were poorly documented and documents were also lost, several works remained in the library of the Mozarteum Foundation (today Bibliotheca Mozartiana) whose provenance could no longer be determined.

Through intensive provenance research in the archives of the Mozarteum Foundation and numerous other institutions, several manuscript and printed works from two expropriated ecclesiastical collections have so far been identified in the holdings of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana. The International Mozarteum Foundation has committed itself to returning all of the affected works to their rightful owners in accordance with the guidelines that apply to state institutions in the Republic of Austria.

Provenance research at the Bibliotheca Mozartiana is part of an ongoing research project dealing with the history of the International Mozarteum Foundation during the Nazi era. Initial results have been published in an anthology, in 2022:

Die Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum und der Nationalsozialismus. Politische Einflüsse auf Organisation, Mozart-Forschung, Museum und Bibliothek, edited by Alexander Pinwinkler and Oliver Rathkolb on behalf of the International Mozarteum Foundation, Anton Pustet Verlag Salzburg 2022.

Provenance research is the subject of a separate article in this volume, which sheds light on the background to the events:

Armin Brinzing: Provenienzforschung in der Bibliotheca Mozartiana, in: Die Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum und der Nationalsozialismus, Salzburg 2022, pp. 279–311.

According to the current state of research, two Salzburg collections from which looted property in the Bibliotheca Mozartiana could be identified are affected:

The Music Archive of the Archabbey of St. Peter The Library of the Catholic University Association

The Music Archive of the Archabbey of St Peter

The entire property of the Archabbey of St. Peter was confiscated by the Nazi government in 1940, and a large part of its historical music collection was transferred to the Mozarteum Foundation for administration in 1942. Between 1956 and 1981, the collection of about 900 works was largely restituted. However, several prints and manuscripts were overlooked at that time, as the transfer in 1942 had only been incompletely documented. In the course of the ongoing complete cataloguing of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana and extensive archival research, 12 prints and manuscripts have so far been identified as belonging to the Archabbey of St. Peter. The most important pieces are four contemporary copies of marches and minuets by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart.

(Illustration: Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: 12 Minuets, K. 103; manuscript copy from St. Peter, c. 1775)

Restitution list

The Library of the Catholic University Association

The Catholic University Association was founded in 1884 with the goal of re-establishing a Catholic university in Salzburg. In the course of the massive action of the National Socialists against ecclesiastical institutions, the association was dissolved as early as May 1938 by order of the SS group leader Reinhard Heydrich, and its assets were confiscated. Its library was assigned to the “Forschungsgemeinschaft Deutsches Ahnenerbe”. As part of the SS apparatus, the “Ahnenerbe” was one of the most important organizations in the Europe-wide theft of art and cultural property. From this institution, the Mozarteum Foundation received extensive musical holdings in 1942, but these are not documented in detail. In 1945, most of the musical materials were restituted. But in the course of provenance research, 13 manuscripts and prints from the 19th and early 20th centuries have so far been traced in the holdings of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana, that belonged to the Univeritätsverein. Its legal successor, the Katholisches Hochschulwerk, has generously agreed to leave the affected works in the Bibliotheca Mozartiana. The provenance of all affected works is documented in its catalogs and can thus be traced at any time.

(Illustration: Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: Don Giovanni, piano score; manuscript copy from the Katholischer Universitätsverein, 1854)

Restitution list

Restitution of the International Mozarteum Foundation to the Archabbey of St. Peter
As of: March 2022

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: 12 Minuets, K. 103, manuscript copy, c. 1772-1775

Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: Rara 103/1
Detailed description in RISM
Digitized version

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: 12 Minuets, K. 103, arranged for harpsichord, manuscript copy, c. 1775
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: Rara 103/2
Detailed description in RISM
Digitized version

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: March in D, K. 215, manuscript copy, c. 1790
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: Rara 215/1
Detailed description in RISM
Digitized version

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: March in C, K. 408, manuscript copy, end of the 18th century
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: Rara 408/1
Detailed description in RISM
Digitized version

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: Trois Sonates pour le Forte-Piano accompagnés d’un Violon [K. 301, 302, 304], print, Braunschweig [1798]
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: Rara 301/1
Detailed description in the catalog of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: Trois Sonates pour le Forte-Piano accompagnés d’un Violon [K. 303, 305, 306], print, Braunschweig [1798]
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: Rara 305/1
Detailed description in the catalog of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: Trois Sonates pour le Forte Piano [K. 330–332], print, Braunschweig [1798]
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: Rara 300h/2
Detailed description in the catalog of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: Trois sonates pour le Forte Piano [K. 502, 542, 548], print, Braunschweig [1798]
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: Rara 502/2
Detailed description in the catalog of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: Ouverture de l’Opera: Le Nozze di Figaro, print, Wien [1807]
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: Rara 492/50
Detailed description in the catalog of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana

Cajetan Adlgasser: Litaniae de B. V. Mariae, manuscript copy, c. 1770
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: RaraHs Adl 3
Detailed description in RISM

Edmond Duval: L’Organiste Grégorien, print, Malines 1845
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: RaraDru Duv 51
Detailed description in the catalog of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana

Michael Haydn: Partitur-Fundament, ed. by Martin Bischofreiter, print, Salzburg 1833
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: RaraDru MH 2
Detailed description in the catalog of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana

Restitution of the International Mozarteum Foundation to the Katholisches Hochschulwerk
As of: March 2022

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: Der Schauspiel-Director, print, Mannheim [ca. 1829]
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: Rara 486/4
Detailed description in the catalog of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: Don Giovanni, piano score, manuscript copy, Salzburg 1854
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: Rara 527/3
Detailed description in RISM

Hermann Kretzschmar: Musikalische Zeitfragen, Leipzig 1903
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: 146
Detailed description in the catalog of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: Fantasie pour le piano [K. 475], manuscript copy, 1853
Rara 475/2
Detailed description in RISM

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: Symphony, K. 543, Minuet, arr. for piano, manuscript copy, c. 1860
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: Rara 543/1
Detailed description in RISM

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: Quintette zu 4 Händen, print, Leipzig [ca. 1910]
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: P4 6/1.14
Detailed description in the catalog of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: Don Juan [pour piano à quatre mains], print, Leipzig [1870]
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: Rara 527/62
Detailed description in the catalog of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: Oeuvres complettes, Abt. I, Band 2, print, Leipzig [1798]
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: Rara Sbd 15-I-2/2
Detailed description in the catalog of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: Oeuvres complettes, Abt. I, Band 3, print, Leipzig [1799]
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: Rara Sbd 15-I-3/2
Detailed description in the catalog of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana

Wolfgang Amadé Mozart: Oeuvres complettes, Abt. I, Band 6, print, Leipzig [1799-1800]
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: Rara Sbd 15-I-6/5
Detailed description in the catalog of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana

Ignace Pleyel: Trois Grands Duos pour deux violons, print, Offenbach [um 1800]
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: RaraDru Ple 8

Lukas Schubaur: Die Dorfdeputirten [printed libretto], München 1787
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: Rara Lib Dorf 1
Detailed description in the catalog of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana

Seeliger: Das Abendgeläut, print, Magdeburg [1863]
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: RaraDru See 1

Sigismund Thalberg: Fantaisie pour le Piano-Forte, print, Wien [1832/33]
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: RaraDru Tha 1
Detailed description in the catalog of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana

Johann R. Zumsteeg: Die Geister-Insel, print, Leipzig [1799]
Shelf no. of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana: RaraDru Zum 1
Detailed description in the catalog of the Bibliotheca Mozartiana