Trimester 1 -- Fourth Listening Assignment: Mozart and Haydn
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an absolute genius. He was composing serious music at the age of four. He could hear an entire composition and then write down the music for all the parts from having heard it just once. He did this with Allegri's Miserere which was supposed to be kept secret for use only in the Sistine Chapel. He heard it once, got most of it from memory, brought the manuscript back for a few additions, and got caught. Excommunication was the penalty for copying the music, but the pope was so impressed with Mozart's memorization accomplishment that he had him knighted for his accomplishments.
Although he wrote a concerto at age four, his best known early composition was written when he was five years old. It is a set of twelve variations on "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." To give you an idea of how improbable this is, we found a YouTube of a six-year-old boy (one year older than Mozart had been) playing this piece. As you can see in the video, a 6 year-old boy is quite small. Although we are in awe of this modern youngster playing all twelve variations, just imagine Mozart as a boy one year younger who could not only play this composition, but who actually wrote it.
Boy of Mozart's age playing 12 Variations on Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star NOT required
Although he wrote a concerto at age four, his best known early composition was written when he was five years old. It is a set of twelve variations on "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." To give you an idea of how improbable this is, we found a YouTube of a six-year-old boy (one year older than Mozart had been) playing this piece. As you can see in the video, a 6 year-old boy is quite small. Although we are in awe of this modern youngster playing all twelve variations, just imagine Mozart as a boy one year younger who could not only play this composition, but who actually wrote it.
Boy of Mozart's age playing 12 Variations on Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star NOT required
Mozart died very young but had an enormous output of memorable music. He wrote masses, secular music, instrumental music like symphonies and concertos, and opera. His most famous operas are The Marriage of Figaro, Cosi fan tutte (All Women Behave Like This), Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute. He composed for both the nobility and the common people. Although he has serious operas, most of his operatic compositions were comedic.
In The Magic Flute, two magical forces hate each other, and they use the love of a boy and a girl to try to get at each other. One of the magical forces is controlled by The Queen of the Night. The other is a guy named Sarastro. The Queen of the Night catches a slave of Sarastro lustfully trying to kiss the girl as she sleeps. She gets rid of him and wakes the girl up. She gives her a knife and tells her to go and kill Sarastro. The Queen of the Night is really mad. The German words of the song are translated as "Hell's vengeance boils in my heart!"
He learned music from Bach's son Johann Christian Bach, Many of his later works were influence by J.S. Bach, and from Franz Josef Haydn he learned ways to develop themes.
Mozart once wrote to his father, "I am never happier than when I have something to compose, for that, after all, is my sole delight and passion."
Aria of The Queen of the Night from Mozart's Magic Flute REQUIRED
He learned music from Bach's son Johann Christian Bach, Many of his later works were influence by J.S. Bach, and from Franz Josef Haydn he learned ways to develop themes.
Mozart once wrote to his father, "I am never happier than when I have something to compose, for that, after all, is my sole delight and passion."
Aria of The Queen of the Night from Mozart's Magic Flute REQUIRED
In this performance, the soprano does a great job of expressing anger. The aria is simply to be remembered as "The Queen of the Night's Aria." Only the most talented sopranos ever get to try this music because its demands are so outrageous.
Mozart also composed this very famous piece called Eine kleine Nachtmusik. This is pronounced like this: EYE-nuh KLEIN-uh NAKT music. The translation of this is "a little night music." It is a serenade, a work that's unusually light in mood, meant for evening entertainment. It's written for a small string orchestra or even just a string quartet with an added double bass. It is written in three movements, but we will just listen to the first movement (I).
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik -- 1st Movement REQUIRED
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik -- 1st Movement REQUIRED
Joseph Haydn had a tough early life as a musician. He was a talented choirboy, but when his voice changed, he was thrown out of the choir. "I barely managed to stay alive by giving music lessons to children for about eight years." He kept practicing and eventually got noticed. He was employed by a wealthy prince of the Esterhazy family, and so he had the good fortune to get paid for composing. He has a few "jokes" in some of his music. His Farewell Symphony was composed so that the musicians would leave the stage one by one until there was just one violinist and Hayden left as conductor. The orchestra wanted Hayden to give the prince a hint that they were tired of staying at his summer residence well into the winter -- they wanted a change of location. The prince got the hint and moved himself and the orchestra back into Vienna.
Haydn was the pathfinder for the classical style, a pioneer in the development of both the symphony and the string quartet. He never forgot the peasant dances and songs that his dad (a wheelmaker) taught him in the first eight years of his life.
Haydn was friendly with Mozart, and when someone found fault with one of Mozart's compositions, Haydn said, ". . . this I know, that Mozart is the greatest composer the world possesses now."
Both Mozart and Beethoven were influenced by Haydn's style. He was a master at developing themes. He would split them into small fragments to be repeated quickly by different instruments. The contagious joy that springs from his lively rhythms and vivid contrasts makes is clear why the city of London went wild when he lived there for a few years. Many of his popular symphonies have names: Surprise (No. 94), Military (No. 100), Clock (No. 101), and Drum Roll (No. 103).
The selection we will listen to is also another "joke." Music of the classical period could get a little academic and intellectual -- not too much feeling. Consequently, audiences sometimes got sleepy. Haydn waited until the second (II) movement of Symphony No. 94 to spring his "surprise." He starts out with a melody something like "twinkle twinkle little star." It almost puts the audience to sleep. But then he shocks them!! Listen for the shock about thirty seconds into the YouTube video.
Haydn's "Surprise Symphony, No. 94 REQUIRED
(See Romantic Period Notes for Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Symphony No. 9's Ode to Joy)
Haydn was the pathfinder for the classical style, a pioneer in the development of both the symphony and the string quartet. He never forgot the peasant dances and songs that his dad (a wheelmaker) taught him in the first eight years of his life.
Haydn was friendly with Mozart, and when someone found fault with one of Mozart's compositions, Haydn said, ". . . this I know, that Mozart is the greatest composer the world possesses now."
Both Mozart and Beethoven were influenced by Haydn's style. He was a master at developing themes. He would split them into small fragments to be repeated quickly by different instruments. The contagious joy that springs from his lively rhythms and vivid contrasts makes is clear why the city of London went wild when he lived there for a few years. Many of his popular symphonies have names: Surprise (No. 94), Military (No. 100), Clock (No. 101), and Drum Roll (No. 103).
The selection we will listen to is also another "joke." Music of the classical period could get a little academic and intellectual -- not too much feeling. Consequently, audiences sometimes got sleepy. Haydn waited until the second (II) movement of Symphony No. 94 to spring his "surprise." He starts out with a melody something like "twinkle twinkle little star." It almost puts the audience to sleep. But then he shocks them!! Listen for the shock about thirty seconds into the YouTube video.
Haydn's "Surprise Symphony, No. 94 REQUIRED
(See Romantic Period Notes for Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata and Symphony No. 9's Ode to Joy)
