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Mozart in Motion: His Work and His World in Pieces
In exhilarating, transformative prose, the poet Patrick Mackie reveals a musician in dialogue with culture at its most sweepingly progressive.
Mozart is one of the most familiar and beloved icons of our culture, but how much do we really understand about his music, and what can it reveal to us about the great composer?
Following Mozart from his youth in Salzburg to his early death, from his close and rivalrous relationship with his father to his romantic attachments, from his hugely successful operas to intimate compositions on the keyboard, Patrick Mackie leads the reader through the major and lesser-known moments of the composer’s life and brings alive the teeming, swiveling modernity of eighteenth-century Europe. In this era of rococo painting, surrealist aesthetics, and political turbulence, Mozart reckoned with a searing talent that threatened to overwhelm him, all the while pushing himself to extraordinary feats of musicianship.
In Mozart in Motion , we are returned to the volatility of the eighteenth century and hear Mozart’s music in all its audacious vividness, gaining fresh perspectives on why his works still move us so intensely today as we continue to search for a modernity he imagined into being.
Mozart is one of the most familiar and beloved icons of our culture, but how much do we really understand about his music, and what can it reveal to us about the great composer?
Following Mozart from his youth in Salzburg to his early death, from his close and rivalrous relationship with his father to his romantic attachments, from his hugely successful operas to intimate compositions on the keyboard, Patrick Mackie leads the reader through the major and lesser-known moments of the composer’s life and brings alive the teeming, swiveling modernity of eighteenth-century Europe. In this era of rococo painting, surrealist aesthetics, and political turbulence, Mozart reckoned with a searing talent that threatened to overwhelm him, all the while pushing himself to extraordinary feats of musicianship.
In Mozart in Motion , we are returned to the volatility of the eighteenth century and hear Mozart’s music in all its audacious vividness, gaining fresh perspectives on why his works still move us so intensely today as we continue to search for a modernity he imagined into being.
368 pages, Hardcover
Published June 6, 2023
70 people are currently reading
2790 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
September 30, 2021
I hesitate to comment upon Mozart, whose music has been a love since I was a child, but I will say that Patrick Mackie delivers a deep understanding of his subject's life. I read this book with joy. If you thought that the movie Amadeus told you the whole story, then look again. There was more to him, more to Mozart. Not sure? Just get a copy and read. You may find what you are looking for.
May 12, 2024
Interesting look at how events in Mozart's life affected his music and visa-a-versa
October 16, 2021
This book commented on an interesting aspect of Mozart’s life, that is his movements between several cities in Europe that specifically highlight the periods when Mozart lived in Salzburg, Paris, and back to Vienna. In a style that mix biography with musicological analysis on Mozart’s music, Patrick Mackie also highlights the influence of the time during which Mozart wrote his music. Elements of early modernism are mentioned, especially the French Revolution of 1789 which happened during Mozart’s lifetime which in some way or another transcended into Mozart’s music. The author also brings upon the subject of the difficult relationship between Mozart and his father, Leopold, which surely affected Mozart’s view about the world of his time.
However, I find it a bit difficult to digest the story in this book. The words are not typical of a biography, since the author particularly focuses on the musical aspects and influences on Mozart’s work. I guess this book is more intended towards people with musical background or musicologists who already form an opinion in one way or another towards Mozart’s music in some critical way rather than lay readers who have no prior knowledge about Mozart’s life and his musical influence.
However, I find it a bit difficult to digest the story in this book. The words are not typical of a biography, since the author particularly focuses on the musical aspects and influences on Mozart’s work. I guess this book is more intended towards people with musical background or musicologists who already form an opinion in one way or another towards Mozart’s music in some critical way rather than lay readers who have no prior knowledge about Mozart’s life and his musical influence.
December 24, 2025
"Art joins itself to the eternal, not by ascending to some sphere of crystalline immobility, but by pressing on ever more eagerly into its own possibilities and its own germination in the continuous present tense of creativity."
January 19, 2024
I wanted to love this book so much. It was meant to be the next great read in my exploration of piano, classical music, and musicology literature.
Goodreads reviewers critiqued the book for being inaccessible to people who don’t know the musical terms—a fair call, but not an issue for me.
I’m more disappointed by Mackie’s opaque and undigestable prose. Ian Bostridge says the book is “dazzling”. Indeed, I felt overwhelmed by the prose’s bright light for most of the 350 pages.
