When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart turned seven years old, his father, Leopold Mozart, gave him a small book called the Notebook for Wolfgang (Notenbuch für Wolfgang).
The notebook contained short keyboard pieces such as minuets, allemandes, polonaises, and others, written by various composers from Mozart’s childhood period. We are referring to the Galant era—the transitional phase between the Baroque and Classical periods. It was a notebook designed by his father with a pedagogical purpose, and it reflects one of the sources from which young Wolfgang drew inspiration to learn how to compose his first minuets and small pieces.
At that time, this type of notebook was a common teaching tool used by masters to instruct their students, since it was not easy to access a bookstore or shop where one could purchase sheet music or educational materials. These notebooks contained copied scores from composer friends and well-known authors of the time. They offer insight into how music was learned before the existence of a broad market for printed sheet music.
Another example of such notebooks is the one Bach prepared and gave to his wife—the famous Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach—as well as the one he made for his son Wilhelm Friedemann. There is also the notebook that Leopold Mozart gave in 1759 to his daughter Nannerl, Wolfgang’s older sister, which has been preserved, although in very poor condition, at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.
These notebooks served to instruct beginners in both the musical style of their time and keyboard technique. At the same time, they provide a portrait of the domestic lives of these figures—what was actually played in their homes and private circles.
They also help us understand the technical level and average taste of the period.
‼️The publisher Schott offers a modern edition. Here is a link to the shop.
https://www.schott-music.com/de/notenbuch-fuer-wolfgang-noc33702.html
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