About this item
Eminent historian Paul Johnson dazzles with a rich, succinct portrait of Mozart and his musicAs hes done in Napoleon, Churchill, Jesus, and Darwin, acclaimed historian and author Paul Johnson here offers a concise, illuminating biography of Mozart. Johnsons focus is on the musicMozarts wondrous output of composition and his uncanny gift for instrumentation.Liszt once said that Mozart composed more bars than a trained copyist could write in a lifetime. Mozarts gift and skill with instruments was also remarkable as he mastered all of them except the harp. For example, no sooner had the clarinet been invented and introduced than Mozart began playing and composing for it.In addition to his many insights into Mozarts music, Johnson also challenges the many myths that have followed Mozart, including those about the composers health, wealth, religion, and relationships.
About the Author
Paul Johnson works as a historian, journalist and author. He was educated at Stonyhurst School in Clitheroe, Lancashire and Magdalen College, Oxford, and first came to prominence in the 1950s as a journalist writing for, and later editing, the New Statesman magazine. He has also written for leading newspapers and magazines in Britain, the US and Europe. Paul Johnson has published over 40 books including A History of Christianity (1979) , A History of the English People (1987) , Intellectuals (1988) , The Birth of the Modern: World Society, 1815 - 1830 (1991) , Modern Times: A History of the World from the 1920s to the Year 2000 (1999) , A History of the American People (2000) , A History of the Jews (2001) and Art: A New History (2003) as well as biographies of Elizabeth I (1974) , Napoleon (2002) , George Washington (2005) and Pope John Paul II (1982) .
