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Bölzlschiessen was a form of domestic recreation that involved shooting darts at decorated targets with an air gun. It is remembered as an activity of
Leopold Mozart Johann Georg Leopold Mozart (November 14, 1719 – May 28, 1787) was a German composer, violinist, and music theorist. He is best known today as the father and teacher of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and for his violin textbook ''Versuch einer grün ...
, his family, and their friends. The most famous participant was Leopold's son
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...
, who began playing at the age of tenAnonymous (2005) or earlier.


Description

There were normally about six to ten players. The Mozart family invited various friends, typically not colleagues from work. The role of ''Bestgeber'' ("best-giver") rotated among participants. The ''Bestgeber'' provided "a sum of money for the prizes, a painted target (German: ''Bölzlscheibe'', "dart-target"), and possibly refreshments" (Halliwell) The target, which measured up to a meter in size, typically was satirical, poking fun of some member of the group, and included both a picture and some verse. When the Mozart family were the hosts, the game was usually played indoors. As of 1773 they lived in the '' Tanzmeisterhaus'' ("Dancing Master's House"), where their apartments included the studio of the dancing master who had lived there. They used this large room for concerts, dancing, and also ''Bölzlschiessen''. Gatherings took place on Sundays and holidays after lunch. The shooting was followed by card games and a stroll in the Mirabell Park. The game seems to have been part of the Mozarts' identity as a family: when Wolfgang and his mother left Salzburg in 1777 for his lengthy (and unsuccessful) job-hunting tour, others took their turns at ''Bölzlschiessen'' back home in Salzburg. At one point, Wolfgang wrote home to Leopold, specifying the form of a ''Bölzlschiessen'' target he wanted used (see below). The close-knit Mozart family was eventually broken up by death and migration: the mother
Anna Maria Mozart Anna Maria Walburga Mozart (Married and maiden names, née Pertl; 25 December 1720 – 3 July 1778) was the mother of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Maria Anna Mozart. Life Youth Anna Maria was born in St. Gilgen, Archbishopric of Salzburg, to E ...
died in Paris in 1778 while visiting there with Wolfgang, who turn departed to Vienna to pursue his career in 1781. The daughter
Maria Anna Mozart Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia "Marianne" Mozart (30 July 1751 – 29 October 1829), nicknamed Nannerl, was a highly regarded musician from Salzburg, Austria. In her childhood, she developed into an outstanding keyboard player under the tutelage ...
("Nannerl") left Salzburg in 1784 to live with her new husband in St. Gilgen, six hours away. This left Leopold alone as the last remaining family member living in the Tanzmeister-Haus. Leopold died in 1787, and the list of sale items for the auction that followed poignantly included several dart guns.


Some individuals appearing on Bölzlschiessen targets


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Maria Anna Thekla Mozart

See image above. Wolfgang's departure from his cousin (and probable love interest)
Maria Anna Thekla Mozart Maria Anna Thekla Mozart (25 September 1758 – 25 January 1841), called ''Marianne'', known as Bäsle ("little cousin"), was the cousin and friend of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Biography She was born in Augsburg, Germany, the third and only ...
was from
Augsburg Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...
where she lived; he was heading toward
Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...
on his job-hunting tour. The target was provided for Wolfgang by his father Leopold; evidently Wolfgang served as honorary ''Bestgeber'' despite being away from home. The verse on the target reads (in English): :Adieu, my maiden cousin! – Adieu, my cousin! :I wish you good luck on the journey, health, fine weather :We spent a fortnight together quite gaily, :'Tis this that makes parting so sad for us twain. :Hateful fate! – Alas – scarcely did I see you arrive :When you are off again! Who would not weep at this?


