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About Mozart


A part of Touch 2016 Series

When tasked with writing a piece of music, the average professional composer would give himself a reasonable time period of perhaps a few weeks to several months. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) felt no such need to follow such guidelines and decided that he was good enough to finish the score for the opera Don Giovanni the night before its premier. Its positive reception from the audience and the manner in which this work is now billed as a staple of the standard operatic repertoire serves to prove that Mozart was indeed as good as he thought he was.

The breathtaking speed Don Giovanni was completed by was also by no means a fluke and in his short 35 years, composed over 600 works ranging across all genres – a feat most composers with full complete lifespans would struggle to match. Born into a family of 4, Mozart was surrounded by music as he grew up, watching his father tutor his elder sister in the piano learning the piano himself when he was only 3 years old. A meteorite of talent that refused to slow down, Mozart started touring Europe with his family at 6 years old, overshadowing both his father and sister, composing and performing symphonies for several noble families who wanted to watch him.

Innovative, yet passionate, Mozart’s compositions spanned over 9 different types of genres, ranging from solo piano works, to full sized symphonies, being flexible with both secular and non-secular pieces. His passionate and yet elegant melodies are also what sets him apart from his peers where the structured nature of his music often reveals influences and the teachings of the grand baroque masters, J S Bach, and C P E Bach. At the same time, Mozart, the fiery ball of creative energy did not allow structure to tie down his passionate tendencies and his symphony no. 25, which features also in the film “Amadeus”, stands as a lasting testament to Mozart’s musical passion.

As a person, Mozart was quite fittingly rather vain and flamboyant in character, matching his fiery attitude towards music and work. Living lavishly, Mozart was as often as not inebriated while composing his works and it was because of this that caused the man to fall into bankruptcy and disease. Most composers while getting older see their production of musical works decline steadily as they make way for the next generation. Mozart because of his fast life and death, never enjoyed such a privilege. Meeting his end at the peak of his compositional prowess, the musical community today is left wondering what other works might have been had Mozart lived just a little longer, or spent just a little less. As it stands, Mozart was, is and will most probably be considered one of the greatest figures in all of musical history with his music still being used in Bugs Bunny cartoons, and in the rock music of Van Halen. Despite all that has been said, Mozart’s lifestyle caused him to live and die in poverty and today, nobody can be sure exactly where his grave is. All that we know is that his body lies under a common gravestone, somewhere in the grounds of Vienna.

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