Mozart Pt. 2: His works

Mozart may not have received the respect and appreciation he was due by the people of his day, but now he is seen as one of the greatest composers the world has ever known. Most of his works have endured the strain of time and been practiced and studied by dozens and dozens of other composers and performers throughout the centuries.

      Countless famous composers have themselves said wonderful things about Mozart’s work. Shortly before Leopold, Mozart’s father died, Haydn wrote to him and said, “Before God, and as an honest man I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me, either in person or by name. He has taste and, what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition” (Goulding). Schumann, who was born almost twenty years after Mozart died, said, “There are things in the world about which nothing can be said, as Mozart’s C Major Symphony, much of Shakespeare, and pages of Beethoven” (Goulding). Tchaikovsky called him the music Christ. (While I do not think it appropriate that anyone should be compared to Christ, I included this because it drives the point home.)

     A few contemporaries of Mozart, though, believed that he did not have the passion and depth that was needed to be great. Mozart’s music is light, charming and graceful. They say that he did not play deeply enough upon human emotions as Beethoven did. 

     This, however, was clearly Mozart’s intention. “Passions whether violent or not,” he said, “should never be expressed when they reach an unpleasant stage; and music, even in the most terrible situations, should never offend the ear, but should charm it, and always remain music" (Goulding).

     While Mozart can be referred to as the piano concerto king, his true love was the opera.  “Opera to me comes before anything else,” he wrote in 1782 (Goulding). Unfortunately for him, the practice of composing for opera was regarded as a rather lowly career. This could be the reason that he was regarded with almost contempt by the people of Vienna. About ten years later, he wrote what some authorities consider the very peak of his career. The Opera called The Magic Flute appeared on September 30, 1791, and increased in success with each performance. It was a fairy opera about a young prince who faces many dangers and threats in order to win the hand of a beautiful young princess. Several key elements to the opera are a golden flute, a set of chimes, and the princess’s evil mother, the Queen of the Night. In the end, of course, the prince wins the hand of the princess, after vanquishing his antagonist. Though this was probably the height of his career, Mozart had little time to enjoy it, for just three months later he died. 

     Another one of Mozart’s famous operas is Don Giovanni. This premiered in 1787 and posed a problem for experts trying to categorize it. It was unlike most of Mozart’s lighthearted operas–combining tragedy with comedy. The experts were unsure whether or not it ought to be classified as opera semi-seira, a half-serious opera, or as a comic opera. Once again, Mozart stepped out of the boundaries of the day. This opera tells the story of the life and death of a wicked nobleman named Giovanni. It was concerning this opera that Rossini, a later opera composer, declared that Mozart was “the only composer who had as much science as genius and as much genius as science" (Goulding.

     Though many of Mozart’s operas are unknown today to people who are not strong musicians, experts would argue that the music Mozart wrote for them is probably the best that he ever composed. 

     As we wrap up this short study of Mozart’s works, we can stand truly amazed to learn how much he wrote in his short lifetime. Because there is a clear distinction between what Mozart wrote towards the end of his life and what he wrote as a very young man, imagine how much more his music could have matured as he became an older man, living to be fifty or sixty! Would our world be the same today?

     Though questions like the one above can hardly be answered in our present day, I would like to ask one more. If he had written two or three times more than he actually did, would we appreciate him more than we do now? Would he be playing in our rooms or homes?

     Perhaps not. 

     With that in mind, why don’t you go give Mozart a bit of your time today. Attached below is a link to Mozart’s famous “A Little Night Music.” You will find it a very familiar piece, but before you fast forward through the video, commit yourself to truly listen to the music. It is a sad truth that familiarity becomes boring. Don’t let that happen today! :) Thanks for reading!

Deus Benedicat tibi

(God bless you)

Works Cited:

Goulding, Phil. Classical Music. New York: Ballantine    

     Books, 1992. Print.

McDonough, Yona Zeldis. Who Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? New York: Grosset and    

     Dunlap, 2003.