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CHAPTER 47
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
Instrumental Music
Life (1756-1791)
• Born in Salzburg, Austria, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
showed extraordinary musical talent in early
childhood. With his father Leopold, a composer and
well-known violin teacher, the young Wunderkind
undertook two multi-year show tours around the
major capitals of Europe and main cities in Italy.
Consequently, already at an early age Mozart had a
chance to absorb a wealth of musical styles.
• In the 1770s, Mozart worked as violinist and organist
for the Archbishop of his native Salzburg, a position
that brought him little respect and risible
compensation. After several disagreements with his
employer, Mozart left for Vienna in 1781, where he
made a living as a freelance musician and teacher. He
died there a poor man.
Symphonies
•
•
Mozart wrote forty-one symphonies, most of them during his youthful
travels around Europe and his time as an employee of the Archbishop of
Salzburg.
"Little" G-Minor Symphony: Symphony No. 25 (K. 183), Mozart's first
in a minor key, called "Little" to distinguish it from the later, longer
Symphony No. 40 in G Minor (K. 550). Written in 1773 in Salzburg, this
symphony shows elements of the Sturm und Drang style.
Symphonies (cont.)
• Mozart composed his final six symphonies in Vienna
between 1782 and 1788. Together with Haydn's
late symphonies, they represent the culmination of
the Viennese symphonic style.
– "Prague" Symphony: Symphony No. 38 in D major
(K. 504), written in 1786 for a performance in
Prague.
– Symphony No. 40 in G Minor: sometimes called
the "Great" G-Minor Symphony (K. 550), it was
written in 1788, likely for one of Mozart's
subscription concerts in Vienna.
– "Jupiter" Symphony: Symphony No. 41 in C Major
(K. 551), it was written in 1788, likely for a
performance at Mozart's subscription concerts in
Vienna.
Mozart took great pains with orchestration. The winds in particular are always
carefully "voiced" and rarely simply double the string parts. Mozart's colorful
writing for winds formed the basis for Haydn's London Symphonies as well as
those composed by Schubert and Beethoven.
The finale of the "Jupiter" Symphony contains one of the greatest
technical tour de force in the history of music: the five themes
presented in the exposition of this sonata-form movement all come
back in the coda in quintuple invertible counterpoint.
Chamber Music
• Mozart wrote divertimenti and serenades for all
sorts of public entertainments, some two dozen
string quartets, as well as several quintets.
– "Haydn" Quartets: Mozart's set of six string
quartets dedicated to Haydn, the father of the genre.
Mozart began composing this collection shortly after
his arrival in Vienna, where he had a chance to study
Haydn's influential Opus 33 quartets.
– "Dissonance" Quartet: the last of the "Haydn"
Quartets, it derives its title from the Adagio
introduction to the first movement, a passage known
for its harmonic audacity.
Piano and Violin Sonatas
Mozart wrote eighteen sonatas for solo piano and twenty-eight
sonatas for piano and violin. Throughout the eighteenth century,
most sonatas were directed towards amateur performers, many of
them women. Mozart too wrote easy sonatas, characterized by
tuneful, symmetrical melodies and simple accompaniment patterns for
the left hand.
Turkish music was introduced into European music in the
eighteenth century during the Turkish Wars. Like other
contemporary and later composers, Mozart sometimes imitated the
sounds of Turkish military music in his compositions.
Mozart's Piano
Mozart began to play the
piano, as opposed to the
harpsichord, during the
1770s. In 1783 he
purchased a piano by the
Viennese maker Anton
Walter; to this piano he
later added a pedal board
that allowed him to
extend and reinforce the
lower register.
Piano Concertos
• If Mozart created his piano sonatas mainly for
teaching purposes, he fashioned his twenty-three
piano concertos for himself and his best students to
play in public. Mozart's piano concertos feature:
– Three movements (fast/slow/fast)
– Sparkling musical "dialogues" between the orchestra
and the soloist
– The new concerto-sonata form for the first
movements
Concerto-sonata form: otherwise called "double exposition" form, it
consists of two different sorts of expositions:
• Orchestral ("passive") exposition, entirely in the tonic key
presented by the orchestra
• Solo ("active") exposition by the soloist and orchestra that
provides the modulation to secondary key area.