Mozart Case Study

Chelsea Lynn Joralmon

MUSL 1324 TR 0900-1020

10 October 2017

Daily Textbook Guided Questions Chapter 11

1. Who was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart? Provide some details about his life and career.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756- December 5, 1791) born in Salzburg, Austria to a family of musicians such as his father- Leopold Mozart who was a violinist in the ruling Archbishop of Salzburg orchestra and an author of a best-selling introduction to playing the violin. Wolfgang’s father, Leopold quickly learned of his son’s musical talent and by age 6 young Wolfgang was playing violin, piano, organ, and composing. In 1672, the Mozart family journeyed on a four-year tour of Europe with stops in Vienna, Munich, Brussels, Paris, and London. While in Vienna,

Considering French folksong, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a simple example of ternary form. Units A and BA are repeated. Section A is in the tonic key (home key), B hints at a contrasting key, then returns to section A the tonic key- harmonies are indicated by roman numerals I and V. If a piece of ternary form is major, B will often be minor, and vice versa. The switch is called, relative minor (or relative major—moving from major to minor). Most pieces however, are more complex than Mozart’s Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Many have more contrast of melody, key, and mood between section B and the surrounding sections of A. For example, ternary form can be heard in the slow (second movement) of Mozart’s Piano Concerto in C major or better known as, Elvira Madigan Concerto. Looking at the melody, which in the Classical style are short and simple, with balanced phrases organized into antecedent-consequent (question-answer pairs)- musical units operating together: one opens and the other closes. The melody opening section A of the Piano Concerto in C major consists of the antecedent-consequent unit- each phrase lasting three bars. There’s also pulsing triplets enriching the accompaniment. With the progression of the piece, Mozart unfolds three more themes similar to the ones prior, forming section

Returning of the first theme along with the tonic key. Though the recapitulation is not an exact note-for-note repeat of the exposition, it presents the same musical events in the same order, only with the rewriting of the transition in the tonic key- “the bridge to nowhere” This is due to the movement needing to end in the tonic. There is also an increase in harmonic stability. 4. What is a coda? What are they like? Used to wrap things up, the literal Italian translation means “tails.” These codas (tails) can be short or long. Haydn and Mozart for example wrote short codas when compared to Beethoven, who wrote lengthy codas- sometimes introducing new themes even towards the end of a movement. Most end with a full cadence where harmonic motion slows to two chords, dominant and tonic, repeated over and over again. The more the coda repeats the greater the feeling of a