Sophie Weber

Maria Sophie Weber (1763? [Clive lists this as an uncertain date, giving no place. The Grove Dictionary gives her birth date and location as: October 1763, in Zell im Wiesental.] - 1846) was a singer of the 18th and 19th centuries. She was the sister of Constanze Mozart and sister-in-law of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. She is remembered today primarily for the testimony she left concerning the life and death of her brother-in-law.

Life

She was born into a musical family, the youngest of four sisters all of whom became trained singers; two achieved professional fame: the oldest sister Josepha Weber and the second oldest Aloysia Weber, and daughter of Cäcilia Weber. She moved with the family, first to Munich, then to Vienna, following the burgeoning career of Aloysia. Sophie herself sang at the Burgtheater in the 1780-1781 season, [Clive, 172] but apparently did not make any kind of long-term success as a singer.

When Mozart moved to Vienna in 1781, and lodged for a time with the Weber family, he seems to have flirted with both Sophie and Constanze (whom he eventually courted and married). The incomplete Allegro in B flat K. 400, written by Mozart at this time, contains (in W. Dean Sutcliffe's words) "a self-contained melodic episode in G minor, with the names of Sophie and Co [n] stanze Weber inscribed above a pair of prolonged sigh figures." [Sutcliffe (2003, 342)] In a letter of 15 December, 1781, Mozart described Sophie as "good-natured but feather-brained." [Grove] In 1782, when Mozart and Constanze were married, she was the only Weber sister who was present at the ceremony. [Clive, 172]

In December 1791, when Mozart died, Sophie was 28 years old, and was the only daughter in the family still unmarried. She lived with Cäcilia, but was frequently present in the Mozart household during the composer's final decline and death, and helped Constanze care for her dying husband.

She was married (7 January 1807) to Jakob Haibel (1762-1826), who was a tenor singer, actor, and composer; he was the author of a successful Singspiel that was performed many times by the theatrical troupe of Emanuel Schikaneder. [Clive, 172] The couple lived in Djakovar, Slavonia (today called Dakovo, in Croatia), where Haibel was the cathedral choirmaster. [Clive, 172] Following Haibel's death, Sophie moved to Salzburg, where Constanze, now widowed from her second marriage, was living. The two lived together until Constanze's death in 1842. [Clive, 172]

Sophie died in Salzburg in 1846, aged 83.

Remembrances of Mozart

Sophie's own remembrances of Mozart and his death, described by the Grove Dictionary author as "moving," come from a letter she wrote to Constanze's second husband Georg Nissen, for the purpose of helping with the biography of Mozart that Nissen and Constanze were preparing. She was also interviewed by Vincent and Mary Novello in 1829 during the journey they undertook to gather information about Mozart. For some of her remembrances, see Death of Mozart.

Notes

References

*Clive, Peter (1993) "Mozart and his Circle: A Biographical Dictionary". New Haven: Yale University Press.
*Deutsch, Otto Erich (1965) "Mozart: A Documentary Biography". Stanford: Stanford University Press. Includes an English translation of Sophie's letter to Nissen, describing Mozart's death.
*"Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians", online edition, article "Weber". Copyright 2008, Oxford University Press. The article is written by Philipp Spitta.
*Sutcliffe, W. Dean (2003) Review of Richard Jones, ed., "Mozart: Mature Piano Pieces". "Music and Letters" 84:342-344.

*The passage in the Allegro K. 400 mentioned above can be viewed in the Neue Mozart Ausgabe's [http://dme.mozarteum.at/DME/nma/start.php?l= online posting] of the composer's works; enter "400" in the search window labeled "KV".