Here Comes Treble: Two Hundred and Fifty Years Of Hit Music
"Mozart’s music and musicianship were without parallel. No-one before or since has written music of such beauty, or with such ease...'' Musician and writer Isabel Bradley reflects on the life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the greatest of all the great composers.
If he had lived, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart would be celebrating his two hundred and fiftieth birthday on the 27th of January.
It is amazing to reflect that from the age of three he was composing music. It could be said that he composed movie music over a hundred years before the movies were even dreamt of! His music has certainly been used in countless films.
Mozart’s music and musicianship were without parallel. No-one before or since has written music of such beauty, or with such ease. Yet, this joyous talent did not buy him personal joy.
As a young child of six, Wolfgang was under pressure, performing at the grandest courts of the world, in front of royalty, nobility and those in power in the church. Imagine his father’s continual instructions: “Wolfie, you may play with little Marie Antoinette, but don’t be rough… She is a princess, you know!” or, “Now, Wolfie, it must be perfection – the Emperor knows so much about music…” or, “Sorry, Wolfie, no more play now, you must practice. And practice and practice and practice.”
He would have spent hours at the piano or on the violin, polishing and perfecting the basic materials he’d been born with. His companions and playmates were his parents and sister – and the children of kings and dukes across Europe. Packing suitcases, and travelling in horse-drawn carriages from one spot to the next, pampered and treated as someone special – as he was.
At the age of fourteen he travelled with his father to Rome where he was knighted by the Pope, thus being entitled to use the title, “Cavaliere Amadeo”. This honour did not help him, and he did not make use of the title.
Soon, as happens with all children, the prodigy grew into a young man accustomed to being treated as the equal of princes and princesses. His audiences, missing the attraction of a talented child, now thought little of his great gift of music. He had to earn his living the hard way, became just another musician among many seeking employment at the courts of Europe.
Wolfgang entered the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg. His childhood had not prepared him for being a servant. Eating in the servants’ hall seemed all wrong to one who had dined with kings. Composing music to order seemed an indignity, as did having to perform and shine in public, on the orders of a man who had minutes before insulted him.
It is said that Mozart’s manners were appalling, his frequent use of foul language unacceptable – scientists now think this may have been caused by an affliction such as Tourette's Syndrome. Whether or not that is true, Wolfgang was fired by the Archbishop. He went to Vienna where the aristocracy and the Emperor supported him – sometimes financially! Apparently, when he and his wife, Constanze, were packed and ready to move to England, the Emperor gave him a small place in which to live and a pension, and so the Mozarts unpacked and remained in Vienna. How different would his life and his music have been had that move taken place?
He composed – operas, concerti, sonatas, chamber music. The music flowed easily from his pen onto whatever piece of paper was at hand – even onto serviettes! No matter how frugally he had to live, music was in him and he had to share it with the world. More than German, music was his language. Through music he communicated what was in his heart, he shared, and still shares, the glories of his universe with all those who have ever thrilled to the always-new strains of his “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”, to the slow movement of his Clarinet Concerto, or watched, wide-eyed and fascinated as yet another opera company performs Figaro, The Magic Flute, or any other of his compositions.
He felt it was an evil omen to be asked to write a Requiem, a feeling that was justified. While writing the Requiem, he fell ill; shortly after completing the work, at the age of just thirty-six, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died.
The child prodigy who had played with princes and princesses; who shared his music with royalty; the young man who was taught by Haydn; who met the young Ludwig von Beethoven and gave him one lesson – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was buried in a pauper’s grave, its position unmarked and uncared-for.
No gleaming coffin, no grand funeral procession, no marble grave-marker, no mound of earth planted with beautiful flowers, could have made this man any greater. His soul will live forever in his music, speaking through musicians in all parts of the world, to all whose hearts listen.
Information gathered from the Tenth Edition of the Oxford Companion to Music.
Until next week – “here comes Treble!”
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