Mozart As A Cultural Icon

Analyze the construction of Mozart as a cultural icon 


“Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Born in Salzburg under the Holy Roman Empire, is one of the Europe’s greatest composes in the romantic period” (Rushton 1). Without a doubt, I believe that the piano, more than any other music instruments, had a special place in his heart. He is most prolific with music pieces by the piano (Rushton 15). According to my topic “Analyze the construction of Mozart as a cultural icon”, the most important part is that why and how Mozart could be remembered by people. As we known, the tendency of music today is more like Pop music, not classical music. For example, most of young people now have the songs from the rock star in their MP3 players, such as Avril’s music.

He conflicted with his father and Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo (Rushton 39). Although viewed by many in posterity as a music wonder kid with unrivalled status in the field of music even to the present day, Mozart did not receive this kind of attention among his contemporaries. In my view, although Mozart was a music genius, his character and life style were even more like a child than an adult. From lots of his works, I could hear that his works were lively; it usually makes me remember my childhood. At the same time, he was under tremendous pressure from the elite, such as Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo (Rushton 1-7). The grand cardinal did not pay special attention to his talent in music (Rushton 40-44). But actually, due to his character, Mozart did not yield to the reality. In order to casted his music talent and get rid of the shackles, he gone to Vienna (Rushton 102). At first, he used his talent to get some nice works. Also he got success on his work, such as Maurerische Trauermusik (Rushton

When I studied in primary school, my mother and I had been to Salzburg. Because it is so many years ago, I cannot remember everything happened there. I remember there was a museum, which was Mozart’s birthplace and Mozart Residence. “In the newly designed permanent exhibition spread over three floors, visitors can learn about the details of Mozart's life and circumstances: how he grew up, when he began to make music, who his friends and patrons were, his relationship with his family, his passion for opera, and much more” (Stiftung Mozarteum Salzborg). From that trip, I learned a lot from the museum, and the tour guide told us lots of interesting things such as where he was born; how he worked for us to know about Mozart. His birthplace was not very big, but in my view, it is beautiful and did not like my imagination. Based on his things I heard before I went there, I thought Mozart’s birthplace would be small, simple and crude. In Salzburg, I found an interesting thing, which I cannot forget till this day. Almost everyone in there knew about Mozart and operas. Lots of buskers on the streets drew the pictures of Mozart. The gift shops had a lot of postcard and presents with his pictures. Even the chocolates bought on the streets had the picture of Mozart. Thus, it can be seen that Mozart’s status in Salzburg’s people was grand and could not place by