by W. A. MOZART. As Edward Holmes pointed out in 1854: "To some it may appear improbable that so great an artist should undertake such dry labour..." It is true that great artists only very... More > rarely reveal any inclination to reflect on the principles of their art, still less to systemize them for the purposes of teaching. Yet Abbe Stradler, Mozart's friend who later settled his estate, claimed that these lessons were written by Mozart for his niece, a pupil of piano and harmony. At that time, there were few books on harmony and each master taught according to tradition. Indeed, Mozart generally followed the same basic principles as those he had once been instructed by his father: thorough-bass studies and species counterpoint. In other words, the pupil either had to provide a harmony for a given bass, or devise the missing parts to a given melody. It is the first of these disciplines that concerns this most concise yet comprehensive treatise, “…without the expenditure of a single superfluous word”.< Less
