MUSIC APPRECIATION
Class #7: Mozart
THE MOZART PROJECT

http://www.mozartproject.org/
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

1756-1791
GETREIDEGASSE NO.9
FAMILY: LEOPOLD, ANNA MARIA, MARIA
ANNA (“NANNERL”)
PRODIGY*
FIRST COMPOSITION
"This piece was learnt by
Wolfgangerl on 24
January 1761, 3 days
before his 5th birthday,
between 9 and 9:30 in
the evening."
PROOF
Witnesses
 Documentation
 Opinions

5 years old:
Sight Read
 Compose

TOURING
1756
The
“circuit”
 Small cities
Paris
Vienna

Ages 5-17
CONCERTS
Harpsichord
& Violin
 Improvisations
Stunts!?
 2-3
hour concerts
 3-4 performances per day
SCHEDULE
Family
friends
 Royal
Court
Society
Church
Private
concerts
 Musikabend*
Invitations
PAYMENTS
Cash
Gold
Gifts
Clothing
Jewels
EARLY REPORTS
"Everyone is amazed,
especially at the boy,
and everyone whom I
have heard says that his
genius is
incomprehensible."
FATIGUE
1st
illness
 “Scarlet Fever”
 Tuberculosis
Later
illness
 Rheumatoid

Constant
arthritis
COMPOSING
Carriage
rides
 Musical memory
PARIS!
(Salzburg to Munich: 71 miles)
MARIE ANTOINETTE*

“Will you marry me, yes or no?!”
1764 (8 YEARS OLD)
London
 Handel
 Johann
Christian Bach
 Haydn (?!)
 Royal family
Buckingham palace
REBELLION

Children – pre-teen

Nan
Health
 “Woman’s place”


Wolfgang

Composing
Size
 Health

RETURN TO SALZBURG

Money

Employment
Stability
 Composition

ITALY (14)

Without Nannerl

Formal education
Accademia filarmonica of Bologna
 Expulsion


Vatican

Order of the “Golden Spur”
PERFORMER VS. COMPOSER

Child star grows up

Leopold’s pressure vs. Wolfgang’s aspirations
EMPLOYMENT 1771-1781

Salzburg
Konzertmeister
 Employer: Archbishop


Fired

“…with a kick in the ass...”
THE LETTERS*

"My pen is coarse and I am not polite”

Daily+


Lifetime
Recipients
Family
 Friends
 Colleagues


Over 400 preserved and translated
CONTEXT

Various moods and intentions

To family


Respectful, obedient, loving
To colleagues
Professional, frank, encouraging
 Tragically humbling


To friends (and cousin)

Playful, witty, naughty
EXAMPLES




"I can only weep. I have far too sensitive a heart.“
"Perhaps if you were with me I might possibly
take more pleasure in the kindness of those I meet
here. But, as it is, everything seems so empty.“
“Dear cuzz-buzz, I miss-piss your heart-part!”
“I beg of you, not for me but for my child, a few
coins, whatever you can spare…”
SIGNATURE
VARIETY
You can see now that I am able to
write any way I want to, beautifully
and wild, straight and crooked. The
other day, I was in a bad humor, so
my writing was beautiful, straight,
and serious; today I'm in a good
mood, and my writing is wild,
crooked and jolly."
“K” NUMBERS*
“Köchel-Verzeichnis”
Posthumous
 Non-chronological
 For organization and ease of sale

LUDWIG RITTER VON KÖCHEL
ANTONIO SALIERI (1750-1825)
SALIERI FACTS
Wealthy family
 Royal appointment from 1774-1824
 Wildly popular



Vienna’s favorite composer
Celebrated teacher




Mozart’s son, Franz Xaver
Franz Liszt
Franz Schubert
Ludwig van Beethoven
Long, happy marriage with eight children
 Sabotaged performances of Mozart’s “The Marriage
of Figaro”

SALIERI MYTHS
 Alone

recognized Mozart’s genius
Therefore, insanely jealous
 Secret
patron
 Requiem
 Mozart’s murderer
 When did it begin?
FUN AND GAMES


Truth or Myths with Salieri and Mozart
http://classyclassical.blogspot.com/2005/08/antoni
o-salieri-truth-or-fiction.html
AMADEUS*

Peter Schaffer 1979

London


Broadway


Two Olivier Awards
Three Tony Awards
Milos Foreman 1984

8 Academy awards

Best Movie
MANUSCRIPT
MUSICAL COMPOSITIONS

600+

Age 6 - 1791

Composed in every major existing genre
 Symphonies (41)
 Sacred Music


Concertos



Violin, Woodwinds (Clarinet)
Piano (#21 in C Major, 2nd movement; March 10, 1785!)
Chamber Music


Requiem
“Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” (Youtube)
22 Operas

Age 11 - 1791
OPERA
“…everything else I write
is just to sustain me
until the perfect libretto
presents itself…”
WHY?
Baroque
opera traditions
Mozart’s goals
 “Real” people/emotions
 Drama
 Subconscious*
1: SINGSPIEL*
Vernacular
Spoken
dialogue
Light subject matter
 “The Abduction From
The Seraglio”
 “The Magic Flute”
2: OPERA SERIA*
 Subject
matter
 Melodramatic
 Mythological
 Religious
Idomeneo
Titus
3: OPERA BUFFA*
Only comedic?
 Character development

LORENZO DA PONTE* (1749-1838 NYC)
DA PONTE QUICK FACTS: PROFESSIONAL
Writer
 Playwright
 Poet
 Librettist
 Royal Court Appointment by (Franz) Joseph II

