Download WolfGang Amadeus Mozart

WOLFGANG AMADEUS
MOZART
Life, Work, and Compositional Style
OVERVIEW
 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: born 27th January 1756 in Salzburg
(Austria) and died 5th December 1791 in Vienna (Austria)
 Composed music in the time now known as the Classical Period
 He was hugely prolific, composing over 600 works
 Considered to be one of the most influential composers of all
time
MOZART’S CHILDHOOD
 Child prodigy
 Toured Europe with his father Leopold and sister Anna Maria
“Nannerl” Mozart playing violin and keyboard
 Began composing at a young age, writing his first opera at age 8
 Wrote down Allegri’s Miserere after two hearings
EARLY WORKING LIFE
 Employed by the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg 1773 – 1777
 Rocky relationship with his employer
 Artistic success in this period but was unhappy and tried to find
other employment
 Low pay and lack of opportunity to write operas
LIFE IN VIENNA
 Mozart travelled for a year then came back to Salzburg to take up
another employment
 In 1781 he gained his first commission from Emperor Joseph II
and moved to Vienna to be a freelance performer and composer
 Early success
 Married Constanze Weber in 1782 – two surviving children
LATER WORKING LIFE
 Plush lifestyle
 Met Haydn in 1784 – dedicated six string quartets to him
 Steady employment, many famous works from this period
including Da Ponte operas
 Circumstances worsened from 1786, financial issues
DEATH
 Turned to borrowing large sums of money
 Fortunes started to rise in 1791
 Fell ill and died aged 35
 Exact cause of death unknown – conspiracy theories abound!
PERSONALITY
 Wealth of letters survive, revealing personality
 Trickster, liked pranks and rude jokes
 Liked fashion and dancing
 Religious, Freemason
COMPOSITIONS
 Extremely versatile; wrote in every major genre
 41 symphonies, 22 operas, 27 piano concertos, chamber works,
songs, sonatas, masses
 Music influenced many subsequent composers, particularly
Beethoven
STYLE
 Mozart’s music represents the pinnacle of the Classical Period and
the ‘Classical style’
 Used forms that were not new, but developed them to their full
potential, particularly the piano concerto
 Later works were influenced by Baroque counterpoint
 Increasing chromaticism in later works
AH! VOUS DIRAI -JE MAMAN
 K 265/300e
 Probably written 1881-2 when Mozart was 25 years old
 Based on a French pastoral song from c. 1740