Mozart
Author: Charlie Buquette
Along with Beethoven, Bach and Strauss, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
is one of only a handful of classical composers who are
universally known by all society, even those without any
interest in music older than a few years. Many people will know
several Mozart melodies without even knowing who they were
written by, such is the Austrian composer's penetration into the
human psyche. And yet for all this ubiquity, his music remains
acclaimed critically and an enduring fascination with his life
keeps his story – and his music – alive. It is well known that
he was a child prodigy, and had an innate ability to both
perform with skill and compose by the age of five; but this only
partly explains his immense body of work – over 600 compositions
by the time of his death at only 35. That can only be put down
to his genius and thrilling imagination.
Diversity
Mozart was writing in Europe during a period of immense change.
Governments and royal houses vied for power, war between nations
was common, and towards the end of his life, the seeds of
Industrial Revolution were being sown. The composer was never
far from the centre of all that was going on. Mozart spent much
of his youth being toured around Europe's aristocratic houses
almost as an attraction, his immense talent proving a draw
wherever he went. He traveled to Munich, Prague, Paris, London,
The Hague, Zurich and toured Italy, and he cannot but have been
influenced by the sights and sounds of these places in a time
when average Europeans rarely traveled more than a few miles
from their home towns. Perhaps this exposure to other cultures
and ways of life, albeit limited to the higher echelons, made
his output so diverse. He would in his life compose numerous
symphonies, concertos, pieces of chamber music, operas, dances,
religious music, serenades, divertimenti and choral works that
are still performed today and will go on being performed as long
as people love music.
Mozart's piano sonatas
The first Piano Sonata, in C Major, appears in 1774 (K. 279),
and between then and 1789 he wrote eighteen piano sonatas, plus
a wealth of other solo piano pieces. It is interesting that his
piano sonatas are outnumbered by his twenty-seven piano
concertos, which on the face of it would have been much more
time consuming and complex for mere mortals, but he was perhaps
inspired by the grand performance and the commercial value of
these larger pieces, and consequently made orchestral and
operatic work his mainstay. However, these sonatas can in no way
be considered afterthoughts or compromises; they are pieces that
are as relevant and powerful to the modern listener as you would
expect of this composer. And who knows how many more piano
sonatas he would have written had he lived beyond 35 and not
been plagued with illness? This collection of sonatas remains,
of course, and they are still performed with all the passion and
joy as they would have been in their day, both in public and in
private.
About The Author: Charlie Buquette wrote this article for
Chappell of Bond Street ( http://www.chappellofbondstreet.co.uk
) about Mozart Sheet Music.
is one of only a handful of classical composers who are
universally known by all society, even those without any
interest in music older than a few years. Many people will know
several Mozart melodies without even knowing who they were
written by, such is the Austrian composer's penetration into the
human psyche. And yet for all this ubiquity, his music remains
acclaimed critically and an enduring fascination with his life
keeps his story – and his music – alive. It is well known that
he was a child prodigy, and had an innate ability to both
perform with skill and compose by the age of five; but this only
partly explains his immense body of work – over 600 compositions
by the time of his death at only 35. That can only be put down
to his genius and thrilling imagination.
Diversity
Mozart was writing in Europe during a period of immense change.
Governments and royal houses vied for power, war between nations
was common, and towards the end of his life, the seeds of
Industrial Revolution were being sown. The composer was never
far from the centre of all that was going on. Mozart spent much
of his youth being toured around Europe's aristocratic houses
almost as an attraction, his immense talent proving a draw
wherever he went. He traveled to Munich, Prague, Paris, London,
The Hague, Zurich and toured Italy, and he cannot but have been
influenced by the sights and sounds of these places in a time
when average Europeans rarely traveled more than a few miles
from their home towns. Perhaps this exposure to other cultures
and ways of life, albeit limited to the higher echelons, made
his output so diverse. He would in his life compose numerous
symphonies, concertos, pieces of chamber music, operas, dances,
religious music, serenades, divertimenti and choral works that
are still performed today and will go on being performed as long
as people love music.
Mozart's piano sonatas
The first Piano Sonata, in C Major, appears in 1774 (K. 279),
and between then and 1789 he wrote eighteen piano sonatas, plus
a wealth of other solo piano pieces. It is interesting that his
piano sonatas are outnumbered by his twenty-seven piano
concertos, which on the face of it would have been much more
time consuming and complex for mere mortals, but he was perhaps
inspired by the grand performance and the commercial value of
these larger pieces, and consequently made orchestral and
operatic work his mainstay. However, these sonatas can in no way
be considered afterthoughts or compromises; they are pieces that
are as relevant and powerful to the modern listener as you would
expect of this composer. And who knows how many more piano
sonatas he would have written had he lived beyond 35 and not
been plagued with illness? This collection of sonatas remains,
of course, and they are still performed with all the passion and
joy as they would have been in their day, both in public and in
private.
About The Author: Charlie Buquette wrote this article for
Chappell of Bond Street ( http://www.chappellofbondstreet.co.uk
) about Mozart Sheet Music.
