Unique photo of Mozart's widow revealed

The Guardian Unlimited ^ | July 7, 2006 | Luke Harding

[Bryher1]

She is making the sign of St. John the Baptist -- she was obviously a member of the Priory of Sion.

[bd476]

Good catch, Leni! Her hands do appear to be arthritic. Yet at age 78, and despite this being a black and white photo, she has very few forehead lines and very few deep creases in her face.

[COBOL2Java]

Fascinating! In daguerrotypes, didn't you have to remain still for a very long time? I wonder if that young fellow leaning forward had a sore back afterwards. "Ach! Fraulein! Help me stand straight!"

[Adder]

The lady on the right looks 78. The lady on the left looks younger.

[bd476]

It is probably the daughter of Swiss composer Max Keller, the gentleman sitting to Frau Mozart's immediate left in the left-center portion of the photo.

[bd476]

Thanks for the link, BunnySlippers. I keep looking for old photos of family members from Europe. Maybe I'll recognize someone, lol!

[lysie]

ping

[bd476]

She really was a beauty wasn't she.

[bd476]

Adder wrote: "The lady on the right looks 78. The lady on the left looks younger."

You know you are right! It must be genetic or good living.

Women didn't wear much makeup back then. The only botox came in spoiled leftovers.

There were no collagen injections, liposuction, restylane, plastic surgery, soap was lye, moisturizers were from whale blubber and lard and the "facilities" were out back.

[GadareneDemoniac]

Ping to sitetest for an interesting thread!

[bd476]

"COBOL2Java wrote: "Fascinating! In daguerrotypes, didn't you have to remain still for a very long time? I wonder if that young fellow leaning forward had a sore back afterwards. 'Ach! Fraulein! Help me stand straight!' "

LOL! Isn't it interesting though that even back then, the photographer had figured out that implied movement in pseudo-candid shots gave better composition / told a good story than the rigid stiff as a board photos.

[bd476]

The actress looks pretty in that photo.

Okay, now take away her make-up, the lovely hat, remove the artificial hairweave, take out the processing and the hairdye, take off the lens filter, remove the photographer's umbrella, place the actress in a black dress and bonnet, out in the sun, and take a black and white photo of her without additional backlight and I believe that Frau Mozart at age 78 would be more attractive than the actress.

[bd476]

BBC.co.uk

Parent's Music Room

Motivating your children with music

The Mozart Effect

Can listening to Mozart really improve your child's IQ?

I got the music because I read that the beats of Mozart coincide with the heartbeat of the foetus. So it makes the child intelligent.

Shradha Sarogi, parent

The Mozart Effect suggests that your child can increase their intelligence by listening to Mozart's music. It claims to have the backing of scientific research and has generated a vast literature. It sounds like a wonderful idea. However, it's not that simple.

There's no evidence that just listening to music has any effect at all.

Dr. Alexandra Lamont, University of Keele

In 1993 at the University of California, physicist Gordon Shaw and Francis Rauscher, an expert on cognitive development, played the first ten minutes of the Mozart Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major to a group of college students. The result, they found, was a temporary increase in the students' spatial-temporal reasoning, for about ten minutes. The Mozart Effect was born. 

Put simply, spatial-temporal reasoning is the ability to visualise something in space that unfolds over time. Examples are: estimating how a piece of paper will look unfolded, or reading a map.

In America, the notion has taken hold as parents have leapt at the opportunity to increase their child's intelligence with something as wholesome as classical music.

In Georgia, in 1998, the Governor, Zell Miller allocated £105,000 for the creation of Build Your Baby's Brain Through the Power of Music, an album of classical music on CD and tape distributed to hospitals as a gift to new mothers.

But some experts are sceptical. Dr Alexandra Lamont, Lecturer in Psychology at Keele University, says: "It's only ever been looked at in adults, but all the people who jumped on it have tried to say, 'Ooh we should do it with kids, we should do it with babies, we should do it with unborn babies.' There's no evidence that just listening to music, not learning to play an instrument, has any effect at all with children or with babies."