The book is packed with obscure words when simpler ones would do. I had to look up “limn” in the dictionary and let a few others slip by undefined. You can guess what “paterfamilias” means, but I’m sure “father” would do when discussing Leopold.
Now and then, the pretension fades, and you’re finally having a good time as a reader. Chapters 5 and 13 were perhaps the best of the bunch, based on the notes I took as I read. Chapter 10 included an engaging discussion about the origin of the string quartet. If the book were more like those glimpses, this would be a 3- or 4-star review.
In the Literary Review, Gavin Plumley refers to Mackie’s “whirling” prose, which is funny given how many times the words whirl, whirling, and whirlingly appear in the text between pages 116 and 338. Plumley admires the book but observed that “Mozart would have included more breath marks.” No kidding.
Pop this one at the bottom of your list and give another book a whirl.
Goodreads reviewers critiqued the book for being inaccessible to people who don’t know the musical terms—a fair call, but not an issue for me.
I’m more disappointed by Mackie’s opaque and undigestable prose. Ian Bostridge says the book is “dazzling”. Indeed, I felt overwhelmed by the prose’s bright light for most of the 350 pages.
The book is packed with obscure words when simpler ones would do. I had to look up “limn” in the dictionary and let a few others slip by undefined. You can guess what “paterfamilias” means, but I’m sure “father” would do when discussing Leopold.
Now and then, the pretension fades, and you’re finally having a good time as a reader. Chapters 5 and 13 were perhaps the best of the bunch, based on the notes I took as I read. Chapter 10 included an engaging discussion about the origin of the string quartet. If the book were more like those glimpses, this would be a 3- or 4-star review.
In the Literary Review, Gavin Plumley refers to Mackie’s “whirling” prose, which is funny given how many times the words whirl, whirling, and whirlingly appear in the text between pages 116 and 338. Plumley admires the book but observed that “Mozart would have included more breath marks.” No kidding.
Pop this one at the bottom of your list and give another book a whirl.
January 31, 2026
Educational and enlightening, but pretentious.
May 12, 2023
My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an advanced copy of this look at a composer, his life, his problems, and of course the music.
Most of my knowledge about the composer Mozart probably comes from the Academy Award winning film Amadeus, which I saw as a child on HBO. I know to many the movie Amadeus is like learning about Franz Liszt from the Ken Russell movie Lisztomania, but it was probably my first introduction to composers and their lives. My father was more Jazz, my mom AM radio, so classical music was more familiar to me from movies or watching firework displays on television. Sadly my lack of classical music knowledge has continued, even after working in music stores as well as bookstores. Italian Prog Rock I can discuss for hours, waltzes, not so much. After reading this book, I feel I not only know more, but I can find the proper mindset to understand what makes this music so moving, powerful, and well classical. Mozart in Motion: His Work and His World in Pieces by the poet Patrick Mackie is a look at Mozart's life through his music, a look at how actions effected his creations, and vice versa.
The book is written in essay form with each essay being titled after a particular composition, and the essay focusing on what was happening with Mozart at the time he was creating. Details like what the cities were like are explored and sometimes the chaos, or even the indifference of the people is used as fuel for Mozart's creativity. Paris considered one of the great cities, seems like a miserable mess, one that Mozart would probably agree with. The streets were filthy, dangerous, and even the best hall for performing sound like places even the Ramones would have said no thank you. A chapter about his father details the many problems they had, along with their lack of communication near the end. While the life is of course important, the study of the music is what really makes this book for me. Mackie's descriptions really convey the beauty of the pieces, and to read how they were created was very interesting.
Music and poetry go quite well together, something that seems apparant in rock, but not in classical. Mackie has a keen eye for detail, finding things that don't seem that major or important, and showing this here is what created this, or this situation made this possible, and here is why. Mackie also uses his skill as a poet to set the scenes, in Paris, in small apartments and tenements. The lack of interest in crowds, and the sudden feeling that this song will be remembered. Mackie reminds the reader why these songs are still remembered, conveying the power and majesty, but also their beauty, and why they will continue to go on.
Familiarity with the music will be helpful, which is why I suggest listening the essay titles while reading. The music really is the perfect soundtrack. Recommended for classical music fans, music fans in general, and for people who enjoy interesting biographies, especially well written ones.
