Transcript document

MUSIC APPRECIATION
Class #7: Mozart (part 1)
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
hours
 3-4 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!
MARIE ANTOINETTE

“Will you marry me, yes or no?!”
1764
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.
Vatican

Order of the Golden Spur.
PERFORMER VS. COMPOSER
Child star
 Leopold’s pressure

EMPLOYMENT 1771-1781

Salzburg
Konzertmeister
 Employer


Fired

“…with a kick in the ass...”
THE LETTERS

"My Pen is Coarse and I am not Polite”

Daily+


Lifetime
Recipients
Family
 Friends
 Colleagues


Preserved and translated
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."
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
 Insanely jealous
 Secret patron
 Requiem
 Mozart’s murderer
 Began?
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
MUSICAL COMPOSITIONS

600+

Age 6 - 1791

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
MANUSCRIPT
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
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
Barber of Seville
 The Marriage Of Figaro
 La Mère coupable
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 by Marie Antoinette


Why?
And her brother?
(FRANZ) JOSEPH II (1741-1790)
DROIT DE SEIGNEUR
 Right
Of The Lord
 “Right of the First Night”
“FIGARO”S APPEAL TO MOZART
Conflict
 Character development

Subconscious
 Repressed thoughts


Susanna
CONFLICTS


Librettist (Da Ponte) works for the censor (Franz
Joseph II)
Librettist is hired to write for “rival” (Salieri)
RESOLUTIONS

Da Ponte’s deal with (Franz) Joseph II
Subject matter
 Time off repaid

TWO SCENES

Act II


Finale
Act III

“Recognition” sextet
TWENTY+ UNINTERRUPTED MINUTES!
1.
Susanna
2.
Count & Countess
3.
add Susanna
1.
Solo
2.
Duet
3.
4.
add Figaro
4.
Trio
Quartet
5.
add Antonio
5.
Quintet

6.
remove Antonia
add Marcellina,
Bartolo, Basilio

6.
Quartet
Octet
“Recognition” sextet

Allegiances reverse

Musical “laughter”
Plot totally changes
 Authority challenged, thwarted, defeated
