Mozart’s musical world

The path of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) in music began brightly and brilliantly. From the earliest years of his life, his name became a legend. At four years old, it took him half an hour to learn the minuet and immediately play it. At the age of six, he toured Europe with his father Leopold Mozart, a talented musician of the chapel of the Archbishop of Salzburg. At eleven he composed his first opera, and at fourteen he conducted the premiere of his own opera at the Milan Theater. In the same year he received the honorary title of Academician of Music of Bologna.

However, the further life of the talented composer was not easy. The position of a court musician was not much different from that of an obliging lackey, fulfilling any whims of his master. This was not the character of Mozart, an independent and decisive man who most of all appreciated honor and dignity in his life. Having passed many life trials, he did not change his views and beliefs in any way.

Mozart went down in the history of musical culture as a brilliant composer of symphonic music, the creator of the genre of the classical concert, the author of Requiem and twenty operas, among which The Marriage of Figaro, Don Juan and The Magic Flute were especially famous. Emphasizing the importance of his creative heritage, I would like to repeat, together with A.S. Pushkin:

“You, Mozart, are God, and you
don’t know that yourself …”

In operatic art, Mozart paved his own path, different from his famous predecessors and contemporaries. Rarely using mythological plots, he mainly turned to literary sources: medieval legends and plays by famous playwrights. Mozart was the first to combine dramatic and comic elements in an opera. In his operatic works there was no clear division of characters into positive and negative; heroes now and then found themselves in a variety of life situations, in which the essence of their characters was manifested.

Mozart prioritized music rather than highlighting the role of the sounding word. His own words that “poetry should be the obedient daughter of music” became his creative principle. In Mozart’s operas, the role of the orchestra increased, with the help of which the author could express his attitude towards the characters. Often he showed sympathy for the negative characters, and he was not averse to laughing at the positive ones.

The Marriage of Figaro (1786) was based on the play by the French playwright Beaumarchais (1732-1799) Crazy Day, or The Marriage of Figaro. Mozart took a great risk choosing a censored play for the production. The result is a hilarious opera in the style of the Italian comic opera buff. The energetic, light music sounding in this work made the audience seriously think about life. One of the first biographers of the composer noted very accurately:

“Mozart fused together the comic and the lyrical, the low and the sublime, the funny and the touching, and created an unprecedented creation in its novelty -” Figaro’s Wedding “.”

The barber Figaro, a man without clan and tribe, with cunning and intelligence defeats the radiant Count Almaviva, who is not averse to hitting a commoner’s bride. But Figaro has well mastered the customs of the high society, and therefore he cannot be deceived with refined gestures and verbal cobwebs. He fights for his happiness to the end.

In the opera Don Juan (1787), the tragic and the comic, the fantastic and the real are intertwined no less firmly. Mozart himself gave it the subtitle “Merry Drama”. It should be emphasized that the theme of Don Juanism was not new in music, but Mozart found special approaches in its disclosure. If earlier the focus of composers’ attention was the daring adventures and love adventures of Don Juan, now a charming man full of knightly courage, nobility and courage appeared before the audience. Mozart also reacted with great sympathy to the disclosure of the emotional experiences of women offended by Don Juan, who became victims of his love intrigues. The serious and majestic arias of the Commander were replaced by the cheerful and mischievous melodies of the cunning Leporello, Don Juan’s servant.

“The music of the opera is full of movement, brilliance, unusually dynamic and delicate. The melody reigns in this work – flexible, expressive, captivating in its freshness and beauty. The score abounds in wonderful, masterly designed ensembles, magnificent arias, which give singers the broadest opportunities to reveal all the richness of voices, to demonstrate high vocal technique ”(B. Kremnev).

The fairy-tale opera The Magic Flute (1791) – Mozart’s favorite work, his “swan song” – became a kind of epilogue to the life of the great composer (it was staged in Vienna two months before his death). In an easy and captivating form, Mozart embodied in it the theme of the inevitable victory of the light and intelligent beginning of life over the forces of destruction and evil. The wizard Zara-stro and his faithful assistants, having overcome many cruel trials, nevertheless create the world of Wisdom, Nature and Reason. Black revenge, anger and deceit of the Queen of the Night are powerless before the all-conquering charms of love.

The opera was a tremendous success. The melodies of fairy-tale games, magic operas, folk fairgrounds and puppet shows sounded in it.

In symphonic music, Mozart reached no lesser heights. Mozart’s three last symphonies are especially popular: in E flat major (1788), G minor (1789) and C major, or Jupiter (1789). The lyrical confessions of the composer, his philosophical understanding of the traversed life path sounded in them.

Mozart is credited with creating the genre of the classical concert for various musical instruments. Among them there are 27 concertos for piano and orchestra, 7 for violin and orchestra, 19 sonatas for piano, works in the genre of fantasy, which are based on free improvisation. From an early age, playing almost daily, he developed a virtuoso style of performance. Each time he offered the listeners new compositions, striking them with creative imagination and inexhaustible power of inspiration. One of the best works by Mozart in this genre is Piano Concerto in D minor (1786).

Mozart’s work is also represented by outstanding works of sacred music: masses, cantatas, oratorios. The pinnacle of his sacred music was “Requiem” (1791) – a grandiose work for choir, soloists and symphony orchestra. The music of the requiem is deeply tragic, full of restrained and noble sorrow. The leitmotif of the work is the fate of a suffering person facing the harsh judgment of God. With tremendous dramatic power, in the second chorus “Dies irae” (“Day of Wrath”) he depicts images of death and destruction, contrasting with mournful prayer and touching complaints. The lyrical culmination of “Requiem” was “Lacrimosa” (“Lacrimosa” – “This Tearful Day”), music imbued with tremulous excitement and enlightened sadness. The extraordinary beauty of this melody made it widely known and popular at all times.

The terminally ill Mozart did not manage to finish this work. According to the composer’s sketches, it was finalized by one of his students.