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| Wednesday, 21 January 2004 |
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Mozart and enlightenment by Derrick Schokman Vienna, seat of the Hapsburgs, was a highly cosmopolitan city susceptible to Italian, French and German influences which it transformed into something unique - the Viennese classics. The classical style superseded the baroque movement. While the pleasure loving aristocrats, arbiters of fashion and taste were delighting in the rococo, a new technique of criticism was being sharpened under their noses with a desire for freedom and toleration. The distinctive contribution of the Vietnamese classical school was instrumental and orchestral. Nonetheless opera buffa remained the centre of attraction socially if not artistically. Equilibrium Mozart contributed significantly to all three departments, preserving the classical equilibrium or balance between assertion on the part of the composer striving for greater liberality of expression and acceptance on the part of society slow to adjust to the new enlightenment. In the process Mozart broke away from the patronage of the aristocrats by relinquishing the post he held in the orchestra of the Court of Salsbury and thereafter earning his living as a freelance composer and performer. Output His astonishingly prolific output in a short life of 35 years included 20 operatic works, 17 masses, 21 piano concertos, concertos for violin and also wind instruments (notably the famous horn concertos), 27 string quartets, 6 string quintets and 41 symphonies.
The best known of his symphonies are No. 29 in A, No. 35 in D (Haffner), No. 38 in D (Prague), No. 36 in C (Linz) and the last great three (1788), No. 39 in Eflat, No. 40 in G minor and No. 41 in C (Jupiter). Mozart particularly appreciated the fullness of timbre of the clarinet, often substituting it for the oboe in his symphonies. He was also very fond of the sonority of the French Horn. Operas Among the greatest of all Mozart's works are his compositions for the stage based on Singspiel. While the average Opera buffa was conventional in plot and musically thin, Mozart used the form to explore human character and behaviour and gave it a Shakespearean blend of tragedy and comedy. He replaced well-worn types with living individuals and mere tunefulness with musical expression, portraiture and characterisation. It was in the field of opera buffa that Mozart won the highest glory. Examples are "The Marriage of Figaro" (1786) "Don Giovanni" (1787) and "Cosi Fan Tute (1790). Mozart's ambition was to create a wholly German opera buffa based on Singspiel music and German words. His early operas based on Italian libretti showed a tendency towards singspiel. It was only in the "Magic Flute" written on the eve of his death (1791) however that he achieved his goal in having a German opera with German words based on German Singspiel. Piano concertos The solo piano concerto was a recreation of the operatic arhia in instrumental terms. Mozart lifted the concerto from a typical gallant three movement work to the highest level of symphonic expression. His first great landmark - Mozart's Eroica it has been called - is the piano concerto in Eflat (k 271) composed at Salzburg. Nothing like it had been heard before. Other well-known piano concertos are No. 19 in F (K 459) No. 2 in C minor (K 491) and his last No. 27 in B flat (K 595). Other notable concertos by Mozart are for Flute and Harp, Horn Concerto No. 4 in E flat major (K 495) and the clarinet concerto in A major (K 622). What all admirers of Mozarts music have in common (including the writer of this article) is that it combines the formal elegance of classical sound with a grace and charm that can never conceal the strengths, vigour and directness of his expression. He was fundamentally the foremost composer of the new enlightenment. **** Back **** |
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