Most of my knowledge about the composer Mozart probably comes from the Academy Award winning film Amadeus, which I saw as a child on HBO. I know to many the movie Amadeus is like learning about Franz Liszt from the Ken Russell movie Lisztomania, but it was probably my first introduction to composers and their lives. My father was more Jazz, my mom AM radio, so classical music was more familiar to me from movies or watching firework displays on television. Sadly my lack of classical music knowledge has continued, even after working in music stores as well as bookstores. Italian Prog Rock I can discuss for hours, waltzes, not so much. After reading this book, I feel I not only know more, but I can find the proper mindset to understand what makes this music so moving, powerful, and well classical. Mozart in Motion: His Work and His World in Pieces by the poet Patrick Mackie is a look at Mozart's life through his music, a look at how actions effected his creations, and vice versa.
The book is written in essay form with each essay being titled after a particular composition, and the essay focusing on what was happening with Mozart at the time he was creating. Details like what the cities were like are explored and sometimes the chaos, or even the indifference of the people is used as fuel for Mozart's creativity. Paris considered one of the great cities, seems like a miserable mess, one that Mozart would probably agree with. The streets were filthy, dangerous, and even the best hall for performing sound like places even the Ramones would have said no thank you. A chapter about his father details the many problems they had, along with their lack of communication near the end. While the life is of course important, the study of the music is what really makes this book for me. Mackie's descriptions really convey the beauty of the pieces, and to read how they were created was very interesting.
Music and poetry go quite well together, something that seems apparant in rock, but not in classical. Mackie has a keen eye for detail, finding things that don't seem that major or important, and showing this here is what created this, or this situation made this possible, and here is why. Mackie also uses his skill as a poet to set the scenes, in Paris, in small apartments and tenements. The lack of interest in crowds, and the sudden feeling that this song will be remembered. Mackie reminds the reader why these songs are still remembered, conveying the power and majesty, but also their beauty, and why they will continue to go on.
Familiarity with the music will be helpful, which is why I suggest listening the essay titles while reading. The music really is the perfect soundtrack. Recommended for classical music fans, music fans in general, and for people who enjoy interesting biographies, especially well written ones.
November 2, 2025
A book I found admiring more than enjoying. Patrick Mackie’s ambition, knowledge, thoughtfulness and inventiveness is impressive, but these series of essays often blur under a weight of opaqueness and inscrutability.
Mozart’s biography and creative journey is traced through selected pieces, and ‘movement’ is often a key motif. There are dashes of philosophical inquiry, and a search for the ‘real’ Mozart. Makie is a published poet and this goes some way to understanding his writing style. His command of langue to dissect and personify Mozart’s works is skilled, but often falls down in being absolutely impenetrable as he reaches to express what he feels in the music. Fine, but this only succeeds if this translates over to the reader. There are sentences I would read over and over and still be none the wiser. Some chapters linger longer than others; in particular the incongruity of Prince’s Raspberry Beret suddenly being used a comparison piece. It’s playful but, again, hard to follow and to understand why Raspberry Beret is justifying its inclusion at all.
Not a light read by any stretch and it took me 6 months to get through what often felt like slog. However, Mozart aficionados will likely delight in this, and listening to the pieces alongside it does give it a welcome extra dimension.
Mozart’s biography and creative journey is traced through selected pieces, and ‘movement’ is often a key motif. There are dashes of philosophical inquiry, and a search for the ‘real’ Mozart. Makie is a published poet and this goes some way to understanding his writing style. His command of langue to dissect and personify Mozart’s works is skilled, but often falls down in being absolutely impenetrable as he reaches to express what he feels in the music. Fine, but this only succeeds if this translates over to the reader. There are sentences I would read over and over and still be none the wiser. Some chapters linger longer than others; in particular the incongruity of Prince’s Raspberry Beret suddenly being used a comparison piece. It’s playful but, again, hard to follow and to understand why Raspberry Beret is justifying its inclusion at all.
Not a light read by any stretch and it took me 6 months to get through what often felt like slog. However, Mozart aficionados will likely delight in this, and listening to the pieces alongside it does give it a welcome extra dimension.
December 4, 2023
Most books probably have an intended audience, and if that's true of Patrick Mackie's book Mozart in Motion: His Work and His World in Pieces, I wouldn't be included in that audience grouping. This was not a book for me.
Mackie is a poet, I believe, and writes like one. He writes in the language of a knowledgeable musician, but I don't speak that language. More than half the book didn't mean anything to me. Mackie included many references to Mozart's music and styles, and really explores his growth and innovations. But if you're unfamiliar with the technical terms that a musician might appreciate, it might not mean much to you unless you can hear the music at the same time. I listened to the book in audiobook format, which would have been a perfect vehicle to include some of Mozart's music while the author was discussing the details of the piece. Without that, the best recommendation I could make for this audiobook is that it makes a good substitute for a sleeping pill.
