Classics / Russell Delphi Masterworks of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Illustrated)

1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-1-78656-120-6
Verlag: Delphi Classics Ltd
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, Band 1, 2919 Seiten

Reihe: Delphi Great Composers

The world's most famous composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart produced masterpieces in every musical genre of his day, having a profound influence on the course of Western music. Famed for his enchanting melodies and unique range of expression, he is the most universal of all composers. Delphi's Great Composers Series offers concise illustrated guides to the life and works of our greatest composers. Analysing the masterworks of each composer, these interactive eBooks include links to popular streaming services, allowing you to listen to the pieces of music you are reading about. Evaluating the masterworks of each composer, you will explore the development of the composer's works, tracing how they changed the course of music history. Whether a classical novice or a cultivated connoisseur, this series offers an intriguing overview of the world's most famous and iconic compositions. This volume presents Mozart's masterworks in succinct detail, with informative introductions, accompanying illustrations and the usual Delphi bonus features. (Version 1)
* Concise and informative overview of Mozart's masterworks
* Learn about the classical pieces that made Mozart a celebrated composer
* Links to popular streaming services (free and paid), allowing you to listen to the masterpieces you are reading about
* Features a special 'Complete Compositions' section, with an index of Mozart's complete works and links to popular streaming services
* Includes both volumes of Mozart's letters, translated by Lady Grace Wallace, first time in digital print - spend hours exploring the composer's personal correspondence
* Also features two biographies, including Otto Jahn's seminal study - explore Mozart's intriguing musical and personal life
Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting eBooks
CONTENTS:
The Masterworks
Nannerl Notenbuch
Symphony No. 1
Symphony No. 25
Violin Concerto No. 5
Symphony No. 31, Paris
Great Mass in C minor
Piano Sonata No. 11, Turkish March
Horn Concerto No. 2
Piano Concerto No. 20
The Marriage of Figaro
Piano Concerto No. 23
Symphony No. 38, Prague
Don Giovanni
Serenade No. 13, Eine kleine Nachtmusik
Symphony No. 41, Jupiter
Così fan tutte
Die Zauberflöte
Clarinet Concerto in A major
Requiem Mass in D minor

Complete Compositions
Index of Mozart's Compositions
The Letters
The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1769-1791) - translated by Lady Grace Wallace
The Biographies
The Life of Mozart by Otto Jahn (translated by Pauline D. Townsend)
Brief Biography on Mozart by Donald Francis Tovey
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Autoren/Hrsg.

