Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Introduction

Wolfgang Mozart is one of most of the celebrated artist since the 17^th century up to date due to the various compositions that he created during his short-lived years. Mozart was a prolific composer who created strings of operas, concertos, symphonies and sonatas which were believed differentiate the baroque period and the romantic era. Mozart shaped the classical music in which most of the artist followed the trail he left after he died. Mozart’s father was the main teacher and mentor who shaped his career as a composer. The operas that gained Mozart prestige is the Marriage of the Figaro in 1773. Before Mozart died in 1791, he had composed over 600 pieces of work across all the music genres.

Biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Mozart was born on 22^nd January 1756 in Salzburg, Austria to Leopold Mozart and Anne Maria. His father, Leopold, was a minor composer and experienced teacher in violin. Leopold published his first violin book in 1756. His mother, Anna Marie, did not have a job and played the roles of a wife as per the era. Mozart had six siblings in which the only one of them survived, Maria Anne, who was nicknamed as ‘Nannerl.’ Maria Anne was great was talented at playing the piano. At seven years, Nannerl was taking keyboard classes with his father. Leopold was the primary teacher of his son Mozart as he could teach him and his sister music, languages, and other academic subjects (Hatzinger, Hatzinger, & Sohn, 2013). When Mozart’s playing talent became evident, his father ceased to pave the way for him to invent more independent in his work. Mozart was a Christian believer and attended St. Rupert’s Cathedral in Salzburg, where he was baptized.

As from 1773, Mozart was employed as a music composer in Prince-Archbishop in Salzburg where he was able to compose over 60 pieces of sacred music which were used by the Roman church during that time. Mozart did not attend colleges; his father used to teach him musical classes which formed a firm base of his career (Joe, 2017). Mozart was only employed at Prince-Archbishop, where he was appointed as a chamber composer. Mozart was married to Constanze in 1982 and had six children in which four of them did not survive during infancy. Mozart’s son, Karl, was a gifted pianist who had hopes to open a piano store, but due to inadequate funds, he was unable to establish the store. In 1805, Karl moved to Milan so as study music and frequently attended his father’s music concerts before he died in 1n 1791. Franz Xaver was the second surviving son of Mozart (Hennenberg, 2011). Franz was a composer, pianist, conductor and teacher during the classical era of music. Like his father, Franz stated composition in his early ages as in 1805 he made his first debut in a concert in the Theater an der Wien.

Mozart became ill in 1788, which was suggested to be depression. In September 1791, the illness struck him in which he was first attended to by his wife and her sister, and finally, the family doctor as his health was deteriorating. Some of the symptoms that were persistent include swelling, pain, and vomiting (Dawson, 2010).  On 5^th December 1791, Mozart died at his home and was buried in St Marx Cemetery on 7^th December. The unique thing about Mozart that shaped his life is a passion for improvement in his work, for instance, the chromatic harmony that was incorporated in the String Quartet in C major in 1785 (Dawson, 2010). Besides, Mozart was human, considering some of the compositions he created to address some of the violence and sufferings that people are undergoing throughout their lives. The work of Mozart had a powerful influence on Beethoven Van Ludwig in which they had met in Vienna. Beethoven received several classes from Mozart which helped him to be successful in his music path as well.

Historical Context and Music Characteristics

Mozart lived during the classical era of music, which was between 1750-1820. Mozart lived as from 1756 until 1791, which makes his music highly associated with the musicality of the classical period. The musical music antique and was highly stimulated by the revolution in styles in aspects of architecture, literature, and arts like paintings. The classical music was made more precise and due to the changes in the modulation dynamics. The size of the orchestra increased paving in a path for powerful sound during the period. The natural philosophy in Newton’s physics was highly embraced during this period which gave the structural clarity of music towards homophony and eliminated the polyphony that was associated with the previous era, that is, baroque (Sousa, 2016). The themes were composed of phrases, melodies and rhythms and the phrases were moderately brief. The classical music adopted Galant Style, which tends to signify remarkable grandeur.

In classical music, the pianists and violinists were able to control the tones using the major and minor keys leading to an excellent and clear sound. The texture of the classical period is homophonous, flexible to the rhythm. The classical melodies are tuneful and sophisticated ad most of the composers would borrow from one another. The composers explored several dynamics in the musical instrument which led to the replacement of the harpsichords and clavichords by the piano, which was invented in 1700. The Basso continuo was abandoned during the classical period. In the recapitulation, the minor key improves the melancholy from one theme to another. The composers can add arpeggio from one to another, leading to an eruption of relative violence in the orchestra. Some of the genres that were composed by Mozart include symphonies, operas, solo concertos, chamber music, string quartets, string quartets, piano, and sonata.

Musical Analysis

One of the significant components of Mozart is Symphony No. 40. In G minor which was composed in 1788. The symphony is in the form of the sonata which contains three parts, the main themes, the home key, and B b Major. In terms of the melody, the phrases are scalic and there are balanced phrases either the 4^th or the 8^th bar. Mozart used simple and dotted rhythms to create high momentum and compelling (Mozart, 2017). The texture of the symphony was homophonic, and the composer also utilized imitation. The symphony has adopted a dialogue form between the woodwind and the strings.

In terms of instrumentation, the symphony was played by a chamber orchestra which consisted of the strings, woodwind and horns. The strings were highly unused to play various forms of melodies, notes and chords which minimizes the rate at which the woodwind instrument was used. The two horns were at different keys were used to optimize the number of notes (Sousa, 2016). The symphony is composed of four movements which are in the usual arrangement of the classical style, which includes the fast, slow, minuet, and fast movements respectively.

The first movement in the music was molto allegro which starts darkly in the opening theme. The theme was played by using the lower strings with divided violas. The movement is thus fast in the fast theme. The second movement in the symphony is more of lyrical manipulation in which there is insubordination of the major of G minor which contrapuntally open the bars. After the bars appear, the keyboard is reduced, leading to the movement. This leads to the slow movement of the symphony (Mozart, 2017). The third movement is the allegretto which begins with an angry, hemiola rhythm. A pair of three bar phrase is produced due to the reduction of the keyboard. There are alternate strings play with that of wind in this movement. In the fourth movement, the is characterized by a drastically ascending motes which are based on eight-bar phrases leading to a remarkable modulation in a chromatic scale. At the beginning of the theme, a key is destabilized so as leaving a single note which is the G.

The symphony has been such that it has an exciting rhythm pattern. For instance, in the past three phrases, the movement pattern, which is repeated three times that produces rocket sound. The melody in the fourth movement is consists of notes that are continually rising, which makes the symphony more exciting and unique (Mozart, 2017). Besides, the message that Mozart was trying to convey to the audience is captured. The texture of the symphony is clear, and the interaction of the music elements are coordinated and balanced. The repetition of the themes in a movement helps to form a harmonic pattern.

Conclusion

Wolfgang Mozart was born in 1957 in Austria in a family that embraced music. Mozart was able to recognize his talent as young as three years. Mozart’s sister was a significant contributor to Mozart’s success they used to perform as child prodigies when he was young, which gave him confidence. Mozart was married to Constanze whom they got six children with only two surviving. The two sons of Mozart were Franz and Karl became composers as their father. In his music, Mozart applied a wide range of skills and expertise to ensure he spurs in his music. Mozart composed most of the liturgical music that was used by the Roman Catholic church during this time.