For people without a good degree of familiarity with Mozart and his music, I'd recommend looking for a more general Mozart biography, and leave this book to the scholars.
Mackie is a poet, I believe, and writes like one. He writes in the language of a knowledgeable musician, but I don't speak that language. More than half the book didn't mean anything to me. Mackie included many references to Mozart's music and styles, and really explores his growth and innovations. But if you're unfamiliar with the technical terms that a musician might appreciate, it might not mean much to you unless you can hear the music at the same time. I listened to the book in audiobook format, which would have been a perfect vehicle to include some of Mozart's music while the author was discussing the details of the piece. Without that, the best recommendation I could make for this audiobook is that it makes a good substitute for a sleeping pill.
For people without a good degree of familiarity with Mozart and his music, I'd recommend looking for a more general Mozart biography, and leave this book to the scholars.
September 8, 2023
Author Patrick Mackie gives us a new book about Mozart. Obviously there will be information about music and how it’s done. But, the anchor of the book is who Mozart and what he did in his work. We get a different way to know Mozart. Theme is that he was in “pieces.”
But there is plenty of other things of the musician. We get more than just a few pages of the woman in his life. And find how the violin was so important to his work in music. The book also has a set of words that we haven’t heard in a book like this one.
Of course the biggest theme is what he did with music in his time. And that still goes on today. And…there’s a short piece about how we used joking.
But the most powerful piece of the book is what he did, with mucis and with people.
But, the layout of paragraphs are very long and detailed. We usually pick up the story line.
The readers will go beyond the reader who read about the history of music and may a few more people.
But there is plenty of other things of the musician. We get more than just a few pages of the woman in his life. And find how the violin was so important to his work in music. The book also has a set of words that we haven’t heard in a book like this one.
Of course the biggest theme is what he did with music in his time. And that still goes on today. And…there’s a short piece about how we used joking.
But the most powerful piece of the book is what he did, with mucis and with people.
But, the layout of paragraphs are very long and detailed. We usually pick up the story line.
The readers will go beyond the reader who read about the history of music and may a few more people.
December 13, 2023
A great antidote to the fictionalized Mozart who amused us in "Amadeus." In voluptuous prose, poet author Mackie uncovers the poetry and structure in Mozart's music, but beyond that brings out Mozart the human--energetic, leading a frenzied life, obsessed with many things even though music was at the center, a lover of people, an avid jokester, a fun-loving person who was not always fun, being a frenetic genius.
The author’s most provocative line about Mozart’s music: it can’t be mocked or parodied because it was already laughing so hard at itself. If this is meant to suggest that Mozart was just making fun of an art form he did so much to develop, I can’t agree, but if the idea is that his music brought at least as much joy to Mozart, who understood it better than anyone else, as to his admirers, that could well be.
The author’s most provocative line about Mozart’s music: it can’t be mocked or parodied because it was already laughing so hard at itself. If this is meant to suggest that Mozart was just making fun of an art form he did so much to develop, I can’t agree, but if the idea is that his music brought at least as much joy to Mozart, who understood it better than anyone else, as to his admirers, that could well be.
November 5, 2025
Absolutely loved this book. Essentially the author uses each chapter to look at a particular piece of music or sometimes a type such as opera. He links it to what is happening in the world at large at that point of time and also to Mozart’s life at that same period. So, you get a look into different historical periods, what is happening in culture, politics, and more as well as what was happening in music in general and Mozart in particular. It was pretty fascinating and of course, it meant I had to listen to a lot of Mozart which is not a bad thing at all in my opinion. Not a musician so some of the particular detail on music was over my head, but hopefully I learned something anyway! From my collection, and I am glad of that since I didn’t have the time to listen to all the pieces he talked about at this time, so I will be able to go back sometime later.
December 19, 2024
This book shows huge admiration for Mozart's music and contains a lot of information about his life and times. It can be read as an effort to understand what it was like to be Mozart. However, it is written with so much vapid and pretentious verbosity that reading it was torture for me. I don't know how many times Mackie, an Oxford educated poet, repeated the word "kaleidoscopic," how many times he misused the adjectives "fulsome" and "holistic," or how many times he personified abstractions, such as "the eighteenth century," attributing intention to it. He describes Mozart's works in a way that presents his personal responses as objective truth. It is extremely difficult to write about music without getting technical. Mackie provides a great example of the wrong way to go about it.
