Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was conceived in Salzburg on January 27, 1756. His father was a great violinist and composer in the City Court Orchestra. His mother, who also loves music, played several bowed instruments. Mozart, who has traveled all over Europe since the age 6 year old, has demonstrated incredible musical talent. Mozart was a genius musician and a genius in western music. He has been an important figure in European music’s development as a classical musician. He was unfortunately too young to live. He died on the 5th of December 1791 from ‘hitziges Friesel fieber’. This is a severe form of military fever. Mozart died in 1935, but he still had the ability to compose a large number of works. Mozart’s main creative genre, opera, had over 500 pieces and was able to produce a total of 22. There are 49 symphonies in Mozart’s instrumental music collection. There are many more, including piano concertos as well as sonatas for piano and chamber music. Mozart’s piano sonata No. KV310, 8 in A major, was composed in 1778. This sonata is quite different than the optimistic and original Mozart works. Mozart was ‘under pressure’ at the time he wrote it. Mozart left Salzburg’s court and moved to Paris to look for a job. Mozart was accompanied by his mother. Mozart later lost his mother due to a fatal illness. You can see this when Mozart broke the news to Abbe Bullinger back in Salzburg. His letter began with the words “Mourn with Me, My Friend !…'”. He was furious at his father’s reaction to the death his wife, and blamed Mozart for it. Mozart had written a letter in advance to support and be there for [my] dad when he gets the news.
This is how this sonata came to be. Although Mozart did not give any indication that the sonata was to be dedicated to his mother, analysis of the sonata theory method that Darcy and Hepokoski have done in their book, “Elements Of Sonata Theory” reveals that Mozart deliberately wrote a sonata which is different from the traditional to express the inner turmoil he was experiencing at the time. Mozart’s piano Sonata No.8 (A minor) KV310 has 3 movements. They are Allegro maestoso and Andante cantabile di espressione, respectively. I will only be focusing on the second movement of my assignment.
He had never composed a piece in a minor key, so he approached it in a standard way. His melody is more structured than his 7 sonatas. His inner feelings were expressed in an orderly and formal manner in the first movement “Allegro”. Mozart’s music is timeless and still a source of great joy for all who listen to it. Tchaikovsky stated that Mozart was the musical Christ.
Bibiliography
Liu Wei. Music masters [M]. China Renmin University Press published Beijing in 1995.
Zheng Xingsan. Research on Mozart Piano Sonata [M]. Xiamen University Press. 2004.
Warren Darcy. The 2006 publication, Elements of Sonata Theory, focuses on the principles of the sonata form and how it is used in musical composition. It provides an in-depth discussion of the forms, techniques, and conventions associated with the sonata genre.
Mozart, (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus. By Cliff Eisen and Stanley Sadie. Grove Music Online provides information about music and its history. It includes data about composers, instruments, musical styles, and more. Oxford Music Online is an authoritative source on musical information.
J. Lane. London: Pete Ilich Tchaikovsky. 1906
Hans Mersmann. Letters to Mozart, Translated and Published by M.M. Bozman.
Thomas, Derek. “The Formal Architecture and Biographical Significance Mozart’s Sonata No.8K.310 I Allegro Mastoso” (PDF). Belmont University, 2015.
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