FREE ESSAY ON MOZART

MOZART

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus 
Outline Click to view outline and jump to a section. I. Introduction II. Mozart's
Musically Precocious Childhood III. A Difficult Later Life IV. Evaluation 
I. Introduction
Print section
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-91), Austrian composer, a centrally important composer of
the classical era, and one of the most inspired composers in Western musical tradition.
Born January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, and baptized Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus
Theophilus Mozart, he was educated by his father, Leopold Mozart, who was concertmaster
in the court orchestra of the archbishop of Salzburg and a celebrated violinist,
composer, and author.
II. Mozart's Musically Precocious Childhood
Print section
By the age of six Mozart had become an accomplished performer on the clavier, violin, and
organ and was highly skilled in sight-reading and improvisation. Five short piano pieces
composed by Mozart when he was six years old are still frequently played. In 1762 Leopold
took Wolfgang on the first of many successful concert tours through the courts of Europe.
During this period Wolfgang composed sonatas for the harpsichord and violin (1763), a
symphony (1764), an oratorio (1766), and the opera buffa La finta semplice (The Simple
Pretense, 1768). In 1769 Mozart was appointed concertmaster to the archbishop of
Salzburg, and later in the same year, at La Scala (Milan, Italy), he was made a chevalier
of the Order of the Golden Spur by the pope. He also composed his first German operetta,
Bastien und Bastienne, in the same year. At the age of 14 he was commissioned to write a
serious opera. This work, Mitridate, re di Ponto (Mithridates, King of Pontus, 1770),
produced under his direction at Milan, completely established an already phenomenal
reputation.
The Mozarts returned to Salzburg in 1771. Hieronymus, count von Colloredo, the successor
to the archbishop of Salzburg, who had died while the Mozarts were touring Italy, cared
little for music. Mozart's appointment at Salzburg, however, proved to be largely
honorary; it allowed ample time for a prodigious musical output during his next six
years, but afforded little financial security. In 1777 Mozart obtained a leave of absence
for a concert tour and left with his mother for Munich.
III. A Difficult Later Life
Print section
The courts of Europe ignored the 21-year-old composer in his search for a more congenial
and rewarding appointment. He traveled to Mannheim, then the musical center of Europe
because of its famous orchestra, in hopes of a post, and there fell in love with Aloysia
Weber. Leopold promptly ordered his son and wife to Paris. His mother's death in Paris in
July 1778, his rejection by Weber, and the neglect he suffered from the aristocrats whom
he courted made the two years from Mozart's arrival in Paris until his return to Salzburg
in 1779 one of the most difficult periods in his life.
While at home Mozart composed two masses and a number of sonatas, symphonies, and
concertos; these works reveal for the first time a distinctive style and a completely
mature understanding of musical media. The success of Mozart's Italian opera seria
Idomeneo, re di Creta (Idomeneo, King of Crete), commissioned and composed in 1781,
prompted the archbishop of Salzburg to invite Mozart to his palace at Vienna. A series of
court intrigues and his exploitation at the hands of the court soon forced Mozart to
leave. In a house in Vienna rented for him by friends, he hoped to sustain himself by
teaching. During this period Mozart composed a singspiel (a type of German operetta with
some spoken dialogue) called The Abduction from the Seraglio, which was requested by
Emperor Joseph II in 1782.
In the same year Mozart married Constanze Weber, Aloysia's younger sister. Unending
poverty and illness harassed the family until Mozart's death. The Marriage of Figaro
(1786) and Don Giovanni (1787), with librettos by Lorenzo Da Ponte, while successful in
Prague, were partial failures in Vienna. From 1787 until the production of Cosi fan tutte
(All Women Do So, 1790, again with a libretto by Da Ponte), Mozart received no
commissions for operas. For the coronation of Emperor Leopold II in 1791 he wrote the
opera seria La clemenza di Tito (The Clemency of Titus; libretto by Metastasio). His
three great symphonies of 1788—no. 39 in E-flat, no. 40 in G Minor, and no. 41 in C
(the Jupiter)—were never performed under his direction. While Mozart was working on
the singspiel The Magic Flute (1791), an emissary of a Count Walsegg mysteriously
requested a requiem mass. This work, uncompleted at Mozart's death, proved to be his last
musical effort. He died, presumably of typhoid fever, in Vienna on December 5, 1791; his
burial was attended by few friends. The place of his grave is unmarked. The legend that
the Italian composer Antonio Salieri murdered him is unsupported by reputable scholars.
IV. Evaluation
Print section
Mozart had an unsuccessful career and died young, but he ranks as one of the great
geniuses of Western civilization. His large output (more than 600 works) shows that even
as a child he possessed a thorough command of the technical resources of musical
composition as well as an original imagination. His instrumental works include
symphonies, divertimentos, sonatas, chamber music for a number of instrumental
combinations, and concertos; his vocal works consist mainly of church music and operas.
Mozart's creative method was extraordinary, for his manuscripts show that, although he
made an occasional preliminary sketch of a difficult passage, he almost invariably
thought out a complete work before committing it to paper. His music combines an Italian
taste for clear and graceful melody with a German taste for formal and contrapuntal
ingenuity. Mozart thus epitomizes the classical style of the 18th century, the goal of
which was to be succinct, clear, and well balanced while at the same time developing
ideas to a point of emotionally satisfying fullness. These qualities are perhaps best
expressed in his concertos, with their dramatic contrasts between a solo instrument and
the orchestra, and in his operas, with their profound contrasts between different
personalities reacting to changing situations. His operas achieved a new unity of vocal
and instrumental writing; they are marked by subtle characterization and an unusual use
of classic symphonic style in large-scale ensembles.
? 1993-2000 Microsoft Corporation.
All rights reserved.
Bibliography
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, Microsoft? Encarta? Online Encyclopedia 2000
http://encarta.msn.com ? 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.