Mozart and the Mediation of Childhood, by Adeline Mueller

Abstract

Review| April 01 2023 Mozart and the Mediation of Childhood, by Adeline Mueller Mozart and the Mediation of Childhood, by Adeline Mueller. New Material Histories of Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021. xiii, 287 pp. Emily H. Green Emily H. Green EMILY H. GREEN is Associate Professor of Music at George Mason University. Her research investigates the print culture of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century music, with a recent focus on repertoires of early Black Americans. Her publications include Dedicating Music, 1785–1850 (University of Rochester Press, 2019) and “How to Read a Rondeau” (this Journal, 2020). Her current work is a collaborative, multimodal project, the Music of Early Black Virginians, sponsored by 4-VA. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the American Musicological Society (2023) 76 (1): 223–226. https://doi.org/10.1525/jams.2023.76.1.223 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Emily H. Green; Mozart and the Mediation of Childhood, by Adeline Mueller. Journal of the American Musicological Society 1 April 2023; 76 (1): 223–226. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jams.2023.76.1.223 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of the American Musicological Society Search One need look no further than the toy aisles of department stores to be reminded of the links between Mozart’s music, idealized infancy and childhood, and consumer culture. “If I don’t buy these light-up balls chirping out K. 545 in synthesized cat meows,” one would be forgiven for asking, “how will my mini-Mozart ever grow to be an Einstein?” The brain of one prodigy promises to transmit the scaffolding for future astrophysical contemplation. And, as is typical of the current public thinking about music and general education, expression through sound is seen not as an end in itself but as a gateway for higher cognitive and moral activation. These layered cultural functions of Mozart’s childhood image and early compositions have a long history, and Adeline Mueller’s new book, Mozart and the Mediation of Childhood, provides a rich context for the ways they were marshaled for baby-Einstein-like state and cultural... You do not currently have access to this content.