For Friday: Gay's Mozart: A Life, Chapter 8, "The Classic"


Answer TWO of the following as a comment:

1. How did Mozart's last composition (left incomplete), the famous Requiem, contribute to the various myths about Mozart's death?  Why did it give rise to so much poetic speculation about how he lived and died?  Is there any truth to these myths, or do they cloud the real man and his music?

2. In Chapter 6, Gay writes that "it is vulgar to read music as a simple translation of its composer's moods or a literal response to private events" (118).  However, how might aspects of Mozart's last years color how we look at certain works and why he might have composed them (the last 3 symphonies, the Requiem, the last operas, etc.)?  If Mozart was a composer first and foremost, wouldn't his true autobiography be written in music?

3. Why did Mozart's reputation fall in the decades after his death, not to truly revive for close to 100 years?  How did many 19th century composers think of his music, and what caused later generations to re-evaluate his work?  How could a "classic" of our time be neglected in ages past? 

4. Having read Gay's biography of Mozart, why do you think we should know who he was (and what he did, thought, and felt) alongside his music?  Isn't his music enough?  Can't it get in the way of simply listening?  What argument can we make that an artist's life is worth knowing and can actually augment the music/art?  Specifically, how might you listen to his music differently knowing what you know? 

Comments

  1. Dakota Breeze

    3: Back then it wasn't like today where you hear a band that you like is playing and you jump up and down with excitement. Back in that time, Music was something you did to entertain whoever you worked for. After Mozart started doing his operas and concertos etc. etc. He made a reputation with more servants and lower class people than he did with the rich snobs. To put it short, music was not as popular as it later comes to be.

    4: I say, to know the artist behind all the famous works on a more personal level, it gives a little more insight on the pieces he wrote. For example his feelings reflected well and often in his works, and reading about his life, how his father didn't approve of his wife, how Leopold was with Mozart, and the personal letters he wrote showed the passion in his life, which in turn he showed in his music.

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  2. Amanda Hogue
    3) Mozart’s opinion, life, and music was ignored in his time just because he was a neglected genius due to his social stature. But I would argue that his reputation actually increased at the event of his death because of 1. his wife selling his legacy, helped stimulate the rapidly growing Mozart industry, and negotiating with his publisher’s, 2. his understudy, Xaver, filling in the gaps of his unfinished work trying to imitate him so his music pieces were at least finished for the world to hear, and 3. in his last year, he managed to write two operas, a piano concerto, several minuets and counterdances, a clarinet concerto, a Masonic cantata, two quintets, and most of Requiem. Mozart even received a letter from a nameless fan asking for a musical piece and so Mozart appeased him by writing this person a number, and that person turned out to be Count Walsegg. Count Walsegg was actually an acquaintance of Mozart’s and a copycat, he was asking other composers for a piece of their work and then he played those individual pieces as his own; when someone copies you it means you’re doing something right, you’re doing something different and different attracts attention. Contemporaries saw Mozart’s death as a serious loss, Joseph Hayden wrote upon hearing the news that he couldn’t believe a priceless man was called into the other world, newspapers hunted for the perfect adjectives to praise the most celebrated of composers, aspiring biologists started to gather material for the life of Mozart, publishers launched projects for his works, and in Mozart’s city the orchestra advertised a mass and performed it in front of large, appreciative audiences.
    4) When you know Mozart’s life, in my opinion, it helps to understand his music more. Knowing an artist’s life, you can understand how they came across their style of music, how they accomplished their struggles in life, and how it made their music better because of their life experiences. When you listen to music you just hear the music, when you understand its backstory and why the artist wrote it you get to understand the music, and the artist more in a way. You can hear his struggles in the music now, you can hear his emotions in the high and low notes, and his reactions to the things going on in his life, how he handled it. You get in touch with the artist, their emotions, and the song deeper when you know about the artist instead of just listening.

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  3. Josh Coats

    1. His unfinished Requiem, which is a mass for the dead, would obviously lead to many myths about his death. The piece was, however, commissioned for Count Walsegg's wife who had died. I don't believe the unfinished Requiem had anything to do with his death....it's just musically perfect to fit his situation.

