Posts in classical music history

The Divertimento K. 138 in F major was written in 1772, a date which carries various social, political, and musicological connotations – but more fundamentally that Wolfgang Amadè* Mozart was only 15 years old at the time. Then, he was a celebrated child prodigy and pride of Salzburg under the wing of his father Leopold, a wing he would find difficult to fly from later in life. That was also the year that Count Hieronymus Colloredo was elected Prince-Archbishop, with whom he would eventually develop a stormy working relationship. The divertimenti written in this period reflect the innocence of his youth. The genre, prior to more formal categorization from 1780, was generally “diverting” music, in the sense of light, possibly outdoor music or even as background music for some social event. The Grove Online entry references H.C. Koch’s definition of music that should “please the ear rather than express different shades of emotion.” It is ironic then that today’s ‘proper’ performances of the work in concert halls may less reflect the context of the era than its use during wedding gigs. In any setting, however, the beauty of the composition remains clear more than two hundred years later. In the style of the operatic composer he was destined to be, the singing melodic lines of the first violin take the lead through the first two movements, only giving some equal ground to the other string parts in the closing rondo movement. Mozart - Divertimento in F major, K.138 We are a educational channel specializing in history of classical music. Our goal is to spread classical music to the greatest number of people. Explore our channel and listen to more works by Mozart, Chopin, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Bach, Haydn, Schumann, Schubert, Vivaldi, Dvorak, Debussy and more! I hope you enjoy it and don't forget to Subscribe. 🎧 #MusicHistory #Divertimento #Mozart 🔴 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TopClassicalMusic 🔴 WebSite: http://www.melhoresmusicasclassicas.com

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was one of the most influential, popular and prolific composers of the classical period. He composed over 600 works, including some of the most famous and loved pieces of symphonic, chamber, operatic, and choral music. Mozart was born in Salzburg to a musical family. From an early age, the young Mozart showed all the signs of a prodigious musical talent. By the age of 5 he could read and write music, and he would entertain people with his talents on the keyboard. By the age of 6 he was writing his first compositions. Mozart was generally considered to be a rare musical genius, though Mozart said that he was diligent in studying other great composers such as Haydn and Bach. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria. His father, Leopold Mozart, a noted composer, instructor, and the author of famous writings on violin playing, was then in the service of the archbishop of Salzburg. Leopold and Anna Maria, his wife, stressed the importance of music to their children. Together with his sister, Nannerl, Wolfgang received such intensive musical training that by the age of six he was a budding composer and an accomplished keyboard performer. In 1762 Leopold presented his son as performer at the imperial court in Vienna, Austria, and from 1763 to 1766 he escorted both children on a continuous musical tour across Europe, which included long stays in Paris, France, and London, England, as well as visits to many other cities, with appearances before the French and English royal families. Mozart was the most celebrated child prodigy (an unusually gifted child) of this time as a keyboard performer. He also made a great impression as a composer and improviser (one who arranges or creates). In London he won the admiration of musician Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782), and he was exposed from an early age to an unusual variety of musical styles and tastes across Europe. From the age of ten to seventeen, Mozart's reputation as a composer grew to a degree of maturity equal to that of most older established musicians. He spent the years from 1766 to 1769 at Salzburg writing instrumental works and music for school dramas in German and Latin, and in 1768 he produced his first real operas: the German Singspiel (that is, with spoken dialogue) Bastien und Bastienne. Despite his growing reputation, Mozart found no suitable post open to him; and his father once more escorted Mozart, at age fourteen (1769), and set off for Italy to try to make his way as an opera composer. In Italy, Mozart was well received: in Milan, Italy, he obtained a commission for an opera; in Rome he was made a member of an honorary knightly order by the Pope; and at Bologna, Italy, the Accademia Filarmonica awarded him membership despite a rule normally requiring candidates to be twenty years old. During these years of travel in Italy and returns to Salzburg between journeys, he produced his first large-scale settings of opera seria (that is, court opera on serious subjects): Mitridate (1770), Ascanio in Alba (1771), and Lucio Silla (1772), as well as his first string quartets. At Salzburg in late 1771 he renewed his writing of Symphonies (Nos. 14–21). Mozart's years in Vienna, from age twenty-five to his death at thirty-five, cover one of the greatest developments in a short span in the history of music. In these ten years Mozart's music grew rapidly beyond the realm of many of his contemporaries; it exhibited both ideas and methods of elaboration that few could follow, and to many the late Mozart seemed a difficult composer. In the field of the string quarter Mozart produced two important groups of works that completely overshadowed any he had written before 1780: in 1785 he published the six Quartets (K. 387, 421, 428, 458, 464, and 465) and in 1786 added the single Hoffmeister Quartet (K. 499). In 1789 he wrote the last three Quartets (K. 575, 589, and 590), dedicated to King Frederick William (1688–1740) of Prussia, a noted cellist. On concluding The Magic Flute, Mozart turned to work on what was to be his last project, the Requiem. This Mass had been commissioned by a benefactor (financial supporter) said to have been unknown to Mozart, and he is supposed to have become obsessed with the belief that he was, in effect, writing it for himself. Ill and exhausted, he managed to finish the first two movements and sketches for several more, but the last three sections were entirely lacking when he died. It was completed by his pupil Franz Süssmayer after his death, which occurred in Vienna, Austria, on December 5, 1791. #MusicHistory #Biography #Mozart 🔴 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TopClassicalMusic 🔴 WebSite: http://www.melhoresmusicasclassicas.com