Influences Of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Essay Research

Influences Of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Essay, Research Paper

Influences to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

by

Steven B. Keranen

MUH 3320/5993

Professor Arjun Sabharwal

April 16, 2001

Keranen 1

In some forms of learning, one looks to the past to see what others have done so as not to repeat the same mistakes. In music, one looks to the past in hopes of repeating the works of others and trying to expand those ideas or techniques. Hopefully they take what they have learned to the next level or to create something entirely new in music composition. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was exposed to the works that came before him as well as the music of the day and he used those resources to create music that has never been heard of before. I am going to look at specific composers and their compositions that may have been influential to Mozart’s writing.

The first person to be influential to Wolfgang, and probably the most important, was his father Leopold Mozart. He was a well known composer and musician, who also held some prominent music positions at various times. Among his many accomplishments, two of them seem to stand out as his greatest: he wrote a manual on how to play the violin and raised his son Wolfgang. In the present time of the twenty first century, popular opinion seems to think that a child s up-bringing is the most important factor in the development of a child. This idea is shared by the author Herbert Kupferberg, who opens the first chapter of his book with these words: “Biologically, psychologically, and musically, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart would have been impossible without Leopold Mozart (1). So it seems that Leopold was the one to set the foundation for the young Mozart to excel in music as well as other areas of his life.

Wolfgang was first exposed to music that was being played in the house while he was an infant. During his childhood, his father would have regular performances in the house on various instruments from solo clavier to a small string ensemble. It is likely that

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Wolfgang was present at most of these sessions, because there were few forms of entertainment during the eighteenth century. This exposure to the various timbre s and expertly played music, probably helped him to develop a good listening ear. This, of course, is beneficial to musician s at any skill level. Wolfgang was also exposed to the educational side of music by regularly attending his sister Nannarl s clavier lessons from their father. During these lessons, Wolfgang would occasionally play harmony notes at the keyboard that were pleasing to his own ears and would also sing passages from the tunes that he had heard (Holmes 9). This exposure to his sisters structured lessons, as well as the other music that he heard, seems to have had a huge impact on the young Mozart and soon caught the attention of his father. Leopold was apparently fascinated with his sons early talent and began teaching him regular lessons on the clavier.

Wolfgang s first formal influence in music were the clavier lessons that were given to him by his father Leopold. These lessons were based on a full rounded approach that included: reading newly composed exercise s, playing by rote, composition, and elementary music theory (Kupferberg 28). Even though Wolfgang was still very young, this full rounded approach to music lessons seemed to accelerate Wolfgang s comprehension and ability far beyond his years. According to Edward Holmes, this is an excerpt from a piece that was written by Wolfgang when he was four years old (10). .

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This excerpt is a well written keyboard piece that shows that he had a grasp of two part writing and some knowledge of basic theory.

The previous piece shows that Leopold had indeed included music theory as part of Wolfgang s regular instruction. When analyzing the piece according to the first year of college level theory, I notice that the part writing contains no visible errors. He avoids parallel motion when dealing with perfect fifths and octaves. In fact, he seems to favor the use of contrary motion to deal with the perfect intervals. Even though this composition is limited to two voices, he expands on the harmony through the use of first and second inversion chords. The bass line holds down a solid foundation, while the upper voice has more mobility through the use of eighth notes. Wolfgang also writes in the articulation with the use of grace notes and slurs. He ends the phrase with a cadence by using a primitive chord outline of a IV-V-I in root position. This use of various compositional techniques shows that his father taught him the rules of basic level theory as part of his regular lessons.

This previous piece is the earliest known written example from Wolfgang and it undoubtedly shows the musical influence from his father. Although, it is unclear which parts were from his own imagination or from that of Leopold. I feel that it is probably a variation on some pieces that they had been studying during the lessons, but never the less, it is incredible that this was composed when Wolfgang was only four years old. Leopold apparently thought the same thing, because he soon dedicated all of his time to educating and displaying his children s talent over much of Europe.

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An additional influence that Wolfgang

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