Close personal and professional friendship with Salieri
DA PONTE QUICK FACTS: TRIVIA
Personal life
Born Jewish, converted to Catholicism
Priest
Married his mistress
Defrocked, opened a brothel
Moved to New York









US Citizen
Philadelphia grocer
Columbia University professor
Founding member of the Library of Congress
PIERRE BEAUMARCHAIS* (1732-1799)
BEAUMARCHAIS FACTS


Watch-maker, inventor, musician, politician, fugitive, spy,
publisher, arms-dealer, and revolutionary (French and American)
Playwright (“The Figaro Trilogy”*)
 The
Barber of Seville
 The Marriage Of Figaro
 La Mère coupable
THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO*
CHARACTERS
Aristocracy*
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Count Almaviva
Dr. Bartolo
Don Basilio
Rosina (Countess Almaviva)
Marcellina
Don Curzio
Commoners*
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Figaro
Susanna
Cherubino*
Antonio
Servants
*Trouser role
REACTION TO “THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO”


Napoleon:
“Everything you need to know in order to
understand the spirit of (French) Revolution is
contained in the truths found in Figaro.”*
Banned in France by Marie Antoinette
Why?
 And by her brother, Franz Josef, in Austria?

(FRANZ) JOSEPH II (1741-1790)
DROIT DE SEIGNEUR*
 Right
Of The Lord
 “Right of the First Night”
“FIGARO”S APPEAL TO MOZART

Conflict
Social
 Political


Character development
Subconscious*
 Repressed/unspoken thoughts


Susanna

Cultural standing
PRODUCTION CONFLICTS


Librettist (Da Ponte) is working for the censor of
the script (Franz Joseph II).
Librettist is hired to write for the composer’s
“rival” (Salieri).
RESOLUTIONS

Da Ponte’s deal with (Franz) Joseph II

Subject matter
Politics removed
 Only a “bedroom farce” is left


“Time off” to be repaid
TWO SCENES

Act II


Finale*
Act III

“Recognition” sextet*
TWENTY+ UNINTERRUPTED MINUTES!
1.
Susanna
1.
Solo
2.
Count & Countess
2.
Duet
3.
add Susanna
3.
Trio
4.
add Figaro
4.
Quartet
5.
add Antonio
5.
Quintet

6.
remove Antonio
add Marcellina,
Bartolo, Basilio

6.
Quartet
Octet
“Recognition” sextet

Allegiances reverse

Musical “laughter”

Plot completely changes

Authority challenged, thwarted, defeated
PIANO SONATA IN C MAJOR K.
330; 3RD MOVEMENT

Vladimir Horowitz*

Horowitz in Moscow (1986)
1787: DON GIOVANNI*

Legend of Don Juan

“Or The Rake (Cad/Heel) is Punished”
LIBRETTO

Lorenzo da Ponte
 Dramma
Giocoso*
Anti-Hero*
DON GIOVANNI CHARACTERS
Aristocracy*
Don Giovanni
 Donna Anna




Don Ottavio
Commendatore
Donna Elvira
Commoners*
Leporello
 Zerlina
 Masetto

REVOLUTIONARY, IN JUST 10 MINUTES!

Overture*
Opening
 Ending?


Leporello’s opening rant

“I don’t want to be a servant anymore!”
(Attempted) rape
 Sword fight (musical)
 Murder
 Trio for three basses

VIVA! VIVA LA LIBERTA!*

Political statement

Out of context (and this is Mozart/Da Ponte?!)

Every character

Eight repeats
FINAL SCENE
Don Giovanni’s last party?
 Donna Elvira’s entrance and exit

Thunder
 Screams

Knocks/steps
 Confrontation*


Music from the overture

Good vs. Evil
 Choice!
1791

Die Zauberflöte (Magic Flute)*

Papageno/Papgena duet
La Clemenza di Tito
 Requiem*


Lacrimosa*
Myths vs. Facts
 Mozart’s final completed composition
 Franz Xaver Süssmayr

DECEMBER 5, 1791
On the day of his death he asked for the
score to be brought to his bedside. 'Did I
not say before, that I was writing this
Requiem for myself?' After saying this, he
looked yet again with tears in his eyes
through the whole work ... They were at
the first bars of the Lacrimosa when
Mozart began to weep...
LACRIMOSA*
Tearful that day,
on which will rise from ashes
guilty man for judgment.
So have mercy, O Lord, on this man.
Compassionate Lord Jesus,
grant them rest. Amen.
THE TORCH IS PASSED
Ludwig van Beethoven made his appearance in
Vienna as a youthful musician of promise in the
spring of 1787, but was only able to remain there a
short time; he was introduced to Mozart, and
played to him at his request. Mozart, considering
the piece he performed to be a studied show-piece,
was somewhat cold in his expressions of
admiration. Beethoven remarking this, begged for a
theme for improvisation, and, inspired by the
presence of the master he reverenced so highly,
played in such a manner as gradually to engross
Mozart's whole attention; turning quietly to the
bystanders, he said emphatically, “Watch that
young man; he will make himself a name in
the world! When I am gone, he will teach you
all something!”
CARL MARIA VON WEBER* (178601826)
CD#1, TRACK 16

Clarinet Concerto #2*

Which movement?

Why?
Listen for…
Cantabile* solo passages
 Predictable rhythm
 Secondary, accompaniment for the orchestra
