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| Wednesday, 13 October 2004 |
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Matchless scores of Mozart by Gwen Herat Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart needs no introduction to anyone and there is no one visibly on earth who would not have heard of him even once. Astonishingly gifted with an accuracy, no one could have matched his musicality. His scoring accuracy was so great that the music scored in his mind, put to paper rarely needed correction or rephrasing or for that matter, rearranging.
Symphonies came easy to him as did most of his major works. His extraordinary virtuosity baffled many of his contemporaries, other gifted composers and even his father who had discovered is son's brilliance at a very tender age. He was in complete command of his technicalities of counterpoints. His phenomenal memory in style and judgement. When Mozart could place his finger son a full octave, he possessed a harmonic ingenuity that he never realized and which was to bloom rapidly in a short time. A great and perfect concert pianist, he identified himself with opera as well as some scores used for ballet. Half a dozen world's much loved operas were created by him and as much as 27 concertos ended with ten of his masterpieces. His music was beautiful and haunting and a delicious collaboration of a multitude of sounds as never heard before. They were melodies liberated from the past monotony and elevated to romantic undertones. Those who are familiar with opera would know the characteristics of the epic, Idomeneo with inspired music. This was first performed in March or 1781. Mozart had elevated operas to a new plane and the chassic example was Le Nozze Di Figaro. His other brilliant piece, Don Giovanni was thought to be tragi-comedy. His last but the best was Die Zauberifote better known as the Magic Flue was commissioned by an impresario named Schikaneder who was a scrupulous character. The Magis Flute centres a fable whose surreal plot of a bird-catcher called Papageno. Mozart was an amazing pianist because by the time he was 11 year old, he had written and performed the first concerto and the 27th which was his last one, he scored in the last year of his death when he was 34. He also scored many solo piano music especially for the young. Among his 17 sonatas, A Major K467, The Turkish Rondo, A Major K331, C Major K545, and the B flat K570 along with The Fantasia in C Minor K475 are some of the brilliant scores to be found even today. To mention yet another is a miniature keyboard symphony is the evergreen the two-piano sonata K448 that he often played with his sister, Nanneri. Mozart also dedicated some of his brilliant works to Haydn and among their six, Numbers 14-19 stand out in excellence. They get precedence in concert halls even today. He also scored over 200 chambers works of very quality. Mozart did not attempt to reach out for sacred music the way Haydn did but his Requiem is a hot favourite with any performing ensemble. While scoring sonatas for the violin, flute, harp, horn oboe, bassoon too had their individual and particular scores done for them to be played collectively or individually along with the piano. In 1788, however, Mozart found new sense of vigour and vitality which he fed to the triptych of symphonies that overshadowed all his previous works. What fired his imagination or directed him these three masterpieces remain a mystery and no one ever knows its cause. The E flat No. 39K34, G Minor 40K350 and the C Major No. 41 J351 left nothing for imagination. They were phenomenal and spectacular and identified 1788 as the creative year of his life. The icon, the genius and Master composer of the century was only twenty eight years old with just six years more of life left in him. It was sad and unforgivable that fate had to snatch him away at a tender age, depriving the music scene of a still more music heritage that only Mozart could have come up with. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (23-01-1756 to 05-12-1791) was born tragically to Leopald and his wife and was the last of the seven chidlren and the only son. All five of his six sisters died and the one that survived in 1751 and named Anna Maria later to be called Nanneri. By a strange twist of fate, the five sisters hardly survived a couple of months after birth. Nanneri had acquired her father's musicality at the piano and by the time her brother arrived, she had also mastered the harpsichord. But Nanneri's gifts were nothing compared to her brother who played the key-board even before he could reach it. He had his first lessons at the piano even before he could reach it. He had his first lessons at the piano even before he could reach it and by the time he was four, was playing the piano. His career zoomed even before he could have turned around and these two gifted children of Leopald Mozart sent shock waves around the music scene Mozart who children of Leopald Mozart sent shock waves around the music scene Mozart who eventually was seized up by fascination of Haydn, had a deep impact on his life and when death was knocking at the door for Haydn, It devastated Mozart. He bade an emotional farewell to Haydn and slipped down mentally and physically that led him to depression and eventually to a tragic death. He had lost his father earlier. Some of his scorings were not complete. He left the unfinished setting of the Requiem Mass. **** Back **** |
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