Classics, Delphi

Russell, Peter

Leseproben

Requiem Mass in D minor
AMAZON   APPLE   GOOGLE   SPOTIFY   YOUTUBE   SCORES On 6 September 1791, at the time of the premiere of the opera La clemenza di Tito in Prague, Mozart fell ill. He continued his professional duties for some time, conducting the premiere of Die Zauberflöte on 30 September. However, his health deteriorated on 20 November and he became bedridden, suffering from swelling and vomiting. The composer was nursed in his final illness by his wife and her youngest sister, while being attended by the family doctor, Thomas Franz Closset. During these final days, Mozart was absorbed with the task of finishing his Requiem in D minor, K. 626. Having composed part of the mass in Vienna, it was left unfinished at his death on 5 December the same year. The eccentric Count Franz von Walsegg had commissioned the Requiem from Mozart anonymously through intermediaries. This nobleman was an amateur chamber musician, who routinely commissioned works by composers and passed them off as his own. Walsegg wanted a Requiem Mass that he could claim he composed to commemorate his wife’s death. Mozart received only half of the payment in advance, so upon his death Constanze was keen to have the work completed by someone else, allowing her to submit it to the Count as having been completed by Mozart, while collecting the final payment. Joseph von Eybler was asked first to work with the manuscript, but he felt unable to complete the task and so gave it back to the widow. The second assigned to the task was the Austrian composer Franz Xaver Süssmayr (1766-1803), who borrowed some of Eybler’s work in making his completion, adding his own orchestration to the movements from the Kyrie onward. Süssmayr completed the Lacrymosa and introduced several new movements that a Requiem would normally comprise: Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei. He then added a final section, Lux aeterna by adapting the opening two movements which Mozart had written to the different words that conclude the Requiem mass. Although Walsegg intended to pass the Requiem off as his own, he was frustrated by a public benefit performance for Mozart’s widow Constanze. She was responsible for a number of stories surrounding the composition of the work, including the claims that Mozart received the commission from a mysterious messenger, who did not reveal the commissioner’s identity and that the ailing composer came to believe that he was writing the requiem for his own funeral. The mass is scored for two basset horns in F,  two bassoons, two trumpets in D, three trombones (alto, tenor and bass), timpani (two drums), violins, viola and basso continuo (cello, double bass and organ). The vocal forces include soprano, contralto, tenor and bass soloists, as well as a SATB mixed choir. The Introitus is written in D minor and finishes on a half-cadence, transitioning directly into the Kyrie. This section is a double fugue, with one subject setting the words ‘Kyrie eleison’ (Lord, have mercy) and the other ‘Christe eleison’ (Christ, have mercy). The movement Tuba mirum opens with a trombone solo accompanying the bass. Famous for its string accompaniment, the Confutatis opens with agitated figures that accentuate the wrathful sound of the basses and tenors, but it evolves into soft arpeggios in the second phrase, accompanying the soft sounds of the sopranos and altos. At the time of Mozart’s death, only the first two movements Requiem aeternam and Kyrie were completed in all of the orchestral and vocal parts. The Sequence and the Offertorium were completed in skeleton, with the exception of the “Lacrymosa”, which breaks off after the first eight bars. The vocal parts and the continuo were fully notated. Mozart was a great admirer of the work of Handel and the oratorio The Messiah (HWV 56) is believed to be a source of inspiration in the composition of the Requiem. The Kyrie is largely based on the ‘And with his stripes we are healed’ chorus from The Messiah, since the subject of the fugato is the same with only slight variations adding ornaments on melismata. However, the same four note theme is also found in the finale of Haydn’s String Quartet in F minor (Op. 20 No. 5) and in the first measure of the A minor fugue from Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier Book no. 2 (BWV 889b). Some music historians believe that the Introitus is indebted to Handel’s Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline (HWV 264). Another influence was Michael Haydn’s Requiem in C minor, which Mozart and his father heard at the first three performances in January 1772. Interestingly, the autograph of the Requiem was placed on display at the World’s Fair in 1958 in Brussels. At some point during the fair, an intruder was able to gain access to the manuscript, tearing off the bottom right-hand corner of the second to last page, which contained the words “Quam olim d: C:” (an instruction that the “Quam olim” fugue of the Domine Jesu was to be repeated da capo, at the end of the Hostias). The perpetrator has not been identified and the fragment still remains lost to this day. Mozart died in his home on 5 December 1791, aged thirty-five, at 1:00 am. He was interred in a common grave, in accordance with contemporary Viennese custom, at the St. Marx Cemetery outside the city on 7 December. Later reports claim that no mourners attended the service, which is consistent with Viennese burial customs at the time. Otto Jahn, (1813-1869), one of Mozart’s biographers, recorded that Salieri, Süssmayr, van Swieten and two other musicians were present at the funeral. A legend arose that a snowstorm occurred, though it has been proven by other accounts that this is false, as the day was calm and mild.  A “common grave” refers to neither a communal grave nor a pauper’s grave, but to an individual grave for a member of the common people. Common graves were often subject to excavation after ten years, while the graves of aristocrats were not. The precise cause of the great composer’s death remains a mystery. The official record has it as hitziges Frieselfieber (“severe military fever”, referring to a rash that looks like millet seeds). However, this is merely a description of the symptoms, rather than a diagnosis. Researchers have posited over a hundred different possible causes of death, including acute rheumatic fever, streptococcal infection, trichinosis, influenza, mercury poisoning and a rare kidney ailment. Mozart’s music stands as an archetype of the Classical style, noted for its clarity, balance and transparency — the hallmarks of his genius. Simplistic notions of its delicacy mask the exceptional power of his finest masterpieces. At the time he began composing, European music was dominated by the style galant, a reaction against the highly evolved intricacy of Baroque music. Largely due to Mozart’s own achievements, the contrapuntal complexities of the late Baroque emerged once more, moderated and disciplined by new forms, which were adapted to an innovative aesthetic and social milieu. He was an extraordinarily versatile composer, producing works in every major genre of music. Though the forms he used were not new, Mozart advanced their technical sophistication and emotional reach. One of his greatest achievements was his development of the Classical piano concerto. During his final years, the composer exploited chromatic harmony. His inimitable gift for absorbing and adapting ideas from other composers’ music was also an important factor of his unique compositional language. His increasingly sophisticated use of the orchestra in symphonies and concertos influenced his operatic orchestration, and his developing subtlety in using the orchestra to psychological effect in his operas was in turn reflected in his later non-operatic compositions. Ludwig van Beethoven, fifteen years younger, was deeply influenced by Mozart’s work, with which he was acquainted in his adolescent years. Beethoven is thought to have performed Mozart’s operas, while playing in the court orchestra at Bonn. In 1787 Beethoven travelled to Vienna with the ambition of studying with Mozart. Some of Beethoven’s works have direct models in comparable works by Mozart. The precise details of the two composers’ relationship are uncertain, including whether they actually met. Having learned that his mother was ill, Beethoven left Vienna two weeks later. His mother died shortly thereafter and his father lapsed deeper into alcoholism. As a result, Beethoven became responsible for the care of his two younger brothers, and spent the next five years in Bonn. Nevertheless, Beethoven composed his own early works in the shadow of Mozart. The circumstances of Mozart’s early death continue to be the subject of much speculation and mythologising. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons. At the time of his death, his output numbered more than 600 works, many of which are acknowledged today as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber,...