Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 - December 5, 1791) is one of the most significant and influential composers in history, and belonged to the Classical Period of Art music.
Life
Mozart was born in the city of Salzburg, part of the independent clerical state ErzfÃÂürstbistum Salzburg, Holy Roman Empire (in present-day Austria) and christened Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, after his grandfather on his mother's side and after the Saint on his date of birth, Johannes Chrysostomus. Later, his father shortened 'Wolfgangus' to 'Wolfgang'; translated 'Theophilus' to 'Amadeus' (love of God); and dropped off 'Johannes Chrysostomus.' Mozart himself often enjoyed making small changes to his name, in particular his middle name. Only on very rare occasions did he use the familiar Amadeus, which is most common today, much preferring the French version of his name, "AmadÃÂé". He was also known to occasionally use the Italian "Amadeo" and the German "Gottlieb," in addition to sometimes spelling his name backwards.
A child prodigy from a musical family, he began composing at the age of five and was showcased as a wunderkind in the courts of Europe. His father Leopold Mozart was also a composer and his sister Nannerl was a talented pianist; W.A. Mozart wrote a number of piano pieces, in particular duets and pieces for two pianos, to play with her.
Leopold was a harsh father, who took advantage of his children's musical talents by exhibiting them. Mozart took ill during his childhood, and Leopold expressed more concern over the loss of income than over Mozart himself. The cold weather and constant travel may have contributed to Mozart's later illness.
As an adult, he became a Freemason and worked fervently and successfully to convert his father before his death. The Magic Flute is widely believed to contain Masonic themes and meanings. He was in the same masonic lodge as Joseph Haydn.
Despite his brilliance, Mozart had a difficult life. Often he received no payment for his work, and the substantial sums he received on other occasions were soon consumed by his extravagant lifestyle. Gradually, his health declined, until he finally died of an illness before he could complete his last work, a requiem.
In popular legend, Mozart died penniless and forgotten, to be buried in a pauper's grave. In fact, although he was no longer as fashionable in Vienna as he had once been, he continued to receive substantial commissions from more distant parts of Europe, Prague in particular. Many of his begging letters survive, but they are evidence not of poverty but of his ability to always spend more than he earned.
Mozart spent his final years in Vienna, where one of the apartments he lived in is still to be visited at Domgasse 5 behind St. Stephen's Cathedral. In this house Mozart composed Le nozze di Figaro in 1786.
Mozart lived just a little over half of Beethoven's life span, yet was amazingly prolific from early childhood until his death in 1791.
Mozart's birthplace at 9 Getreidegasse, Salzburg, Austria
Musical Style and Innovations
He left a rich body of chamber and orchestral music, and a series of operas that are generally regarded as some of the finest ever written, especially The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and The Magic Flute. Although he made smaller contributions to the development of new musical forms than Bach and Beethoven, the perfection of his execution is such that he is usually ranked alongside them as one of the greatest composers of all time.
Piano Music
Mozart's earliest composition attempts begin with piano sonatas and other piano pieces, as this is the instrument where his musical education took place. Almost everything that he wrote for piano was intended to be played by himself (or by his sister, also a good piano player) Among the Concertos for piano and orchestra, in 1773 he composed the Concerto in D, K175, that several years later he considered his preferred one. The Concerto for three Pianos in F, K242 (Lodron) was composed in 1776, with three piano parts of different difficulty. Mozart's production for piano during Vienna years found its peaks with the 17 Piano Concertos, the most significant works of the great collection of 27 Concertos, where he revolutioned the Concerto style, giving it a free symphonic dimension, with the solo instrument exploiting all of its technical possibilities playing never heard before effects with the orchestra. Among them, 15 were written in the years from 1782 to 1786, while in the last five years Mozart wrote just two more Piano Concertos. Between 1782 and 1786 he also wrote 20 works for piano solo (including Sonatas, Variations, Fantasias, Suites, Fugues, Rondeaux) and works for piano four hands and two pianos. We mention in this section also the works for piano and violin (16 complete Sonatas, plus several fragments, 2 Variations) , where - mainly in the more mature years - the piano does not play just a support to the other solo instrument, but builds a dialogue with totally equal dignity.