Even so some British parents are convinced of the benefits. Shradha Sarogi, mother of two girls, says: "'My father studied in America and he reads a lot of books on child psychology. He told me to listen to Mozart because it's very important. Especially when I was pregnant. I got the music because I read about it that the beats of Mozart, like it's 60 beats in one minute, coincide with the heartbeat of the foetus. So it makes the child intelligent.

"They become more sharp. They respond more and they become brighter. I play them any classical music, not the rap or the pop music because I think that makes them very violent and disturbed." In fact Mozart can be played at a variety of speeds, and some recorded rock music has 60 beats per minute. So, if the claims are true, some rock music should be equally effective in raising IQ.

The good news is that music lessons in childhood and particularly before the age of seven can have a lasting effect on children's development. Studies by Dr Rauscher and her colleagues in Wisconsin, USA, have shown that piano lessons in particular seem to help develop childrens' spatial-temporal intelligence.

Dr Lamont says:
"The keyboard seems to be most effective because it's a spatial layout, and music itself is arranged over time, so you have both elements that will help develop spatial-temporal thinking."

But, she also says: "Whether music learning has an effect on other areas of intelligence is more up in the air."

TOP TIPS
Play them Mozart by all means, but only if you enjoy it Don't feel pressured to increase your child's intelligence. Help them enjoy different kinds of music instead. If you do want to improve your child's spatial-temporal intelligence you may be better off with music lessons

The Mozart Effect

[BaBaStooey]

The idea there was the fact that people had to stay still for like a minute because that was how long it took to take the picture. People hid their hands because they were afraid they would move them....and then mess up the picture.

[tiredoflaundry]

Very kewl!

[sitetest]

Dear randita (and GadareneDemoniac),

Thanks for the pings!

Classical Music Ping List ping!

If you want on or off this list, let me know via FR e-mail.

Thanks!


sitetest

[Erasmus]

From a place nearby, but five hundred years before:


Chramer, gip die varwe mir,
die min wengel roete,
damit ich die jungen man
an ir dank der minnenliebe noete.
Seht mich an,
jungen man!
lat mich iu gevallen!

Minnet, tugentliche man,
minnecliche frouwen!
minne tuot iu hoch gemout
unde lat iuch in hohen eren schouwen.
Seht mich an
jungen man!
lat mich iu gevallen!

Wol dir, werit, daz du bist
freudenriche!
ich will dir sin undertan
durch din liebe immer sicherliche.
Seht mich an,
jungen man!
lat mich iu gevallen!

---

Shopkeeper, give me colour
to make my cheeks red,
so that I can make the young men
love me, against their will.
Look at me,
young men!
Let me please you!

Good men, love
women worthy of love!
Love ennobles your spirit
and gives you honour.
Look at me,
young men!
Let me please you!

Hail, world,
so rich in joys!
I will be obedient to you
because of the pleasures you afford.
Look at me,
young men!
Let me please you!

[COBOL2Java]

Isn't it interesting though that even back then, the photographer had figured out that implied movement in pseudo-candid shots gave better composition / told a good story than the rigid stiff as a board photos.

Very true - a testament to his creativity!

[bd476]

---

Family Portrait. Oil Painting by Johann Nepomuk della Croce, Salzburg, late 1780/early 1781. Original owned by the Mozarteum, Salzburg.

---

Family Portrait

This oil painting by Johann Nepomuk della Croce was commissioned by Leopold Mozart at Salzburg between late autumn 1780 and early 1781. This reproduction appeared in Nissen’s (Constanze’s second husband) biography of Mozart. Wolfgang and Nannerl are shown playing four hands on a fortepiano. Leopold is shown with his violin and his quill, to signify that he is both a musician and a writer. The portrait on the wall is of Mozart’s mother, who had died four years earlier. The figure of Apollo in the background further emphasizes the musical nature of the Mozart family.

[veronica]

I have a wonderful, exquisite two-year old child in my life, and since her birth I have played the "Baby Mozart" video for her when I babysit. She LOVES it. They say exposure to Mozart stimulates a child's brain functions, and I believe it. This child is incredibly bright for her age. And happy! Interestingly, she prefers Baby Mozart to Baby Einstein and Baby Bach, a couple of other videos produced by the same group.