Essay on Mozart and Beethoven

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart baptized as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart lived from January 27, 1756 to December 5, 1791. Mozart was a very influential and prolific composer of more than 600 works, including symphonies, concertante, chamber, piano, opera, and choral music. Regarded as a child prodigy, Mozart composed and performed in the European courts from the age of five, and was engaged at the Salzburg court at 17. Mozart’s musical style can be classified as Classical, although he learned from many of his contemporaries throughout his musical career. In order to better understand Mozart’s genius it is best to begin looking at his earliest contributions to the musical world as a child. From there, an exploration of his

This paper discusses Mozart's life, his compositions and his importance to the world and the world of music. It explains how Mozart's music is still some of the most popular classical music played today and his life is still studied because his music is so well known and liked.

Only a few composers in the history of time have ever successfully left their mark throughout our musical world we live in today. It’s been over two hundred years since the birth of Beethoven and his music still speaks to us today as he originally expressed and composed it. Ludwig Van Beethoven was born in the city of Bonn Germany on December 16th 1770 and has since been one of the most influential composers known to man. A common theme of early age learning and mastering seems to emerge in Beethoven’s life because while living in a musical family as a child, his father taught him how to play the piano, violin and in addition how to compose musical pieces since he was four years of age. A few short years later, he gave his first public piano performance at the age of seven. While Beethoven certainly gained a lot of knowledge from his peers, he also supported his family by giving music lessons and also by playing in the court orchestra. In the year 1792, Beethoven worked under an Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn and by the year 1800, his compositions established him as a strong Mozart successor.

Beethoven returned to Vienna in 1972 to continue his musical education. Beethoven never returned to his hometown and stayed in Vienna for a while. The in Vienna, Beethoven had valuable lessons from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Hayden, Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Antonio Salieri, and Aloys Forster. Each of them had taught Beethoven something special. Beethoven quickly adopted a reputation as a great pianist, a child prodigy. Everyone in the music industry has learned to admire Beethoven and his talent.

In the 18th century, the middle class made a lot more money. During the Classical Period, the middle class had a tremendous influence on music. They wanted to hear concertos and symphonies. They wanted their children to learn great music and play instruments. The composers began writing music that was geared towards the middle class because they could make a better living if they enjoyed the music being played. They wrote music that was easier for their students to understand and play. Serious music changed into comic operas, or popular folk tunes, and dance music. This was a good thing it shaped dance and music forever. Mozart and Beethoven were both

     Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s style unlike anyone else. Mozart was a master of counterpoint, fugue, and the other traditional compositional points of his day. He is also considered the best melody writer the world has ever known. Wolfgang perfected the grand forms of symphony, opera string quartet, and concerto made the classical period. “Mozart’s music is characterized by lucid ease and distinction of style....”2 Wolfgang wrote over 600 works which consisted of 21 stage and opera works, 15 masses, over 50 symphonies, 25 piano concertos, 12 violin concertos,27 concert arias, 17 piano sonatas, 26 string quartets, and many more. His operas range from comic baubles to tragic pieces. In his Requiem it illustrates the supreme vocal sounds in any of his work.

From the time Ludwig van Beethoven was a young child, everyone around him could see that he was extremely talented. His name is known all around the world and when people think classical music, Beethoven is one of the first names that pop up. Long after his death in 1827, his music is still listened to. Soon to be mothers are sometimes told to allow the baby to listen to classical music, especially by Beethoven, to help with brain development. College and high school students are told we can benefit by listening to Beethoven when studying. Even in some modern songs, you can hear Beethoven’s legacy living on. Beethoven was an excellent composer and wrote pieces that defied the norm of the Romantic Era. Many artists today may not realize that

The interesting things that I learned about Wolfgang Mozart was that half of his symphonies that he created was between the age of eight and nineteen. He was given a nickname called “Wolfe”. It was funny to me that when he was a child he was afraid of the trumpet. When Mozart was performing in London when he was young, people could not believe that a young person like Mozart could be that talented, so they thought that he was dwarf. When he was fourteen, he performed Mitidate re di Panto and it was a successful performance for him. Mozart could understand the word of music but could not write words. Mozart spent most of his life traveling to perform his music. He wrote over 600 works and most of his writing that he did were pinnacis of symphonics,

The early piano sonatas of Beethoven deserve special mention. Although his first published examples of concertos and trios and the first two symphonies are beneath the masterpieces of Mozart and Haydn, the piano sonatas bear an unmistakably Beethovian stamp: grandiose in scope and length, and innovative in their range of expression. The sonatas were able to move expression from terrible rage to peals of laughter to deep depression so suddenly. Capturing this unpredictable style in his music, a new freedom of expression which broke the bounds of Classical ideals, was to position Beethoven as a disturbed man in the minds of some of his contemporaries. Furthermore, he was to be seen as the father of Romanticism and the single most important innovator of music in the minds of those after him. (Bookspan 27).

Beethoven's talents were discovered at an early age, and he was sent to Vienna to study under different teachers including Mozart and Hayden. There, Beethoven quickly adopted a reputation of a great piano player, a child prodigy. He gave his first public performance at the age of eight and published his first

Mozart matched his music to mock the composers at the time. While Bach and Handel had an impact on Mozart’s music they were becoming less relevant. His music became more full of content and character as more music made in the same fashion showed more. As his music changed Mozart met Joseph Haden which then became the greatest composer, he ever met. Mozart wrote music to mocked Josephs ideas but not his style.

Beethoven’s father could only teach him so much, though, so he went to go be taught by a professional musician named Gottlob Neefe. Neefe noticed how talented Beethoven was, so he decided to not only teach him about music but about the works of philosophers as well. As Beethoven grew, he created pieces of music that became very popular. His first piece, published before the age of twelve, was Nine Variations of C Minor. After that piece came out, his teacher wrote in a magazine article about him saying he’s to be, “The next Mozart if he keeps his work up.”

Although they could not see each other frequently, Haydn and Mozart were friends and appreciated each other’s music. Mozart dedicated six of his string quartets to Haydn. Haydn, in a conversation with Mozart’s father, called Wolfgang “the greatest composer known to him” and to a musicologist of the day, referred to his friend as a “jewel.” Knowing that Haydn and Mozart were inspired by each other’s music makes this arrangement, including both of their music, meaningful to the players.

The world of classical music has many famous composers who created masterpieces that people have enjoyed and loved for centuries. Among them are Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven, two of the most well-known composers of the classical era. Their pieces were not only amazing in their own rite, but they also shaped the modern music we know and love today. We cannot deny how brilliant and talented both composers were. We also cannot deny how different they were musically and personally.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart once said, "Music, even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music." If you have ever heard of his music, you would understand how much truth is in that quote. Mozart was born on January 27, 1756 and he was a composer of the Classical era. He was born in Salzburg and ever since he was a child has always showed his interest in the category of music. He was the son of Leopold and Anna Maria Mozart. His father was a teacher and was also the chapel master in the court orchestra of archbishop of Salzberg. Mozart composed more than 600 works, and many of those were acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic and choral music.