Okla-homey
1/27/2006, 06:07 AM
January 27 1756, Birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/986/zzzzzzzmozart7vc.gif (http://imageshack.us)
"He is the only musician who had as much knowledge as genius, and as much genius as knowledge." -- Gioachinno Rossini...his best known works include Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), and Guillaume Tell William Tell (the end of the overture of is popularly known for being the theme song for The Lone Ranger).
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1442/zzzzzzhagenauermozartmid1780s8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Mozart at age 21
Mozart is unusual among composers for being the subject of an abundance of legend, much due to the problem that none of his early biographers knew him personally. They often resorted to fiction in order to produce a work. Many myths began soon after Mozart died, but few have any basis in fact.
An example is the story that Mozart composed his Requiem with the belief it was for himself. Sorting out fabrications from real events is a vexing and continuous task for Mozart scholars mainly because of the prevalence of legend in scholarship. Dramatists and screenwriters, free from responsibilities of scholarship, have found excellent material among these legends.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/13/zzzzzz363pxmozartbirth3bv.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Mozart's birthplace in Salzburg Austria. I'm pretty sure he'd have been a Sooner Fan as evidenced by the banner hanging from the house (actually its a long Austrian flag, but WTF, it ain't orange!
An especially popular case is the supposed rivalry between Mozart and Antonio Salieri, and, in some versions, the tale that it was poison received from the latter that caused Mozart's death; this is the subject of Aleksandr Pushkin's play Mozart and Salieri, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Mozart and Salieri, and Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus. The last of these has been made into a feature-length film of the same name, which won eight Oscars. Shaffer's play attracted criticism for portraying Mozart as vulgar and loutish, a characterization felt by many to be unfairly exaggerated.
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/6782/antoniosalieri9gz.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Antonio Salieri
According to an essay by A. Peter Brown, "the Mozart mania of the 1980s was initiated by Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus. It and the subsequent film directed by Milos Forman did more for Mozart's case than anything else in the two hundred years since the composer's death." The same could be said of the popular myths currently surrounding Mozart, many of which are firmly rooted in the film.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1786/zzzzzz250pxedlinermozart9br.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Mozart painted from life at 30.
However, Shaffer and Forman have never claimed that Amadeus was based in fact, as pointed out by Shaffer himself:
"From the start we agreed on one thing: we were not making an objective Life of Wolfgang Mozart. This cannot be stressed too strongly. Obviously Amadeus on stage was never intended to be a documentary biography of the composer, and the film is even less of one."
Shaffer and Forman are equally quick to defend elements of the film which they believe are accurate but are disputed by Mozart historians. Shaffer has detailed in many interviews, including one featured as an extra on the DVD release of the film, how the dramatic narrative was inspired by the biblical story of Cain and Abel - one brother loved by God, and the other scorned.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/9145/zzzzzphoto050ql.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
For most of us, Amadeus' Tim Hulce, who also starred in a little low budget flick called Animal House, IS Mozart.
Transcribed as creative rivalry between Mozart and Salieri, the notion of divine blessing and murderous jealousy provides the basic premise for Amadeus, although there is no historical evidence of any rivalry between the two composers.
Conversely, it is well documented that Salieri frequently lent Mozart musical scores from the court library, and Mozart selected Salieri to teach his son, Franz Xaver. One of the more detailed essays on the "dramatic licenses" present in Amadeus is written by Gregory Allen Robbins, titled "Mozart & Salieri, Cain & Abel: A Cinematic Transformation of Genesis 4".
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/7370/zzzzzzamadeus7lu.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Another area of debate involves Mozart's prodigy as a composer from childhood until his death. While some have criticised many of his earlier works as simplistic or forgettable, others revere even Mozart's juvenilia. The image of Mozart as the divinely inspired effortless creator, popularized by the film Amadeus, is generally believed to be an exaggeration. Quite the contrary, Mozart was a studiously hard worker, and by his own admission his extensive knowledge and abilities developed out of many years' close study of the European musical tradition.
"Before God and as an honest man I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name. He has taste, and what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition."
Joseph Hayden to Leopold, Mozart's father
It has been speculated that Mozart suffered from Tourette syndrome. Letters he wrote to his cousin Maria Anna Thekla ("Bäsle") between 1777 and 1781 contain scatological language and he wrote canons titled Leck mich im Arsch ("Lick my ***") or variations thereof (including the pseudo-Latin Difficile lectu mihi mars).
Since 1902, the Mozarteum in Salzburg has preserved a controversial "Mozart's skull". Genetic analysis revealed in January 2006 that this skull was unrelated to the bones of Mozart's family members buried at St. Sebastian Cemetery. However, those bones were also shown to be unrelated to each other, so the mystery remains.
Separating the man from the myth involves controversy that will continue forever. Suffice to say, he was hailed by his peers as the greatest among them. I happen to agree. So wish Wolfy a happy geburtstag! and...
Pop in a Mozart CD, perhaps his Symphony no. 40, turn it up to 11 and revel in Earth's greatest musical genius!
