Mozart's Sister (55 page)

Alleluia.

Near the end of her life, Nannerl Mozart Berchtold
made a change to her will regarding her burial arrangements. Instead of being buried in St. Gilgen near her husband and three children, or next to her father in Salzburg at
St. Sebastian's, Nannerl chose to be buried across Salzburg,
in the smaller, less grand cemetery of St. Peter's monastery.
She had no relatives buried there. But she did join a loved
one-the loved one. The one man whose love had been
denied to her in life would rest near her in death: Captain
Franz d'Ippold.

Why has no one written about Nannerl before?

It was not something I ever dreamed of doing. For until
the idea was dropped into my lap I knew as much (or little)
about Nannerl as most people: Oh yes. Mozart had a sister,
didn't lie? And didn't they perform together as children?

The event that opened my eyes to Nannerl's life story
happened while I was standing in the Mozart family home
in Salzburg in the summer of 2004-that little three-room
apartment where both Wolfgang and Nannerl were born. In
truth, I was only half listening to the guide, being very close
to tourist-information overload. Yet one statement reached
into my weary brain and ignited it: Most people don't know
this, but Mozart's sister was just as talented as he was, but because
she was a woman, she had little chance to do anything with her
talent. That one statement stayed with me all the way home
to the States.

At the time I was putting together a proposal for a contemporary novel (I only wrote novels set in the present day).
Because of the tour guide's comment, I got the idea to have
one of my characters write a book called Mozart's Sister. My
agent sent the proposal to publishers.

Within days we got a call from Dave Horton, an editor
at Bethany House Publishers. "I don't want the contemporary book; I want the book the character is writing: Mozart'c
Sister, a historical book about the sister's life."

"But I don't write historicals."

"I want Mozart's Sister."

"But I don't write in first person, in one person's point
of view throughout an entire book. I write bib cast novels
in third person."

"I want Mozart's Sister."

"I hate research."

"I want Mozart's Sister."

Well, then. He seemed so sure, so excited. I could not
ignore him-actually, I could, but I didn't.

The rest is history. And so, as so often happens when
God offers us an opportunity and we say yes, it turned out
to be the best experience of my writing life. And, irony of
ironies, as I sat in my office with four reference books
opened before me, I even found that I enjoyed the research.
Imagine that.

Lucky for all of us, the Mozarts were avid letter writers,
and as per Papa's instructions, most of the correspondence
remains. Because of this I was able to use many of their
actual words in this book.

But please note: I am not a historian. Although I made
every attempt to keep things as factual as possible, I am a
writer of fiction. And during the gaps in the knowledge
(alas, when they were all home in Salzburg, there were, of
course, no letters!) I filled in the gaps using logic, the facts I
had, and my imagination. This was done reluctantly. You
should have heard my scream when I read that no one really
knows why Nannerl and Franz broke off their relationship!
A key point to her life was unknown? And so I once again
was forced to take the known elements of life in Salzburg
(and the relationship the Mozarts had with the archbishop)
and create a logical reason for the breakup. Only God and
Nannerl know how right (or wrong) I was. Actually, I have
hopes that the Almighty is letting Nannerl know that someone is telling her story.... I hope she is pleased.

But you must know that the liberties I was forced to take
were also flavored by my own feelings-my trying to figure
out how Iwould have reacted if all this had happened to me.
Even though Nannerl and I were born two hundred years
apart, worlds apart, I feel we are contemporaries. Human
emotions haven't changed that much. For don't we still
struggle to gain our parents' approval and respect? Don't we
still battle with jealousy and could-have-beens? And don't
we still face the crossroads of life, where we are offered a choice to dwell in the past or move forward to the best of
our abilities?

That's what I wish for you, the reader. Take Nannerl's
story as an impetus to look at your own life and make it the
most it can be. You too have a unique, God-given purpose.
The trick is to find out what it is.

I would like to thank three Mozart biographers for their
insight: Robert W. Gutman, Maynard Solomon, and especially Ruth Halliwell, who wrote an amazing book about
the logistics of the Mozart family. I would also like to thank
my agent, Janet Kobobel Grant, for urging me to take this
leap; Helen Motter, my editor extraordinaire (who also happens to be an accomplished musician); and editor Dave Horton, who saw something hidden in one idea, sparked a new
one, and didn't give up.

Bravissimo!

Nancy Moser

Books by

Nancy Moser

FROM BETHANY HOUSE PUBLISHERS

Mozart's Sister

Just Jane

Washington's Lady