Sunday, October 2, 2011

Music #100 -MOZART

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 

[ˈvɔlfɡaŋ amaˈdeus ˈmoːtsaʁt] (1756 – 1791)


The range of Mozart's musical output is extraordinary, and equally accomplished in so many different media. 
But his greatest love was opera (see Set #181-185 in this blog). 
Mozart was the most brilliant pianist of his age. He took the piano concerto (see Set #121-129) to new heights of richness and virtuosity.

Mozart was the first important composer to attempt to establish a freelance musical career.


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The Amadeus (1984 movie) 
is a lively presentation of Mozart's life story.
Here's a briefing, in Chinese, of the movie.
 

List of music pieces played in The Amadeus (1984 movie):

“March of Welcome” (for Mozart) composed by Salieri 
 - Excerpt from the “Amadeus” (1984 movie)
 
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor granted an audience and an engagement to Mozart. Unworldly Mozart unknowingly offended Salieri in their very first meeting and for the rest of Mozart's short life.

 
(R) 為什麼莫札特的音樂聽起來很悅耳

= = = = =
Joseph II had quite a miserable ending:  
... In November 1788, [Joseph] returned to Vienna with ruined health, and during 1789, was a dying man. Joseph was left entirely alone. His minister Kaunitz refused to visit his sick-room and did not see him for two years. His brother Leopold remained at Florence. At last, Joseph, worn out and broken-hearted, ... died on 20 February 1790. 
        He is buried in tomb number 42 in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna. He asked that his epitaph read: "Here lies Joseph II, who failed in all he undertook." Joseph was succeeded by his younger brother Leopold II, who put his priorities on state matters.  Mozart then lost his income from the court and the nobles.
[Source: Wikipedia]

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Salzbourg = salt city, a city sitting on salt rocks. That's where Mozart was born and brought up.
        In his 35 years of life, Mozart had more than 600 compositions, which were dispersed all over the places.
        In 1862,Ludwig von Köchel completed assigning a Köchel catalogue number (e.g. K.361) chronologically to every one of Mozart's known works. It has since been repeatedly updated.
[Source: Wikipedia]

= = = = =
Little Mozart
with his father Leopold
and sister Nanneri
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's parents gave birth to 7 children, but only his elder sister Nannerl and he lived. Amadeus's father Leopold was a gifted musician, and Nannerl a child prodigy. Soon his own gifts surpassed hers. Leopold gave up his career to promote their talents before the astounded royalty and cognoscenti in Europe.

Mozart plays the harpsichord
for King George III, in London
Giacomo Mantegazza (Italian, 1853–1920)
- (40 x 27 cm) c.1891
- Getty collection

The Mozarts at the Schoenbrunn Palace, Vienna.
The six-year-old prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart gave a concert for Empress Maria Theresa in 1762. As recorded by his proud father Leopold Mozart, after the performance ‘Wolferl leapt onto Her Majesty’s lap, flung his arms around her neck and covered her with kisses’

The social status of a court musician was between the valets and the cooks. Never happy at the small court of Salzburg, he left to become one of the first freelance musicians. He arrived in Vienna in 1781.
     Mozart and his wife Constanze gave birth to 6 children, but only 2 lived to adulthood: Carl Thomas (1784-1858), a legal recorder, and Franz Xavier Wolfgang (1791-1844), a music worker. Neither of them got married.
  
Mozart had many various sickness since a little kid. When his father was dying, he was himself sick with flu, whose virus spread to various organs; at the same time, his wife's legs were also sick. He was thus not able to attend to his father's sickness, like his sister Nannerl; neither was he able to attend to his father's funeral. (This is different from the Amadeus movie.) Then, he and his sister fought over his dead father's assets.
  
Researchers have posited at least 118 causes of his death... The most widely accepted hypothesis is that Mozart died of acute rheumatic fever. 
* Dr Jan V Hirschmann's hypothesized that Mozart died of a parasite in the not-well-cooked fried pork and ribs that he consumed; he wrote to his friends about his pork meals, and his symptoms matched with the 50+ day development cycle.
* After 30, Mozart had swollen faces and plain lifeless eyes, which were symptoms of chronic kidney disease.
   
It was said that his funeral was held on a rainy bad-weather day, that turned back the procession members. His lonely corpse was buried in a nameless graveyard (according to Viennese custom?), and could not be located the next day and thereafter. Poor man and poor soul.

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BBC - The Genius of Mozart (1 hour per episode)


Peter Ustinov presents 2 hours of Mozart Mystique Documentary in 12 episodes.






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