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April 24, 2025a book which I would have liked to have loved
there was much to love do not get me wrong
but as informative as it was
this turned out to be one of the densest and most difficult to read verbose experiences I have ever had
there was something in the sentence structure and word choices that made my brain detach immediately
or perhaps I exhibit signs of rapidly progressing brain rot
the words chosen to end sentences most often blocked any potential for flow or cadence and I wound up stuck on lines more often than I dare count.
reading out some passages helped get the melody out so maybe it was just my fault all along
I will be coming back to this book at some point later on in life
hopefully that will prove to be a better experience.
there was much to love do not get me wrong
but as informative as it was
this turned out to be one of the densest and most difficult to read verbose experiences I have ever had
there was something in the sentence structure and word choices that made my brain detach immediately
or perhaps I exhibit signs of rapidly progressing brain rot
the words chosen to end sentences most often blocked any potential for flow or cadence and I wound up stuck on lines more often than I dare count.
reading out some passages helped get the melody out so maybe it was just my fault all along
I will be coming back to this book at some point later on in life
hopefully that will prove to be a better experience.
December 17, 2023
This book is exactly what the title says. It explores the social and political influences in Mozart's life by looking at details and making inferences about specific pieces. This is very heavy on the musical analysis side. I think it can be read by a non musical person but the bulk of the content is parsing through compositional details.
I have studied Mozart technically for years as a musician, but this book managed to give a great deal of humanizing context that I had never known before. For example, I never realized that Mozart struggled with recognition and compensation his whole life. It's an interesting read!
I have studied Mozart technically for years as a musician, but this book managed to give a great deal of humanizing context that I had never known before. For example, I never realized that Mozart struggled with recognition and compensation his whole life. It's an interesting read!
June 30, 2024
I enjoyed this book. The author is a poet and his prose is fun to read. I even had occasional words I had to look up in the dictionary.
The book might be called what makes Mozart run? Each chapter is titled with the name of a piece he was working on at the time and we see Mozart's development and get to appreciate how the selected pieces represent Mozart's development.
I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did.
The book might be called what makes Mozart run? Each chapter is titled with the name of a piece he was working on at the time and we see Mozart's development and get to appreciate how the selected pieces represent Mozart's development.
I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did.
September 17, 2024
I wanted to love this. It was well-written and some parts were interesting. But there were many things wrong with it. First of all, it expects me to know things about Mozart that I didn't. Second, it uses vocabulary that isn't unintelligible but it is dense at best. And finally, it focuses more on other things happening about Mozart more than it does the artist. Overall, it felt like gatekeeping.
August 28, 2025
I skimmed the end of this book as it suffered from two issues. First, it did not have enough detail of Mozart's life to really be considered a biography of the composer. Second, it required a deep familiarity of his work to understand the passages on the works themselves and I lacked that. The author spent a lot of time making comparisons to other writers and artists that seemed a bit of a stretch.
July 9, 2023
What a boring book this is. The author uses pompous language with nothing original in it. It will make you sleepy very quickly. Do you really want to read an excellent book about Mozart and all his works? Look for Hermann Abert's book "Mozart". As for Mackie's book, I wish I could not give it even one star.
September 27, 2023
This book had me fading in and out as far as interest. It didn't completely engage me, but it remains a good refresher on Mozart's life and music especially with specific pieces. It really helps if you have a modest familiarity with his work. Then again, if you didn’t, you probably wouldn’t be reading this book in the first place.
May 18, 2024
By far the most interesting and well-written book about Mozart and music in general. Requires a lot of re-reading but well worth the effort. Mackie takes into the impact of the Enlightenment on Mozart's music, as well as the impact of Mozart on the Enlightenment. Listen to the music as you read the book. Beautifully written.
April 6, 2025
I couldn't get into it. I tried really hard but it couldn't keep my attention and my mind kept wandering through the whole narration. I did enjoy the bit about Prince's Raspberry Beret and comparing musical genius.
June 18, 2024
Only managed to get through half of this. It was too difficult to follow and take in. There were too many variables discussed, too many plots, I found it confusing at times.
October 22, 2024
Loved the idea of this book. Didn’t like the writing style. Breaking the “show don’t tell” rule with too many adjectives imho.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews