MOZART

Mozart



Mozart

Introduction

Mozart (1756-91) is the only great composer who is equally acclaimed in operatic and instrumental works. He had no need to theorize about opera, because he was able to take over into his operas the procedures that he employed above all in his sublime series of piano concertos. In his mature operatic masterpieces the glories, above all, are the large ensembles. Though, strictly speaking, they are not in sonata form, they give the listener the firmest sense of a musical argument which underpins and indeed absorbs into itself the text and action, creating a seamless whole. This paper discusses Mozart and how his music is an inspiring to many people.

Discussion

Mozart was born in Salzburg, where he was christened Johannes Chrysotomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. He had a talented older sister Maria Anna (Nannerl) Mozart, who shared with him some of his earlier musical adventures. Mozart's father, Leopold Mozart, was a violinist, conductor, and composer at the court of the archbishop of Salzburg. (Eisen, 2002)

Young Mozart displayed his extraordinary musical gifts from an early age. His father nurtured these talents by providing him with systematic and rigorous training in keyboard technique, improvisation skills, and composition. Between the ages of six and 15, Mozart spent half of his time touring the vital European musical centers. His virtuosity in both performance and composition were widely recognized. Mozart seemed to provide an example of genius in the flesh, and he consequently became the hero of the Sturm und Drang generation of German artists and intellectuals. (Till, 2006)

Most of Mozart's brilliant compositions date from the Viennese period. Mozart's style continued to evolve. In 1782, for example, he began experimenting with contrapuntal techniques, after having encountered the compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach at music sessions in the home of Gottfried van Swieten. I think, Major compositions from the Vienna period include the six symphonies known as the Haffner (K 385), the Prague (K 504), the Linz (K 425), the Symphony in E Flat (K 543), the Symphony in G Minor (K 550), and the Symphony in G Major (Jupiter, K 551).  Seventeen piano concertos, the Haydn quartets (K 387, 421, 428, 458, 464, 465), and the piano Fantasia show Mozart's mastery of various musical forms. His operas, Le Nozze di Figaro, produced daringly in spite of the censoring of Beaumarchais's play of the same name; Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), with its Masonic and deist messages; Don Giovanni; and Così fan Tutte—were widely acclaimed and, of course, ...