Beethoven And Mozart
Beethoven and Mozart are the two most important
musicians of their time. Their
pieces are everlasting and will live on
forever. Their styles are so unique and
uplifting that they could never be
matched. These masterminds played in the same
time period but their lives
differed tremendously. There are some similarities
and many differences
between these two but one fact will remain: They are the
central and most
vital part of all music. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was one of the
most prolific
and important musical innovators we have ever seen. His style of
music helped
re-shape music and the Classical period. Mozart was born in
Salzburg,
Austria in 1756. Mozart was a child prodigy, claiming most success as
a
youth. At the age of six, Mozart could play the harpsichord and
violin,
improvise fugues, write minuets, and read music perfectly. At the age
of eight,
he wrote a symphony and at eleven, an oratorio. Then amazingly, at
the age of
twelve he wrote an opera. Mozart's father was Leopold Mozart, a
court musician.
Both Mozart and Beethoven had help from their fathers in
different ways.
Mozart's father helped him travel around as a young
musician and with this he
traveled many places and seen many well-known
people and aristocrats. With
Mozart's early successes came many
challenges to his life. He had greater
expectations from the community and
from his father. Unlike, Beethoven, Mozart
was a bit spoiled as a youth and
because of this he would not tolerate to be
treated as a servant. He
completely relied on his father to help him and would
not work with the
archbishop. This would become a problem when Mozart did not
develop enough
initiative and could not make decisions on his own. Then, at age
25,
Mozart broke free of Salzburg and became a freelance musician in
Vienna.
This is where Mozart found some success. He wrote, Die Entfuhrung
aus dem Serail,
a German opera in 1782. Mozart earned a living giving lessons
and holding
concerts. Mozart later wrote Don Giovanni and The marriage of
Figaro and these
were highly acclaimed pieces. Eventually, Mozart's
popularity faded and his
music was found to be too complicated and hard to
follow. Mozart's music was
very versatile and his masterpieces were in many
forms. His piano concertos are
very important and are popular pieces. Mozart
was also a master of the opera,
writing many popular operas in his time.
During his last year, Mozart was more
successful. He wrote and opera and a
Requiem, which he did not finish. W.A.
Mozart's great passion in his work
can be felt in many of his various works and
his style is that of the utmost
perfection and can never be replicated. Mozart
died in 1791, in Vienna at the
age of just 35. Ludwig Van Beethoven came in the
later part of the Classical
Period and helped bridge this period with the
Romantic era. Beethoven is
considered by many the greatest musician to ever play
and is a mere genius.
His influence is felt today and will continue to be felt
throughout time,
with his pieces being so dramatic and profound that they will
never be lost.
Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany in 1770, into a family of
musicians.
Beethoven was not as much a child star as Mozart but did accomplish
many
things as a youth. Beethoven played for Mozart at age sixteen and
Mozart
said, "Keep your eyes on him; some day he will give the world
something to
talk about." When Beethoven was twenty-two he left Germany and
went to
Vienna, to study with Joseph Haydn. Beethoven had a extremely
rough upbringing,
with his father being an alcoholic and a very abusive
person. Many of
Beethoven's works are based on the horrendous experiences
he had growing up.
Beethoven had two brothers, both younger. Beethoven's
father died when he was
young, so he was forced to take care of the family.
Beethoven was a
self-educated, very vain and self-absorbed man. He had very
high expectations
and was often said to have very rude and disastrous
behavior. Beethoven refused
to be a servant and refused to be told what to
do, claiming that he should be
treated as an artist and deserved more respect
than an average person. Beethoven
was struck with what would be his greatest
downfall; deafness. This occurred in
1802 when doctors learned that he
was in fact becoming deaf and there was
nothing that could be done to help.
This impairment reshaped his music. This led
the way to a very tense and
exciting side of his pieces. Beethoven's music
differs with Mozart's in that
is more intense and has a greater range of pitch
and dynamics. Beethoven's
greatest pieces are his symphonies, which can be heard
today as often as in
his days. Beethoven was a very good innovator with his
variations to music.
Compared to Mozart, Beethoven tried to unify contrasting
movements by means
of musical continuity. Often times Beethoven's music would
not have a clear
ending and were dragged out a bit longer than expected.
Beethoven died in
1827, in Vienna.