Marianne Kirchgessner

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in Vienna, in the last year of his life, composed for her—producing one of the best works for this instrument, the Quintet Adagio and Rondo for glass harmonica, flute, oboe, viola and cello in C major K. 617,[2] as well as the Adagio for glass harmonica solo K.

[2] As the fifth daughter of Joseph Anton Kirchgäßner, a chamber paymaster from Speyer, and his wife Maria Teresa, née Waßmuthin,[1] she began playing the clavier with great skill and expression at the age of 6.

At 11 she commenced instruction on the glass harmonica with Kapellmeister Joseph Aloys Schimittbauer (1718–1809) in Karlsruhe, which lasted ten years.

[4] After that, she traveled throughout Europe for ten years, visiting Prague, Dresden, Leipzig, Berlin, Hamburg, and Magdeburg.

She continued touring and giving concerts in Hanover, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Leipzig, Berlin—and in Carlsbad, where she met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in the summer of 1808.