    4. I think it's important to know about Mozart's life, musically and non-musically, because behind every composition was a living being. This living being happened to be one of the greatest composers of all time. If we are to truly appreciate music, then understanding the composers life will help to shed light on the music, to help give the music a sense a life. Even though I've said that I'll never think about Mozart the same after reading this book, I know that the power of his music will still transcend and take me to aesthetic places. When I study compositions of his that I've never heard before, I will now approach them knowing that Mozart, even though he was a true genius, still lived a life that I can relate too. Fame, money, sex...most people today are still trying to get them all.

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  4. Weston Haynes
    3.) I believe that Mozart, because of his stubbornness, social status, and his music coming around the time of Haydn, was a struggling, neglected genius. I don't think paid as much attention to his music as they did to his character. He was considered a jerk at times, and was always pushing things to the limit. He was like you what you would call a modern day Michael Jackson. He was often misunderstood because of his character off the stage. They both had untimely deaths, and were both appreciated and respected even more after their deaths. I think that it is hard to ignore, especially for musicians of the 19th century, the amazingness and complexity of what Mozart did. Most artist become great later stages in their life. Mozart became great from early childhood. I am sure people would call it blasphemy! Any artist, regardless if they don't like Mozart or not, has to respect the man because of what he was able to do. Indeed he was a genius and prodigy. He was way ahead of his time, and for any musician who wants to learn about early music, it would be very inaccurate not to mention Mozart in the conversation. Some people don't get appreciated as much until they are dead and long gone. Most artists record sales go up after they have passed, as for Mozart, it took 100 years to be appreciated, but he finally got his due. People paid more attention to how a person at such a young age was composing such simple, but yet timeless operas.
    4.) I think it is important to understand what an artist was all about, if you want to appreciate his or her music. Mozart's music had some background to it. The music lived through him. Its good to know the story of how and why these symphonies came to be, because you can gain a better understanding and appreciation of the artist and the piece. I don't think it gets in the way of simply listening to it if you don't want it to. I could listen to a Beatles song, and think nothing of it even though they are one of my favorite bands. It is important to understand not just the music but the artist and where he or she is coming from. The emotions that came from the music was what Mozart was supposedly feeling at that particular time. Knowing that can give you a better appreciation and perspective of what Mozart was going through and feeling.

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  5. Stephanie Callen
    (1) Mozart's last composition, The Requiem, was left unfinished kinda like his life. Mozart was a young man when he died and many people feel his life was cut short. There is a lot of speculation that Mozart wrote The Requiem for himself. That the music showed his constant inner battle. Soft music representing his peace in dying yet the stronger parts his will to live. This is a possibility yet one will never know so yes I think these myths cloud the real man and his music.
    (3) Mozart's music was not popular in his time. It might have had something to do with his social class. There were a select few who thought his music and operas amazing but most considered his operas inappropriate. After his death his wife sold his legacy and his pupil finished some of his works. This might have helped his music to be reevaluated and become popular later. Classics might not be praised in its time because it might be out of the social norm only to be loved by later generations.

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  6. summer junek
    # Depends on the times, but Mozart was a type of progressive movement. Different people have been executed fro the same thing, for simply trying to teach others to think for themselves in different ways. This causes rebelioun in the younger peers. Mozart made music and opera in ways the were progressive and were not exactly of the light happy nature. Many didn't recognize this for several years later.

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  7. Walter Braxton Reeves

    1. I feel that Mozart taking on the Requiem as the last thing he did, suggested just how passionate he was about his work. In my eyes this showed how determined he was. I say this because in about the last month of his life he had somewhat of an idea that death was around the corner, but that didn't stop him from giving literately everything he had in trying to complete this. I do however think that he was trying to say something through his music by composing this piece.

    3. A big reason why people of Mozart's time wouldn't have liked his music as much as people today do is because how arrogant and cocky Mozart was. He pretty much was a douche bag to people because he knew he was the best. Which could very well drive people to not like the music that you make. People today don't know Mozart and cant have a conversation with him, they just know Mozart by the music that they are listening to that he composed, which expresses pure talent.

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