Chamber Music
The kernel of Mozart's chamber music consists of the 26 string quartets (among them the Divertimenti K136-138 are rather Ouvertures in the italian style) and 6 string quintets. The cycle of the Quartetti Milanesi (K80 and K155-160) in three movements, is interesting as far as these works can be considered precursors of the later - more complete - string quartets. Much more stylistically developed are the so called Vienna Quartets (K168-173), composed in 1773. In Vienna Mozart had listened to the String Quartets op. 17 and op. 20 by F.J. Haydn, and had received from them a deep impression. Even if Mozart tries in these works to emulate the older musician, he still cannot reach Haydn's heigths in the most difficult of all the musical genres. He will succeed in reaching his model only after almost ten years, with the six quartets K387-421-428-458-464-465, written in Vienna between 1782 and 1785, not only inspired by Haydn's works, but even explicitly dedicated to him. The last four quartets, the Prussian Quartets K499-575-589-590, dedicated to the king of Prussia Friederich Wilhelm II, emerge for the extremely cantabile charachter of the parts for cello (the instrument played by the king himself), the sweetness of sounds and the equilibrium among the different instruments.The smaller corpus of the string quintets (K46-174-515-516-593-614), for two violins, two violas and cello, includes works that in some way are even of higher level than the last quartets. Among them we remember here the Quintet in G min. K516, widely considered to be his greatest one. Its rapturous atmosphere remembers the Symphony in G min. K550, and the first violin and first viola talk to each other in a quiet fashion, suitable for the minor tonality of the work.
Mozart wrote a huge number of other chamber music works, for several ensembles of string, wind and brass instruments. Notable are the string Duos, for two Violins or Violin and Viola, the Quartets with Flute (flute, violin, viola, cello) K285-285a-285b-298, the Quintet with Clarinet K581, a true string quartet with clarinet, that exhibits a sensual and spiritual syntesis among the sounds of the different instruments.
Estimation
Mozart's distinction as a genius and prodigy has sometimes operated as a cause of confusion and distraction in the estimation of his music, since Mozart's greatness as a composer derives from what many regard as the beauty, profundity, expressive and emotional subtlety, unique imagination, and grandeur of his music. None of these characteristics seem obviously connected with or dependent on the fact that he composed at an early age, had a prodigious musical memory, was a performing virtuoso as a child, could compose entire compositions in his head, could write an entire work on the day of its first performance, could write out the entirety of Gregorio Allegri's Miserere after hearing it one time, and so on.
Major composers since Mozart's time have worshipped or been in awe of him. Beethoven told his pupil Ries that he (Beethoven) would never be able to think of a melody as great as that of the first movement of Mozart's 24th piano concerto, and did Mozart homage by writing variations on his themes (such as the two sets of Variations for Cello and Piano on themes from Mozart's Magic Flute) and cadenzas to several of the piano concerti, most notably the Concerto No. 20 (K. 466). (After their only meeting, Mozart noted that Beethoven would "give the world something to talk about.") Tchaikovsky wrote his Mozartiana in praise of him; and Mahler died with "Mozart" the last word on his lips. The music critic James Svejda, when filling out a job application that asked for his religion, entered "Mozart".
Yet the focus on Mozart's "genius" rather than on the greatness of his music is aided and abetted by his music itself, which is perhaps the most "mysterious" of all classical music. For it lends itself even less than that of the other major classical composers to being described in words or having its essence reduced to particular aesthetic or technical concepts or principles, in the way that Bach is described as the master of counterpoint and Beethoven as the master of symphonic form and development.
In the decades following Mozart's death there were several attempts to inventory his compositions, but it was only in 1862 that Ludwig von KÃÂöchel, a Viennese botanist, mineralogist, and educator, succeeded in this enterprise. KÃÂöchel's stout book of 551 pages was entitled "Chronological-Thematic Catalogue of the Complete Musical Works of WOLFGANG AMADE MOZART". KÃÂöchel is the source of the ubiquitous "K" (or KV) prefix on the numbers given to Mozart's works instead of the more usual "Opus".
The rivalry between Mozart and Antonio Salieri is the subject of Aleksandr Pushkin's play Mozart and Salieri, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Mozart et Salieri and Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus, later made into a film. In fact, Salieri admired Mozart. Most of the dramas based on Mozart's life are largely fictionalized.
In the late 20th Century, Mozart's music found an unusual application in the emerging field of accelerated learning, also known as SALT (Suggestive-accelerative learning and teaching) techniques or Superlearning. Researchers in this work, led by Bulgarian psychologist Georgi Lozanov, have asserted that listening to such music promoted enhanced learning.
Notable Works
Symphonies
Concertos
Piano Sonatas
Serenades and Divertimenti
Masses and Church Music
Mozart's Operas
External links and references