75-03-A4
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Mozart vs. Sibelius
TranscriptIf a ship went down with all your phonograph records except for the music of one composer, which would you choose? I'll be right back. It was hardly noted in the press, but in late January lovers of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart celebrated, or at least took note of, the 220th anniversary of the composer's birth. A friend once told me that if he had to be marooned on a desert island without music, save the works of one composer, he would pick Mozart and the Mozart story is an amazing one. Born in Salzburg Austria in 1756, he became an infant prodigy on the harpsichord, organ, and violin. At a tender age, under the training of his musician father, he was presented at the courts and noble houses of Europe for recitals. He traveled widely for those days and absorbed the, then prevalent, Italian opera technique which had a great effect on his later works. Restless, prolific, virtuoso Mozart was always searching for greater fame and fortune. He mastered the symphonic style and turned out 41 symphonies, most of them played regularly today. He composed for kings and emperors, royal patronage being the composer's primary means of livelihood in the late 18th century. My friend who would take Mozart's music to the desert island cites not only the man's genius but also his ability to cover the range of human experience and emotions from the comic operas such as The Marriage of Figaro, to the sparkling piano concertos and symphonies, to the tragic and great opera Don Giovanni, to the Sonamas(??) Requiem, which, in fact, became Mozart's own requiem. Masses songs, concert arias, concertos, symphonies, country dances, serenades, operas, suites, sonatas, cantatas, he wrote hundreds of pieces, everyone on commission. Always pressed for money to pay his debts and get ahead, Mozart was goaded into writing and at an ever more feverish pace until finally in 1791, his health failed he died at 36, almost penniless, his requiem unfinished, despite the tragic end to which he came, Mozart left mankind a heritage of grand and beautiful music that is as alive today as it was almost two hundred years ago. It's interesting to contrast his prodigious output with that of a more recent famous composer, Finland's Jean Sibelius. Sibelius wrote several still famous symphonies and other works in the late 19th and early 20th century. In the mid-1920s, his proud countrymen gave him a lifetime state pension, a comfortable home, and servants to tend his needs. He scarcely wrote another note till he died in 1957. Odd, isn't it, that Mozart, who lived in a mercantile profit motivated society composed great music almost to the hour he died, and Sibelius living in a socialized state, found his creative energies laid to rest once his fame had become institutionalized by the State. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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