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/9656/insane7zo3fu.jpg
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/986/zzzzzzzmozart7vc.gif (http://imageshack.us)
"He is the only musician who had as much knowledge as genius, and as much genius as knowledge." -- Gioachinno Rossini...his best known works include Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), and Guillaume Tell William Tell (the end of the overture of is popularly known for being the theme song for The Lone Ranger).
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1442/zzzzzzhagenauermozartmid1780s8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Mozart at age 21
Mozart is unusual among composers for being the subject of an abundance of legend, much due to the problem that none of his early biographers knew him personally. They often resorted to fiction in order to produce a work. Many myths began soon after Mozart died, but few have any basis in fact.
An example is the story that Mozart composed his Requiem with the belief it was for himself. Sorting out fabrications from real events is a vexing and continuous task for Mozart scholars mainly because of the prevalence of legend in scholarship. Dramatists and screenwriters, free from responsibilities of scholarship, have found excellent material among these legends.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/13/zzzzzz363pxmozartbirth3bv.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Mozart's birthplace in Salzburg Austria. I'm pretty sure he'd have been a Sooner Fan as evidenced by the banner hanging from the house (actually its a long Austrian flag, but WTF, it ain't orange!
An especially popular case is the supposed rivalry between Mozart and Antonio Salieri, and, in some versions, the tale that it was poison received from the latter that caused Mozart's death; this is the subject of Aleksandr Pushkin's play Mozart and Salieri, Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Mozart and Salieri, and Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus. The last of these has been made into a feature-length film of the same name, which won eight Oscars. Shaffer's play attracted criticism for portraying Mozart as vulgar and loutish, a characterization felt by many to be unfairly exaggerated.
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/6782/antoniosalieri9gz.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Antonio Salieri
According to an essay by A. Peter Brown, "the Mozart mania of the 1980s was initiated by Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus. It and the subsequent film directed by Milos Forman did more for Mozart's case than anything else in the two hundred years since the composer's death." The same could be said of the popular myths currently surrounding Mozart, many of which are firmly rooted in the film.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1786/zzzzzz250pxedlinermozart9br.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Mozart painted from life at 30.
However, Shaffer and Forman have never claimed that Amadeus was based in fact, as pointed out by Shaffer himself:
"From the start we agreed on one thing: we were not making an objective Life of Wolfgang Mozart. This cannot be stressed too strongly. Obviously Amadeus on stage was never intended to be a documentary biography of the composer, and the film is even less of one."
Shaffer and Forman are equally quick to defend elements of the film which they believe are accurate but are disputed by Mozart historians. Shaffer has detailed in many interviews, including one featured as an extra on the DVD release of the film, how the dramatic narrative was inspired by the biblical story of Cain and Abel - one brother loved by God, and the other scorned.
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/9145/zzzzzphoto050ql.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
For most of us, Amadeus' Tim Hulce, who also starred in a little low budget flick called Animal House, IS Mozart.
Transcribed as creative rivalry between Mozart and Salieri, the notion of divine blessing and murderous jealousy provides the basic premise for Amadeus, although there is no historical evidence of any rivalry between the two composers.
Conversely, it is well documented that Salieri frequently lent Mozart musical scores from the court library, and Mozart selected Salieri to teach his son, Franz Xaver. One of the more detailed essays on the "dramatic licenses" present in Amadeus is written by Gregory Allen Robbins, titled "Mozart & Salieri, Cain & Abel: A Cinematic Transformation of Genesis 4".
http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/7370/zzzzzzamadeus7lu.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Another area of debate involves Mozart's prodigy as a composer from childhood until his death. While some have criticised many of his earlier works as simplistic or forgettable, others revere even Mozart's juvenilia. The image of Mozart as the divinely inspired effortless creator, popularized by the film Amadeus, is generally believed to be an exaggeration. Quite the contrary, Mozart was a studiously hard worker, and by his own admission his extensive knowledge and abilities developed out of many years' close study of the European musical tradition.
"Before God and as an honest man I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name. He has taste, and what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition."
Joseph Hayden to Leopold, Mozart's father
It has been speculated that Mozart suffered from Tourette syndrome. Letters he wrote to his cousin Maria Anna Thekla ("Bäsle") between 1777 and 1781 contain scatological language and he wrote canons titled Leck mich im Arsch ("Lick my ***") or variations thereof (including the pseudo-Latin Difficile lectu mihi mars).
Since 1902, the Mozarteum in Salzburg has preserved a controversial "Mozart's skull". Genetic analysis revealed in January 2006 that this skull was unrelated to the bones of Mozart's family members buried at St. Sebastian Cemetery. However, those bones were also shown to be unrelated to each other, so the mystery remains.
Separating the man from the myth involves controversy that will continue forever. Suffice to say, he was hailed by his peers as the greatest among them. I happen to agree. So wish Wolfy a happy geburtstag! and...
Pop in a Mozart CD, perhaps his Symphony no. 40, turn it up to 11 and revel in Earth's greatest musical genius!
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/9656/insane7zo3fu.jpg