Clovelly Wood Music Hall

This page is where you can learn about music history, composers, and their music. I love music - I feel it is very important - it can say things more powerfully than words. It can be used for good or bad, therefore, we must select our music carefully. I would like to quote on of my favourite composers, Johann Sebastian Bach:

"The aim and final reason of all music
should be nothing else but the Glory of God
and the refreshment of the spirit."
(Upcoming topics: Beethoven, Glenn Gould)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91)

Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, to Leopold Mozart, who was a composer and musician in the Archbishop's court. WA Mozart was extremely gifted as a child. When he was only 6 years old, he performed for the Empress Maria Theresa. He went on a grand tour of Europe, organized by his father, and was a prolific composer by the age of thirteen.

We are now even more amazed at his talent than his contemporaries were. He explained his gift for rapid composition when he said, "Though it be long, the work is complete and finished in my mind. I take out of the bag of my memory what has previously been collected into it. For this reason the committing to paper is done quickly enough. For everything is already finished, and it rarely differs on paper from what it was in my imiagination. At this work I can therefore allow myself to be disturbed. Whatever may be going on about me, I write and even talk."

Mozart was not entirely fitted for the patronage system. He was dismissed from his first position, and went to Vienna as a free artist while searching for another. He was eventually given an appointment in the court of Emperor Joseph II, but was only given work such as composing dances for balls, etc. These things were not worthy of his abilities.

He married Constanze Weber in 1782, though his father was opposed to it. Mozart was very attached to her, most of the time, but she had no more resources for dealing with the world than he had. She didn't even seem to realize the real importance of her husband's genius until long after his death.

He wrote The Marriage of Figaro in 1786. This was the high point of his career and popularity. His next opera, Don Giovanni, though, as the Emperor said, "...is heavenly, perhaps even more beautiful than Figaro.", was not received so well - the public did not understand his music, they thought it too difficult to understand and were too frivolous to wish to understand. When he was told by a publisher to write in a style that was more popular, he replied, "In that case I can make no more by my pen. I had better starve and die at once."

As his final few years passed, his financial situation worsened. His emotional state deteriorated accordingly. He kept trying to free himself from his difficulties, but never succeeded. During his final year, he made a last burst of effort. He wrote The Magic Flute (an opera) for the theatre, then went to Prague to present The Clemency of Titus at the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia. But the court did not like it. He returned home to Vienna, a broken man. He took up his final work, the Requiem. A count who planned to pass off the work as his own had commissioned it.

The composer was obsessed with his belief that the Mass for the Dead was for him, and that he would die leaving it unfinished. He was right. He died in 1791, and because of his high debts, was buried as a pauper. His friends only followed the procession partway - it was raining, and his body was left to proceed to the cold grave alone.

"Thus, without a note of music, forsaken by all he held dear, the remains of this prince of harmony were committed to the earth--not even in a grave of his own but in the common paupers' grave."

Interesting but not terribly useful facts:

* he was a friend of Haydn's, and dedicated a set of 6 quartets to him.

* the piano was his favourite instrument

* he composed over 40 symphonies, the last 3 unusually, did not seem to have been written for any reason but the need to write them. (In those times, composers almost never wrote unless commissioned to do so)

* he invented some composing dice game whereby anyone could 'compose' a simple little dance piece. I would like to try it, but I'm not sure where I can get my greedy little hands on the text.

* the music playing in the background is Mozart's piano sonata no.11 in A k331, 1st movement.

* if you would like to listen to more of Mozart's music, most public libraries have audio cassettes/CD's you can borrow, or you can go to a music store and buy some of your own. Or, if you play a musical instrument, you can play some yourself.

Bibliography:
1. The Enjoyment of Music, 6th ed. by Joseph Machlis, pp.207-211

Click here to read previous article about JS Bach

Links:
Classical Midi Archives (part of Classical Music Web Ring)
Classical Midi Links (part of Web Ring, has links to midis, educational sites, etc)
The MP3 site - register and listen to classical music - also loads of great celtic music!