Mozart defied the rules, and destroyed expectations. He wrote what was never thought to exist. He turned tradition into innovation, and he destroyed all class barriers. Mozart rewrote history. Enlightenment. It is defined as an intellectual movement-a celebration of individuality. Mozart was the enlightenment. He strayed from tradition and wrote music based on his own thoughts, not other composers’. He wrote operas about banned content, instead of the classic love story. He embraced his musical gift, despite what his family said about financial issues. He celebrated himself as an extraordinary composer, and thought no less of anyone else. Throughout his career, Mozart continued to build on the traditional music written before him. He improved on existing music, including some of Salieri’s …show more content…
Mozart himself was never a wealthy man. He often ran out of money, which was one of the main reasons his wife left him, and he could never provide for his family or take care of himself. Having this background, Mozart knew that many lower class residents were unable to understand Italian operas, so he asked for permission to write an opera in German, so everyone in the audience could appreciate his opera. Instead of writing in Italian, a language only the educated would understand, Mozart disregarded class standards and devised a show, The Abduction from the Seraglio, that everyone could comprehend. He wanted everyone of all classes to have an equal opportunity to recognize his work. Mozart’s forward thinking, and defiance of standards was what defined him as an enlightenment thinker. He created operas contrasting from all other ideas, and pursued his own concepts instead of adapting to the common ideas of the time. Mozart was unlike all composers, in the sense that he cared for everyone who came to appreciate his work, no matter their
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was one of the archetypal classical composers, along with Franz Haydn. He composed over 600 works, including choral, symphonic,
Wolfgang was busy during his childhood, playing, and practicing his music; he did not get much of a chance to really experience being a child. His father was constantly pushing him to be better, to play hard, and to make more money. Mozart and his father were evidently close, there are many different views to how Leopold fathered his children; some say he was a money hungry truant, others say he was sweet, sensitive, wanted the best for his children, and that the money didn’t matter. I believe that Leopold want the best for his children, and maybe a little money out of it. Eventually, Mozart wanted to leave his native home of Salzburg, he was most likely tired of his father constantly trying to control his life. Having knowledge of the lack of jobs in Vienna, and disregarding his fathers pleads, Mozart left his home anyways, heading for Vienna with no steady job.
After Mozart and his father returned to Italy from a ten year tour, Mozart was employed by Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Collero to be a court musician in the year 1773. With a pay check of only 150 florins a year though, Mozart began to look for other job ventures and began to try to write operas that he hoped would help kick start his career as a professional musician. It was not until 1782 when Mozart began to receive the credit that he deserved. Performing on multiple local keyboard competitions, he was soon established as one of the best keyboard players in Vienna. Finally in 1783, as he finished writing the opera Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, he began to be seen as a successful independent composer and started to receive a reputation as such (Abert 642). As Mozart got older, he matured even more as a composer writing a total of over six hundred pieces including symphonies, operas, concertos, and other styles of pieces during his life
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s style unlike anyone else. Mozart was a master of counterpoint, fugue, and the other traditional compositional points of his day. He is also considered the best melody writer the world has ever known. Wolfgang perfected the grand forms of symphony, opera string quartet, and concerto made the classical period. “Mozart’s music is characterized by lucid ease and distinction of style....”2 Wolfgang wrote over 600 works which consisted of 21 stage and opera works, 15 masses, over 50 symphonies, 25 piano concertos, 12 violin concertos,27 concert arias, 17 piano sonatas, 26 string quartets, and many more. His operas range from comic baubles to tragic pieces. In his Requiem it illustrates the supreme vocal sounds in any of his work.
When you hear or think of classical music, what do you think of? What should come to your mind is someone by the name of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who is best known as just Mozart, had a huge impact on classical music and truly changed the style forever. He had a remarkable young childhood, but then went through some up and downs as he got older. Mozart was best known by his personal life, career, and music.
Whether it was writing opera’s about prohibited information, or composing in german so lower class residents understand could understand the language, Mozart never conformed. Throughout his career, Mozart continued to build on the traditional music written before him. He improved on traditional music, including some of Salieri’s marches, he exposed the unmentionable, and he moved on to writing his own unique compositions. One scenario that displayed this innovation was
The effects of Mozart on today’s society can be seen just about everywhere. In marketing, they play music to make the consumer want to buy their product. In restaurants, they play music to help the customer feel relaxed in their establishment. People listen to music while driving cars. It seems that music permeates almost every aspect of our everyday lives. When people think of the birth of modern music, they often think of classical music. And when people think of classical music, they think of Mozart. During the 18th century, the musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed a total number of six hundred and fifty works. When he was younger, he toured Europe with his father, Leopold, and his sister, Nannerl, playing for Europe’s elite of the time. He put forth some major musical contributions that shape modern music today (Fiero 324,326). Classical music is the great grandfather of all modern music. Some people enjoy
He was one of the most well-known and influential composers in the Classical Era. In the early years of his life, Mozart proved to be a prodigy. Growing up he “mastered the universal technical difficulties of musical composition, such as counterpoint, harmony, fugue, variation, instrumentation, and formal planning (of arias, ensembles, sonatas, and rondos); yet all this learning never suppressed the element of fantasy. Mozart excelled in virtually every genre and style” (Rushton, Paragraph 1) Mozart composed over 600 works varying from concertos, operas, sonatas, and symphonies. During the years 1782—1785, Mozart performed a series of concerts, earing him a substantial amount of wealth. In 1786, he returned to opera where his career began to slowly decline, causing him and his family to change from the comfortable lifestyle they grew accustom to living frugally. 1791, the year Mozart died was a year of great productivity. He wrote many new works, such as The Magic Flute, Clarinet Concerto K.622, and Ave verum corpus K.618. Unfortunately, he became ill and his health began to deteriorate. He died December 5th, 1791 at the age of
In 1785 Mozart collaborated Lorenzo Da Ponte, a Venetian composer and poet and wrote the opera Marriage of Figaro. This opera was so successful that they later went on to write another opera call Don Giovanni in 1787. These two operas are some of his most important and famous works. December 1787 Emperor Joseph II appointed Wolfgang as his chamber composer. This was a part time position with low pay but it was welcome to Mozart who was still struggling financially. At the end of the 1780’s Mozart was performing less and his income had significantly diminished. By 1788 Mozart moved his family from central Vienna to the suburb of Alsergrund as a way of reducing the living cost however this did not seem to be the case. Wolfgang began to borrow money off friends but always managed to repay them after a concert. Mozart travelled to German cities hoping to revive his success and solve his financial problem but this didn’t work. Throughout the years 1988 and 1789 Mozart sank into a period of depression because of his financial losses. However in 1790 and 1791 Mozart gained traction again and was extremely successful. Because of this his wealth also increased and he was able to pay off his debt. In 1791 Emanuel Schikandeder and theatre manager and actor approached Mozart about righting a fantasy opera, The Magic Flute. This was a huge success but unfortunately for Mozart he had fallen ill and collapsed from exhaustion after the premier and his illness
Mozart was an extremely childish, immature person; yet one of the most talented musicians of all time.
