Concise History of Western Music
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Chapter Index Chapter 1: Music in Ancient Greece and Early Christian Rome Chapter 2: Chant and Secular Song in the Middle Ages, 400Đ1450 Chapter 3: Polyphonic Music from Its Beginnings through the Thirteenth Century Chapter 4: French and Italian Music in the Fourteenth Century Chapter 5: England and Burgundian Lands in the Fifteenth Century: The Beginnings of an International Style Chapter 6: The Age of the Renaissance: Music of the Low Countries Chapter 7: The Age of the Renaissance: New Currents in the Sixteenth Century Chapter 8: Church Music of the Late Renaissance and Reformation Chapter 9: Church Music of the Late Renaissance and Reformation Chapter 10: Opera and Vocal Music in the Late Seventeenth Century Chapter 11: Instrumental Music in the Late Baroque Chapter 12: Music in the Early Eighteenth Century Chapter 13: The Early Classic Period: Opera and Instrumental Music in the Eighteenth Century Chapter 14: The Late Eighteenth Century: Haydn and Mozart Chapter 15: Ludwig van Beethoven Chapter 16: Romanticism and Nineteenth-Century Orchestral Music Chapter 17: Solo, Chamber, and Vocal Music in the Nineteenth Century Chapter 18: Opera, Music Drama, and Church Music in the Nineteenth Century Chapter 19: European Music from the 1870s to World War I Chapter 20: The European Mainstream in the Twentieth Century Chapter 21: Atonality, Serialism, and Recent Developments in Twentieth-Century Europe Chapter 22: The American Twentieth Century
 

Outlines:
  - Franz Joseph Haydn
  - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  Quiz
  Listening Guide
Chapter 14: The Late Eighteenth Century: Haydn and Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
  1. Early Life

    1. Born in 1756 in Salzburg, the seat of a major political unit within the German Empire and a center of the arts

    2. His father, Leopold (see window in CHWM)
      1. Assistant musical director at the archbishop's chapel
      2. Composer
      3. Wrote a famous treatise on violin playing
      4. Devoted his life to the musical careers of Wolfgang and his sister Marianne ("Nannerl")

    3. Wolfgang became a virtuoso on keyboard and violin.

    4. From 1762 to 1771 he toured Europe, giving public performances.

  2. The Early Years (to 1781)

    1. Sonatas and other chamber music
      1. Thirteen sonatas for piano with distinct themes
      2. Several sets of variations for piano, including K. 265=300e on Ah, vous dirais-je maman (Twinkle, twinkle, little star )
      3. Sonatas for piano, with violin as optional accompaniment

    2. Serenades and divertimentos
      1. Serenades (now called divertimentos) were popular for outdoor entertainment in Salzburg.
      2. Example, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night-Music, K. 525) for string quintet or small string ensemble.

    3. Solo concertos
      1. Three for violin (K. 216, 218, 219, all in 1775)
      2. Piano concerto K. 271 in E-flat Major began a long series of great works.

  3. Mozart's Vienna Years (1781–1791)

    1. Left his position with the Archbishop of Salzburg to become a free lancer in Vienna.
      1. At first he was successful as a freelance performer, teacher, and composer.
      2. He produced a Singspiel, Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Harem, 1782), which was performed repeatedly.
      3. He had many students and was idolized by the public.

    2. By 1788 the public had deserted him and he resorted to begging friends for money.

    3. His mature style developed during his Vienna years.
      1. He continued to study the music of Haydn and began to study J. S. Bach's music.
      2. He synthesized the galant and the learned styles.

    4. His piano works from this period were his greatest in the genre and would influence Beethoven and Schubert.

    5. His chamber works include six string quartets dedicated to Haydn (1782–5) and influenced by Haydn's later quartets (e.g. K. 421, CHWM, ex. 14.11).

    6. Only six symphonies in his last ten years
      1. Many of his earlier symphonies served as theatrical curtain raisers.
      2. His Vienna symphonies were the main feature on Vienna concert programs, or were at least considered equal to other works on the program, such as concertos.
      3. While each of these works is unique, they share a number of common features:
        1. Striking opening gestures.
        2. Contrapuntal treatment of themes
        3. Climactic final movements that combine thematic elements (ars combinatoria)

  4. Concertos

    1. Many of the seventeen concertos for piano that Mozart composed while in Vienna were for his own concerts.

    2. Form combines Baroque and Classical features (e.g., NAWM 99).
      1. Three-movement sequence: fast-slow-fast
      2. The first movement combines the ritornello of the Baroque with the sonata form (see CHWM, p. 354).
      3. The second movement is like a lyrical aria.
      4. Finales are in rondo or sonata-rondo form using themes with a popular character, with many opportunities to dazzle the audience with virtuosic displays.
      5. Mozart sketched or fully notated several cadenzas for his own concertos.
        1. His earlier cadenzas were not thematically linked to their movements.
        2. The cadenzas from the 1780s acted as second development sections.

  5. Operas

    1. La clemenza di Tito (The Mercy of Titus, 1791) was his only serious opera after Idomeneo.

    2. His other late operas included three on Italian librettos by Lorenzo da Ponte and two in German.

    3. Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro, 1786) is a comic opera with well developed characterization and a social conscience.
      1. The Libretto is by Lorenzo Da Ponte.
      2. Mozart's music intensifies the character development and social tensions between classes, especially in duets and ensembles.

    4. Don Giovanni (1787), a dramma giocoso
      1. Based on a medieval legendary character who had often been portrayed as a farcical blasphemer.
      2. Mozart portrays him as an individualistic romantic hero.
      3. Although the characters are subtly ridiculed they must also be taken seriously.
      4. Example: NAWM 100a
        1. Elvira's personality is characterized through wide leaps and agitated runs and tremolos.
        2. Don Giovanni's character is more lighthearted and mocking.
      5. Leporello's seemingly idle patter in the Catalogue aria (NAWM 100b) combines humor and pathos.
        1. Leporello lists (i.e., catalogues) the types of women his master likes.
        2. The fast pace (i.e., patter) of the list is in a humorous tradition, yet Mozart's setting compels the listener to take the scene seriously.

    5. Coś fan tutte is an opera buffa.

    6. Die Entführung is a Singspiel set against an "oriental" background.

    7. Die Zauberflöte is the first great German opera, although outwardly a Singspiel.
      1. The opera incorporates the teachings and ceremonies of Freemasonry (Mozart had also composed music for Masonic ceremonies).
      2. It combines vocal opulence of Italian opera seria, the folk humor of the Singspiel, the vocal ensembles of the buffa, and a new kind of accompanied recitative appropriate to German words.

  6. Church Music

    1. Mozart's Masses are in the symphonic-operatic idiom, intermingled with fugues and scored for chorus alternating with soloists, accompanied by orchestra.

    2. Requiem, K. 626, was Mozart's last work.
      1. Commissioned by a wealthy nobleman, Count Walsegg.
      2. Left unfinished at Mozart's death and completed by his pupil and collaborator Franz Xaver Süssmayr.

© 2002 W. W. Norton & Company | Credits