Katherl Gilowsky

A friend of Mozart's older sister Nannerl. Several targets portray her in various ways forlornly seeking a husband. On one target, the poem read as follows (verse translation by Halliwell): :At every pious pilgrim church to which I wend my way :I carry something from my hopes for which alone I pray; :Will heaven not alas relent to hear a poor soul's plea? :And for my sacrifice and prayer bestow a man on me? Another commemorates an event in which she tripped on a step in a local store, exposing her posterior in public.Halliwell (1998, 253) Yet another celebrates her birthday by depicting her in a cradle as Leopold's violin pupil, the
castrato A castrato (Italian; : castrati) is a male singer who underwent castration before puberty in order to retain a singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice can also occur in one who, due to an endocrino ...
Francesco Ceccarelli Francesco Ceccarelli (1752, in Foligno – 21 September 1814, in Dresden) was a castrato soprano known for his grace and excellent singing technique. After early opera appearances in his native Umbria, he sang mainly in the German-speaking coun ...
, plays her a lullaby. Ceccarelli was ''Bestgeber'' on this occasion.


Emanuel Schikaneder

Schikaneder is known to history as the
librettist A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the text of major ...
and impresario of Mozart's opera ''
The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (, ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. It is a ''Singspiel'', a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on ...
'', written in 1791. In 1780, he had brought his theatrical trouple to Salzburg for an extended stay, and during this time befriended the Mozart family. He is recorded as participating in ''Bölzlschiessen'' with them, and the target that portrayed him was based on his reputation as a womanizer. According to Schroeder it shows him "trifling with one woman while another waits patiently for him to come to her."Schroeder (1999, 57)


Anonymous

While away on his job hunting trip, Wolfgang wrote to his father specifying the form of ''Bölzlschiessen'' target he would like the family to use during his absence. :Concerning the ''targets'', if it is not too late, please do this for me. A small man with light hair, stooped over, revealing his bare arse. From his mouth come the words, ''good appetite for the feast''. The other man should be shown with boots and spurs, a red cloak and a splendid, fashionable wig. He must be of medium height, and precisely in the position that he can lick the other man's arse. From his mouth come the words: ''oh, there's nothing to top that''. So, please, if it can't be this time, another time. Schroeder suggests that one of the men portrayed may have been the Mozarts' employer, Archbishop Colloredo. Halliwell hypothesizes that it was Jakob Alois Karl Langenmantel, a functionary in Augsburg who had mocked Mozart for wearing his emblem of knighthood from the Pope (the
Order of the Golden Spur The Order of the Golden Spur (, ), officially known also as the Order of the Golden Militia (, ), is a papal order of knighthood conferred upon those who have rendered distinguished service in propagating the Catholic faith, or who have contr ...
; see
Mozart and Catholicism The composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a Catholic, and the Church played an important role in his life. Life Catholic upbringing Mozart's parents (Leopold Mozart and Anna Maria Mozart) were Catholics and raised their children religiously, ins ...
).Halliwell (1998; 244, 252) The action Mozart describes in his letter also is mentioned in his letters to Maria Anna Thekla Mozart and in his musical canons; for discussion, see
Mozart and scatology Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart displayed toilet humour, scatological humour in his letters and multiple recreational compositions. This material has long been a puzzle for Mozart scholarship. Some scholars try to understand it in terms of its role in M ...
.


Etymology and spelling

In German, ''Bolz'' means "bolt", as in the sense of "
crossbow A crossbow is a ranged weapon using an Elasticity (physics), elastic launching device consisting of a Bow and arrow, bow-like assembly called a ''prod'', mounted horizontally on a main frame called a ''tiller'', which is hand-held in a similar f ...
bolt". ''-l'' is a
diminutive A diminutive is a word obtained by modifying a root word to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment, and sometimes to belittle s ...
suffix, which induces an Umlaut on its stem; hence ''Bölzl'' "little bolt, dart". "Schiessen" means "to shoot" or "shooting". In German usage the word is most often spelled ''Bölzlschießen'', using an Eszett; English-language sources normally use ''ss'' instead.


Notes


References

* Anonymous (initials "JB") (2005?). "Mozart als Schütze und Billardspieler" ("Mozart as target shooter and billiard player"). In German. Posted on the web site of the newspaper ''Traunsteiner Tagblatt''

* Halliwell, Ruth (1998) ''The Mozart Family: Four Lives in a Social Context''. Oxford: Clarendon Press. * Jahn, Otto (1889). ''W. A. Mozart, erster Theil''. Leipzig: Breitkopf und Härtel

* Schroeder, David P. (1999) ''Mozart in revolt: strategies of resistance, mischief, and deception''. New Haven: Yale University Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bolzlschiessen Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Darts