Wolfgang was born to Leopold and Anna Maria Mozart on January 27th, 1756. Leopold, his father studied philosophy, but never finished school. (Solomon) He later became a very talented violinist and organist. Leopold and Anna Maria had seven children together, but only two survived, Wolfgang and his older sister Maria Anna. (Solomon) Leopold was responsible for his children’s education, and also was the one to teach them music. Throughout his life, Wolfgang had written over 600 pieces of music. Mozart was known for writing a lot of sad or depressing music. No one really understood why, but he was always fascinated with the subject of death. Of course he wrote all of his own music, but in this time period it was
Mozart was a prolific and most influential composer of the classical era. As a mere toddler he began to observe his sister’s lessons with their father, developing a keen ear, and showing signs of surprising comprehension. His father, Leopold, was himself a successful composer, violinist and assistant concert master of the Salzburg Court. Both Mozart and his sister were tutored by their father, a dedicated and task-oriented pedagogue. Young Mozart progressed anon, excelling even above his father’s pedagogic genius. At the verdant age of six, he performed as a child prodigy at royal courts in London, Paris, and Zurich. Mozart’s youth was spent fully engaged in touring and performance. These tours were financed through donors and patrons. Through the years, and while abroad, Mozart met many accomplished musicians such as Johann
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in 1756, in Salzburg, Austria. Mozart quickly became “the most extraordinarily gifted child in the history of music” (Forney 169). Around the age of 3 Mozart became interested in playing the keyboard, “he could also recall prominent passages from the pieces that he heard” (Abert 19). At only reaching the age of four, Mozart’s father had already begun to teach him a number of minutes and other pieces on the keyboard, and not long before he was able to play them with total accuracy and in perfect time. “Soon he was moved to write music of his own and was still only four when he wrote his first short pieces, which he played to his father and which the latter duly notated” (Abert 19). Not only did Mozart begin to compose before he was five but by the age of thirteen, he had already written everything from sonatas to several operas. Leopold was the father of Mozart, which instantly gave him a strong foundation when it came to the musical background. Leopold Mozart was a well-respected court composer-violinist, he dedicated his life and energy to support his son’s talent. Not only was Mozart influenced by his father but also by Johann Christian Bach. At this time Mozart traveled to the courts of Paris, London, The Hague, and Zurich performing with all the other child prodigies, this is how Mozart met Bach following one of their performances. They quickly became friends and Mozart considered Bach as an instrumental influence in his work. During
While at the Salzburg court, Mozart composed his only violin concertos, as well as his first piano concertos. However, Mozart grew discontent with his work at court when his desire to work on operas was not encouraged. Mozart began looking for alternative employment in 1777 with a journey to Paris with his mother. While on his tour of Paris, he had financial difficulty, and fell to pawning valuables. While he was gone, his father worked to secure a better position for Mozart in the Salzburg court, and after the death of his mother, Mozart returned to Salzburg. However, his discontent was little diminished, and he left for Vienna in 1781. There, he worked as a freelance composer and performer, and established himself as one of the best keyboard players in Vienna. This period of Mozart’s life saw his marriage to Constanze Weber, as well as moderately great success with his opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio). Over the next few years, Mozart mounted a number of concerts featuring himself as a piano soloist which pushed him to great success and high accolades from his audience. Mozart also began to realize moderate financial success, which led him to adopt a more opulent lifestyle. Incidentally, this increase in lifestyle would lead to financial difficulties later. Around 1786, Mozart began collaborating with Lorenzo Da Ponte on two very successful operas, The Marriage of Figaro, and Don Giovanni. Soon after, Mozart secured a
Classical composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born to Leopold and Anna Maria Mozart in 1756 in Salzburg, Austria (then the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation). Mozart showed promise in music from an early age, prompting his father to assume the role as his instructor. His father described his son as a gift from God, and Leopold nurtured Wolfgang’s talents as such. Mozart would eventually travel throughout Europe with his musical family; however, it was in Salzburg that he would compose three piano sonatas in 1783. These pieces were most likely composed for Mozart’s pupils in Vienna, who were a significant source of income for him at the time. This paper